Over the past decade or so, the goalkeeper had always been the most stable part of Real Madrid's lineup.
Whether it was the year 2000, when Bosque took over as a temporary replacement, the early days of the star-studded Galácticos, the later period when the Galácticos sank into a slump, or the Calderon era of chaotic club management, the players in the attack, midfield, and defense had all faced varying degrees of doubt. Even superstars like Ronaldo, Zidane, and Cannavaro had been questioned and criticized.
But goalkeepers were the sole exception. Casillas had always been [Saint Igor] in the eyes of Real Madrid fans.
For a goalkeeper, this was undoubtedly an extremely lofty evaluation and recognition. Especially at a club like Real Madrid, Casillas, an outstanding product of the youth academy, had been the club's symbol and banner for all those years.
But in reality, Casillas had not been completely free from criticism.
The most famous example was Capello's doubts about Casillas's height. He believed that at only 1.83 meters, Casillas was simply too short to be a goalkeeper. This had sparked an intense controversy at the time, which Casillas ultimately defused with his outstanding performances.
But ever since then, debates about Casillas had surfaced from time to time.
His relatively short stature meant that a goalkeeper's area of control was smaller, but that was not impossible to make up for.
As everyone knew, shorter people were often more agile. Casillas's reaction speed was extremely fast, allowing him to make up for the weaknesses and deficiencies caused by his height to the greatest extent possible.
But that came with a prerequisite: his body had to remain agile, and his reaction speed could not decline.
Yet no one in this world could defeat time.
What people in their twenties could do,