David de Gea has guarded the net at Old Trafford for the final time after 12 sparkling years at the club. The Spaniard announced that he had left the club earlier this week following the expiry of his contract at the end of last month.
Sir Alex Ferguson famously missed a game to scout De Gea and it’s fair to say that the legendary manager’s judgement was spot on as his selected prodigy went on to become an all-time United great.
There are only a select few players that are able to be a first-team regular at one of the biggest clubs in the world for over a decade and De Gea has certainly deserved his status.
But as tributes from team-mates and supporters flood in, just how good was he over his 12 years on Sir Matt Busby Way? We take a look.
De Gea made a whopping 545 appearances for United – a tally only bettered by six other players and none from outside the United Kingdom.
His in-house records certainly don’t stop there. Quite amazingly, De Gea has won the Player of the Year award a remarkable four times. As a goalkeeper, that is unprecedented.
The only other player to win the award four times is Cristiano Ronaldo and no other player won the prize on more than two occasions.
The 32-year-old kept an incredible 190 clean sheets in those 545 appearances – made even more impressive when you factor in the number of disappointing seasons he starred in.
Those 190 clean sheets put him at the top of the ranks in United’s rankings and in the Premier League, only three goalkeepers have kept more clean sheets than De Gea’s 147.
As per the official Premier League website, De Gea continues to impress in the saves column as he is only bettered by Ben Foster in the all-time rankings.
De Gea made 1157 saves over his 12 seasons, with Foster’s 1248 stops sitting comfortably at the top. De Gea’s tally is made even more impressive by the fact that he played for a club exclusively finishing inside the top six, with the exception of the 2013/14 season when United finished 7th.
De Gea’s individual feats will be difficult to beat but if there is one regret he may have, it will have been that he did not win more trophies with the side.
He will always be a Premier League champion but that trophy, the biggest one of his career at club level, came in just his second season.
One Europa League trophy and a couple of domestic cups followed but nothing to write home about and the Carabao Cup triumph last season was the club’s first bit of silverware for six years.
He will be remembered fondly at Old Trafford as one of the leading figures in his position for years to come and hopefully, he is given the chance to return to the Theatre of Dreams for a proper send-off.
This is sad. letting your best player leave for free. He still has about 5 years in him to stay at the top.
Someone must be held accountable. HEADS MUST ROLL IMO.