It’s said that goals win matches, but defences win championships.
It’s a maxim that is so often proven correct, with all but four seasons of the Saudi Pro League era seeing the team that conceded the fewest goals crowned champions.
It makes getting the recruitment of a goalkeeper one of the key strategic decisions for a club’s hierarchy and, in turn, only adds to the pressure already on those players between the sticks.
The 2023-24 Roshn Saudi League underlined the importance of goalkeepers to their team, when a fascinating tussle played out between a pair of African stalwarts for the title of the competition’s best custodian.
Al Hilal’s Moroccan shot-stopper Yassine Bounou and Al Ahli’s Eduardo Mendy were last season’s two standouts, each keeping an impressive 15 clean sheets: Bounou from 31 appearances, Mendy 33.
Bounou, or Bono as he is more commonly known, ultimately took bragging rights and, with it, the award for RSL Goalkeeper of the Year, as Al Hilal swept their way to the title in an undefeated season.
While Al Hilal and Al Ahli were wise enough to retain their stars, it’s no surprise many others dipped into the transfer market this summer in search of a goalkeeper to emulate those feats and hopefully catapult their team to success this campaign.
Al Ittihad said farewell to an icon of the club, Marcelo Grohe, who holds the record for the greatest number of clean sheets in a single season, at 19. The Brazilian, pivotal in the 2022-23 RSL-winning side, moved to newcomers Al Kholood, while Al Ittihad brought in 29-year-old Serbian international Predrag Rajkovic from La Liga outfit RCD Mallorca.
It’s proven to be a shrewd piece of business, with the Serbian one of the lead goalkeepers in the league this season: he has kept a clean sheet in almost half of the 13 games so far this season (six) as Al Ittihad headed into the winter break at the top of the table.
That has helped return Al Ittihad to the stingy side that stormed their way to the title in two seasons ago - they conceded only 13 times in 30 matches - with only nine goals conceded through 13 matchweeks of the 2024-25 campaign. Rajkovic has been integral, making a number of clutch saves at key moments during games.
As good as Rajkovic has been for Al Ittihad, Koen Casteels has arguably been even more crucial for newly promoted Al Qadsiah. The Belgian international was one of a plethora of headline signings the Al Khobar side made in the off-season and already has proven to be worth every cent.
As the new boys look to compete with the established order at the summit, they are doing that on the back of a strong defence. And, while the arrival of former Real Madrid captain Nacho garnered the lion’s share of attention, the acquisition of Casteels has been just as significant.
Al Qadsiah have conceded a league-best eight times this season - one fewer than Al Ittihad - with Casteels keeping eight clean sheets from 13 starts. The Belgium No.1 also boasts the highest save percentage in the league, sitting at an impressive 84.3 percent.
It’s the sort of form that would have Casteels challenging the record for the most clean sheets in a single season and helps explain why Al Qadsiah sit third on the table at the mid-season break.
One spot below, Al Nassr were another to dip into the transfer market and bring in a new goalkeeper after parting ways with Colombian David Ospina. Once again, they turned to South America, this time to Brazil, where promising 25-year-old Bento swapped Athletico Paranaense for the Saudi capital.
The Brazil international is settling nicely into life in Riyadh and already looks like a quality signing for Al Nassr. The numbers may not back up the quality of his work to the extent that they do for others, but he has produced a succession of world-class saves this season - even if some of them didn’t result in more points for Al Nassr.
In the 2-1 defeat to Al Qadsiah, Bento made a string of quality saves, while his finger-tipped effort in the 1-1 draw in the Capital Derby against Al Hilal in Matchweek 9 earned him Save of the Week honours.
Staying with the Brazilian flavour, Bento’s compatriot Mailson has been in impressive form for Al Taawoun this season, with five clean sheets, one more than Mendy, who admittedly has missed a handful of games as he looks to emulate last term’s heroics between the sticks. The Senegal No.1 has, though, played his part in Al Ahli overcoming a difficult start to climb to fifth heading into the break.
With so many quality goalkeepers in the league, the battle to be considered the league’s best is only going to intensify over the course of the season when the action resumes on January 9.
With the title race this season looking like developing into something special with the teams towards the top, the pressure to deliver on their respective goalkeepers will only grow greater as each save, and each clean sheet becomes doubly important.
History tells us that the team with the best defence will typically win the league, and the team with the best defence more often than not also possesses the league’s best goalkeeper.
Can Bono or Mendy retain their clean-sheets crown? Or will one of the newcomers, be it Casteels, Bento, Mailson or another of the RSL’s standout shot-stoppers, take the spoils?
The Clean Sheet Kings through 13 matchweeks in 2024-25 RSL
