May 15, 2002
Champions League final. Bayer Leverkusen vs Real Madrid. Real Madrid has a chance to be the best in Europe for the ninth time in a row while Leverkusen are set to play their first Champions League final in Hampden Park, Glasgow.
Real took the lead in just 8 minutes with a shocking shot from a long throw by Roberto Carlos. However, 5 minutes later, Lucio equalized with a header from a free-kick. Then at the last minute of the first half Roberto Carlos started the run from a through by Solari and managed to Cross for Zidane in the box. The French star swivelled his body shape and left fly with a stunning left-footed volley that rippled into the net. Goal! the best goal in Champions League history. Madrid finished the first half with a 2-1 lead.
But Leverkusen did not stop. Ballack, Berbatov and Neuville were attacking incessantly. Meanwhile Madrid keeper César collided with Leverkusen forward Neuville who jumped to head Schneider's free kick in the 64th minute. He tried for a few minutes with severe pain in the knee but failed to continue. As a result César had to leave the field in 68th minute. A 21-year boy came as a replacement who was promoted to the main team from Madrid's Youth Academy at the age of 16. He was a first-choice keeper in the team that won the Champions League in the 1999-2000 season but lost his place to backup keeper César due to lack of consistency.
A 21-year-old boy. Suddenly impossible pressure. Can he handle it?
But for the next 28 minutes he probably didn't even know what he was doing! The young Madrid keeper blocked every attempt by Leverkusen. Towards the end, the German club put a lot of pressure on Real Madrid. In the 89th minute, Neuville entered the box with lightning speed and took a strong shot towards the goal. But the young body of the twenty-one years old flew to save Madrid.
Stoppage time game is going on. In the 96th minute, the boy saved a shot of the Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatovwith by his right foot. Only except his legs, the rest of his body was inside the goal line.
Corner. Leverkusen's last chance. Baştürk headed the ball towards the goal. Again the 21-year-old cleared it from the goal line. This time with the feet. The last whistle was blown by referee Urs Meier. La Novena was won by Vicente del Bosque's Madrid.
Almost everyone knows who I am talking about — "San Iker", Iker Casillas. By the time he was 21, Casillas had already experienced the highs and lows of football and it's safe to say his career was heavily shaped by his short cameo against Leverkusen.
Keeping the likes of Michael Ballack, Oliver Neuville and Dimitar Berbatov at bay kickstarted the rise of one of the greatest to have ever stood between two goal posts.
Sometimes, things in football really do happen for a reason, don't they?
An immense number of children with ball on their feet, dream vividly of making winning contributions to cup finals, but a few of those who go on to turn that dream into a living reality. It's not easy to make it as a professional footballer.
One of those fortunate few who was able to achieve that eternal dream is Iker Casillas, a legend with the gloves, a serial trophy-lifting, era-defining custodian. But the now-legendary Spaniard didn’t stop defying the odds the moment he became a professional. Rather he made a career out of it.
Casillas was a product of La Fábrica and took the traditional route into Real’s senior side via Castilla. As a native of Madrid, his progression was met with universal approval. Every fan loves to see a local come through the ranks, and those of a certain generation had fond memories of Madrid’s 1966 European Cup-winning side – an all-Spanish line-up with numerous players birthed at AD Plus Ultra – a local Madrid team that acted as Real’s academy until 1972.
Goalkeepers aren’t supposed to make their debuts in the Champions League at the age of 18, but that was precisely what Iker did (Becoming the youngest goalkeeper ever to take the field in Champions League history a record that stood until Benfica’s Mile Svilar broke it in 2017); only three days after first showing his cherubic face in LaLiga. He’d almost made his European bow as early as two years before, away to Rosenborg – quite literally dragged out of a school class at the behest of a Real Madrid official in desperate need of a reserve goalkeeper, having seen both Bodo Illgner and Santiago Cañizares succumb to injury – but it was against Olympiacos, in 1999, that he’d first take to the pitch in Europe’s most prestigious club competition.
Little more than a year later and Iker’s gloves were gripping tightly the famous trophy’s big old ears – and not for the last time – thrusting it into the sky with tears still glistening in his eyes as his side bested their compatriots Valencia in order to become champions of Europe. If, as he’d blown the 19 candles out atop his birthday cake, he’d spent his wish on longing to win the Champions League, incredibly, it had taken just four days to come true.
Two seasons later, Casillas was king of the continent again. Though the campaign had seen him drop behind veteran teammate César Sánchez in the running for the position as Madrid’s numero uno, an injury to Sánchez, 20 or so minutes from the end of the showpiece final against Bayer Leverkusen, saw Casillas step up once more – and it was his heroics that kept his side’s 2-1 triumph intact. From that day, Casillas never looked back.
Casillas made more than his fair share of admirers with both his play-style and his play style. On the rare occasion his abundant skillset wasn’t enough to catch the eye – his exceptional agility and athleticism, his impressive level of speed, his acute sense of awareness, and his iron wrists deemed insufficient – his succession of goalkeeping innovations were there to ensure he remained one worth watching, even when fans might’ve been tempted to look further up the field for idols.
One of the first goalkeepers to don short sleeves, and known to go as far as to cut the sleeves off his long-sleeve shirts when short-sleeve alternatives weren’t available – part fashion statement, part superstition – Casillas never failed to beckon the limelight, long before he was cleared to wear a colourful Storelli goalkeeper jersey under his New Balance-sponsored Porto training kit.
On his way to unrivalled acclaim in the Spanish capital, spread thick across 16 seasons and over 700 club appearances for Real Madrid, from La Fábrica to La Decima, Casillas aided Los Blancos in dominating Spain to the tune of five LaLiga titles, two Copa del Rey, four Supercopa de España, not to mention the vast and glittering array of continental silverware swiped en route. Though his time with Real had to end – ultimately against his wishes – his untimely departure did at least allow for fans of a new club – in this case, Portugal’s Porto – to witness his genius and treasure the custodian just as Real Madrid once had.
To the delight of those whose hearts beat to the flamenco tempo of La Roja’s fortunes, Casillas routinely brought his fine form and idiosyncratic goalkeeping heroics to the national team, as he helped form the spine of one of the greatest teams the football-obsessed world has ever had the pleasure of watching.
San Iker’s theology had pervaded the Spanish capital, and whilst his national status was also revered, it was Casillas’ captaincy of Spain’s greatest generation that really allowed him to cross the blurred borders of football and faith to cement his demigod legacy. When Casillas proudly debuted for his nation, in June 2000 against Sweden, he kept goal for a team that had not tasted victory at a major tournament for the entirety of his lifetime. In fact, when his country squeezed past the Soviet Union at the Santiago Bernabéu to lift the trophy on home soil back in Euro 1964, his parents were youngsters themselves. With Raúl excluded from the squad, Casillas was handed the armband for Euro 2008 and never looked back. Spain topped their group before meeting Italy in the quarter-finals.
After 120 minutes of nail-biting play, it was the church bells of La Roja that rang proudly as silence befell Italy. Casillas – just as he had done six years earlier – saved two penalties in the shoot-out, first flying to his right, tipping Daniel De Rossi’s shot round the post, then getting down to his left, thwarting Antonio Di Natale.
It wasn’t quite the Bernabéu but Vienna’s Ernst-Happel-Stadion was starting to feel a lot like home. It was the site of his man of the match performance against the Italians and, four days later, saw him keep another clean sheet as Spain dispatched Russia 3-0. Austria’s largest stadium was also the venue for the final, where Spain would do battle with Germany for the title of Europe’s best nation. Despite being without their leading scorer, David Villa, Fernando Torres stepped up in his absence to seal a historic victory. With yet another clean sheet to his name, Casillas became the first goalkeeping captain to lift the European Championship.
Two years later, Madrid’s Almudena Cathedral bells were ringing louder and prouder than ever before. Spain had beaten the Netherlands to become world champions for the first time in their history with San Iker leading La Roja to glory. His two one-on-one saves at the feet of Arjen Robben allowed Andrés Iniesta to strike deep into extra-time and etch his name into Spanish folklore. Casillas won the tournament’s golden glove and, as his holy hands caressed the trophy in Johannesburg, few could contest his status as Spain’s finest ever goalkeeper.
The image of Casillas, eyes shut and jaw agape in sheer adulation as he held the trophy aloft, was produced and sold into the public domain en masse. It became the centrepiece of shrines the length and breadth of the nation, adorning the walls of every child’s bedroom.
Another European Championship followed, however it came amid the player’s toughest time in his illustrious career. A fractured relationship with Real manager José Mourinho meant Casillas was now just another spectator at the Bernabéu, watching Antonio Adán and Diego López take control of goalkeeping duties.
He was ostracised by Mourinho and even received abuse from some quarters of the club’s fans, who gave him the nickname ‘Topor’ (a portmanteau of ‘topo’ and ‘portero’ – Spanish for ‘mole’ and ‘goalkeeper’) after he allegedly leaked club information to the media. It was a troubling time for Iker, who saw his divinity questioned and had to watch painfully as arch-rivals Barcelona renovated their Cruyffarin chapel under Pep Guardiola to become Spain’s dominant force once more.
Casillas’ perceived petulance was tarnishing his legendary status and all signs pointed towards the exit door. It looked as though only a miracle could save him from a truly unworthy ending. Fortunately, miraculous saves are what San Iker dealt in almost exclusively, and redemption proved to be just around the corner.
Carlo Ancelotti was appointed as Mourinho’s successor and immediately reinstated Casillas for Copa del Rey and Champions League fixtures. The veteran repaid the favour by captaining Los Blancos to both trophies in 2014. He became the first goalkeeper not to concede a single goal until the final of the Copa – where they beat Barcelona 2-1 at the Mestalla – before creating an even greater piece of history in Europe.
Real’s 4-1 victory over city rivals Atlético meant Casillas lifted La Décima, becoming only the third man ever – after Franz Beckenbauer and Didier Deschamps – to lift the Euros, World Cup and Champions League as team captain. His accomplishments saw him firmly reinstated as the club’s number one, and once again in the hearts of Madridista’s. He had risen from the dead, a resurrection befitting of his sobriquet.
In May 2019, Casillas’s club confirmed the player had suffered an "acute heart attack" during training and, in justifiable shock, the world of football feared the worst. Then, just five days after being admitted to the CUF Porto Hospital, the 38-year-old walked out, smiling, a picture of health, hand-in-hand with his wife, before addressing an applauding public: "I understand I have to be grateful because I was lucky", he reflected. "I do not know what the future will be, but the most important thing is to be here, to be able to speak and tell everyone how I am and how I feel. Thank you very much and see you soon."
This particular battle, perhaps for the first time, was taken out of Casillas’ trusted hands and into those of the doctors and surgeons responsible for his care. But, as you might expect, the result remained much the same: he remained unbeaten. As we well know, Casillas has spent so much of his life defying the odds. It’d take a foolish man to assume he’ll spend the rest of his days doing anything to the contrary.
The next bold step on Casillas’ continuing, odds-defying career path appears to be an ambitious run at becoming the next president of the RFEF, the Royal Spanish Football Federation. Precisely what his plans are, should he be successfully elected as the leader of his country’s governing body for football, have yet to be elucidated in any detail to the public. What the legendary shot-stopper did say, though, in typically self-assured style, was this: “Together we will put our federation at the height of the best football in the world.”
One can’t resist thinking the future of Spanish football would find itself in rather safe hands should they be the hands of San Iker.
If there is a single image that defines Iker Casillas’ illustrious career, it is one taken of him in May 2014 at the Plaza de Cibeles. Celebrating La Décima, the goalkeeper stood on a platform behind the fountain of Cybele, holding the coveted trophy above his head. Thousands of onlooking fans could barely contain their jubilation – in their eyes it was an apt metaphor: Casillas was right where he belonged, standing tall amongst the gods.
"I don't want to be remembered as a good goal keeper or a bad goal keeper, I just want to be remembered as a good person, with my faults.
Where ever I go, I will always shout Hala Madrid!"
Happy 39th Birthday Saint!
[Acknowledgment and Reference: These Football Times magazine, Spanish Issue]
✍️ Subham Dey
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