Paris Saint-Germain have certainly impressed the footballing world following their dominant outing against Real Madrid in the Champion’s League perhaps signalling that this could finally be their year to lift the elusive trophy.
But that strong performance was quickly followed up by a shock defeat against mid-table side Nantes in Ligue putting a damper on the spirits at the Paris camp. With just over 30% ball possession, the Canaries outplayed the Parisians at home. PSG’s superstar front 3 of Messi, Mbappe and Neymar struggled in front of goal against an inspired goalkeeper in Alban Lafont.
The French keeper cast an imposing figure between the sticks making 8 saves, double the amount Keylor Navas had to make in total which also included a spot-kick from Neymar.
Lafont’s performance earned him the Man of the Match award from multiple news outlets. But the most significant compliment came from French outlet L’ Equipe who bestowed a 10/10 rating on the keeper making him part of an elite group of footballers to ever achieve it.
He became only the 14th different player and 3rd ever goalkeeper to join this list of remarkable performances including some big names such as Leo Messi, Robert Lewandowski and Neymar. Coincidentally, the list also includes all 3 of PSG’s attacking trio for their best performances for both club and country. The last player to make the list was Kylian Mbappe following his performance against Kazakhstan for the French national side.
The new list now takes shape as follows:
Franck Sauzee – France U21s vs Greece U21s, 1988
Bruno Martini – France U21s vs Greece U21s, 1988
Oleg Salenko – Russia vs Cameroon, 1994
Lars Windfeld – Aarhus vs Nantes, 1997
Lionel Messi – Barcelona vs Arsenal, 2010
Lionel Messi – Barcelone vs Bayer Leverkusen, 2012
Robert Lewandowski – Borussia Dortmund vs Real Madrid, 2013
Carlos Eduardo – Nice vs Guingamp, 2014
Neymar – Paris Saint-Germain vs Dijon, 2018
Dusan Tadic – Real Madrid vs Ajax, 2019
Lucas Moura – Ajax vs Tottenham, 2019
Serge Gnabry – Tottenham vs Bayern Munich, 2019
Kylian Mbappe – France vs Kazakhstan, 2021
Alban Lafont – Nantes vs PSG, 2022
Just days after Chelsea’s Edouard Mendy highlighted the lack of representation for goalkeepers in major awards shortlists, Lafont has certainly made the goalkeeper’s union proud with this significant achievement. With his current contract expiring in 2024 and at the age of 23, the French keeper would certainly have many top clubs scouting him as a prospective signing for the future.
