After his extraordinary performance at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Dibu was named FIFA’s best goalkeeper of the year.
In addition to awarding the best footballer of the year, FIFA distinguishes two other individual categories at The Best awards gala, both in the men’s and women’s branches. One of these is that of the goalkeepers, who have had their own award since 2017, when the second edition of the event was held.
On this occasion, the Argentinian Emiliano Martínez, the Belgian Thibaut Courtois and the Moroccan Yassine Bounou, popularly known as Bono, were nominated for the prize.
Emiliano Martínez, winner of The Best award for the best goalkeeper of 2022
After staying with him Gold Glove at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Dibu was voted best goalkeeper of the year by FIFA for the first time in his career. The 30-year-old from Mar del Plata ends an unforgettable year and a half like this: His first game with the Argentina national team was only in June 2021 and he is currently champion of America, of the world, of the Finalissima and one of the biggest idols of Lionel Scaloni’s team.
After a somewhat irregular season at Aston Villa, where he performed well anyway and often suffered from other people’s failures in a team characterized by a lack of regularity, Martínez more than justified his price for what he did with Albiceleste’s shirt, with which he has only one defeat to his name (the debut in Qatar 2022 against Saudi Arabia).
Dibu was decisive for the Argentine title throughout the World Cup undefeated fences in group stage matches against Mexico and Polandan extraordinary turnaround in the last minute of the round of 16 to ensure victory over Australia, an unforgettable penalty shootout with two saves against the Netherlands in the quarter-finals and a solid clean sheet in the semi-final against Croatia. However, almost all of the prize money could be justified by what he did in the final against France, where he not only saved a penalty kick and forced a ruling in the deciding round, but also played a leading role the best save in World Cup history in the last moment of extra time, when he blocked a one-on-one with Randall Kolo Muani.
Source: Goal