Home / Soccer Fans / 3 Potential Edwin van der Sar Replacements

 


Manchester United fans were not too shocked when 40-year-old starting goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar announced his intention to retire and hang up his gloves for good at season’s end. Now that the tears have stopped, it’s time to get back to reality and find a man worthy enough to put on the starting goalie gloves for Manchester United. Here are 3 candidates that may worthy of Sir Alex’s admiration:

1). Tomasz Kuszczak: Perhaps Sir Alex already has his goalie of the future. Many United fans would probably scoff at having a relatively unproven, supposedly non-world class keeper in between the posts. I’d have to mostly agree with them and he may be a good temporary solution for the squad. Having amassed 23 appearances for United since his arrival at the English club in 2007 and has looked decent in his time back there, in part thanks to the rock solid defense in front of him. Then again, most keepers would stand to look pretty good in front of Vidic and Ferdinand. I don’t see Sir Alex going with a currently rostered goalkeeper.

2).Maarten Stekelenburg: The most logical choice for the squad is Stekelenburg. The 28-year-old Dutch international is virtually following the same path as van der Sar. Both keepers were a part of famous Ajax youth system at some point in their career and played many games for the Dutch giants and have received huge successes. Both keepers are absolute physical monsters (Stekelenburg is 6 ft 6 inches while van der Sar is 6 ft 5.5 inches). Who better to replace your best goalkeeper than a virtual carbon copy of him 12 years younger?

3). Hugo Lloris: A true building block for the future who already is an elite keeper at the ripe age of 24, the French International has been linked out of Ligue 1 for quite a while now. He’s not the physical monstrosity that many goalkeepers are but he has terrific instincts and athleticism. He has been linked to Manchester United prior to van der Sar’s retirement announcement. This would be the big time move many fans would potentially look for if Gigi Buffon or Julio Cesar would be unwilling to leave their respective clubs. A great choice, Lloris will likely move to a big team. Just a question of what team.

 

About the author: cbehrens

 

 

Recent posts in Soccer Fans