VICTOR VALDES

Victor Valdes Arribas

 

Víctor Valdés joined Barca as a youngster on 1st July 1992, from Peña Cinco Copas.In September of the same year he moved with his family to Tenerife and didn't rejoin the club until three years later.

After quickly proving his worth with the youth teams and Barca B, the club coaches decided that the 2002-2003 season was to be Valdés time to form part of the first team squad. At first, he alternated appearances with Roberto Bonano but finished the season as regular first choice under Radomir Antic.

He consolidated his place as in the starting line-up in the 2003-04 season. He played most of Barca's matches that season and put in some excellent performances, helping the team to finish as runners-up.

In the 2005-06 season Valdés was one of the key players in Barça’s double of the League and the Champions League. Especially memorable are the crucial saves he made in the final in Paris as Barça won its second ever Champions League.

In the 2006-07 season Valdés remained a fixture in the Barça goal and played in all 38 League games. In the 2007-08 campaign he only stood down in the last three games to give José Manuel Pinto a chance to make his first team debut. All this time Valdés has been improving and is now one of the players who has played most games between the sticks for the club.

In the 2008/09 season, his regularity won him his second Zamora trophy. He played every league game bar the last three when the title was already decided. He performed brilliantly in the Rome final and became the first Barça keeper to be crowned champion of Europe twice. His excellent performances have earned him a contract extension that will keep him at the club until 2014.

He won his third Zamora Trophy in the 2009-10 season with some of the best stats of his career: only 24 goals conceded in 38 league matches (0.63 per match). The legendary Antoni Ramallets is the only Barça keeper to have won the trophy more times (5).

His consistently strong performances at club level earned him one of the three goalkeepers’ jerseys in the Spanish squad for the 2010 World Cup, although he didn’t play a single minute of Spain’s victorious campaign.*

PERSONAL DETAILS:

Name: Víctor Valdés Arribas

Position: goalkeeper

Place of birth: Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona)

Date: 14-01-1982

Height: 183 cm

Weight: 78 kg

Debut:

FC Barcelona-At. Madrid (2-2, League), 01/09/2002

Source: fcbarcelona.com