Number 1: Goalkeeper Víctor Valdés
Goalkeeper Víctor Valdés signed up with the Barca youth program from the Peña Barcelonista ‘Cinc Copes’ on July 1st, 1992.
In September of the very same year he moved with his family to the island of Tenerife and didn’t rejoin the club up until three years later on.
After rapidly showing what he was capable of in the youth squad and Barca B team in the 2002/2003 season, Víctor Valdés was given promotion to the first team squad. Initially, he competed for a place alongside Roberto Bonano. However when coach Radomir Antic took control midway through the campaign, he got to be the team’s regular goalkeeper.
He consolidated his first team place in the 2003-04 season, playing in virtually every Barca game and putting in some great performances to finish second in the Spanish League.
For many seasons the Catalan giants never really had a definite first choice stopper for any considerable amount of time. It all changed with the consolidation of Victor Valdés in the 2004/2005 season. Valdés picked up the Zamora trophy for the best defensive record of the season while Barca won the league.
The 2005/2006 season saw Valdés become one of Barca’s key players when the team won both the league and the Champions League. Valdés made some momentous saves in Paris during the final of the Champions League for which Barca won the trophy for a second time.
Víctor Valdés remained a stalwart in the Barca goal during the 2006/2007 season and played in all 38 League games. In the 2007-08 campaign he just stood down in the last three matches to offer José Manuel Pinto the chance to play for the first team. Víctor Valdés had been improving all the time and was on his way to becoming the player who had won the number one shirt most times for the Catalan club.
During the 2008/2009 season, he won a second Zamora trophy for his excellence. He played in every league game except for the last three when the league title was already decided. He culminated the season with outstanding efficiency in Rome, where he became the first Barcelona stopper to be crowned Champion League winner twice.
Valdés career was just beginning and in the 2009/10, 2010/11 and 2011/12 seasons he won the Zamora trophy for the 3rd, 4th and 5th times, matching the record of Antoni Ramallets, Barca’s only other previous five-time winner of the coveted trophy.
Apart from Valdés individual trophies, it is his exceptional capability as a team member that really matters. He was soon to play a vital role in Barcelona’s winning of their fourth Champions League title at the new Wembley stadium in London on May 28th, 2011.
Víctor Valdés has also been able to surpass another Barca legend in the 2011/2012 season. The keeper equalled the 449 appearances of Carles Rexach when Barca played Athletic Bilbao.
This means that Goalkeeper Víctor Valdés has now the fourth highest number of official appearances for the Catalan club. Only midfielder Xavi Hernández, defender Carles Puyol and central ex Barca defender Miguel Bernardo Bianquetti, have played in more games.