In Arsenal’s 1-0 Champions League victory against Sporting, Raya made four key saves including tipping a thumping Maxi Araujo shot on to the crossbar to keep the score at 0-0 before Kai Havertz’s winner.
Since the start of last season, Raya has played 23 games in the competition and has conceded just 12 goals and prevented 9.0 goals.
Raya has kept the most clean sheets of any goalkeeper in Europe’s top-five leagues (22) across all competitions.
He was nominated for the 2025 Yashin Trophy, presented annually to the best-performing goalkeeper at the Ballon d’Or awards, but did not finish in the top three positions.
But he is one of the few goalkeepers on this list who is not first choice for his country.
Unai Simon, who has spent his entire club career at Athletic Bilbao, was recently described by Spain national team boss Luis de la Fuente as “indisputable” when discussing his goalkeeping options.
Former Arsenal and England right-back Lee Dixon described Raya as “world class” on BBC Radio 5 Live on Tuesday. He added that Raya “has a way to go to touch the gloves of David Seaman, but he takes complete control of the defenders in front of him and they trust him”.
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