Jan Oblak "Who Was Underestimated Is Now A Leading Goalkeeper"

A goalkeeper is the last bastion of defense in a football team, that means this sector is very important. Off guard just a little bit the ball can go into the goal.

Now footballovers, talking about goalkeepers, you may be familiar with names like Iker Cassilas, Gianluigi Buffon, Keylor Navas, Hugo Loris, Manuel Neuer, Peter Cech and Alisson Becker.

The last name is even being hotly discussed by the world football public thanks to his brilliant performances under Liverpool and the Brazilian national team. Alisson Becker is also one of the best goalkeepers who represents the generation of goalkeepers born in the 90s.

But Becker is not alone. There are still some goalkeepers born in the 90s who also performed well with the team he defended, namely Marc Andre Ter Steigen, David De Gea, Thibaut Curtois, Ederson Moraes, and Jan Oblak.

When compared to others, Jan Oblak can even be said to be the goalkeeper who gets the most praise. This is very reasonable considering Oblak's performance with Atletico Madrid in the last three seasons has been very good.

The legendary Italian goalkeeper, Gianluigi Buffon, was once asked who is the best goalkeeper in the world today, he answered Manuel Neuer, Jan Oblak and Allison Becker.

Similar to Buffon, Alisson Becker also had time to admit Oblak's greatness. "I like Oblak, he is one of the goalkeepers that I watch," Alisson was quoted as saying by Goal.

His coach at Atletico Madrid also said, "Jan Oblak is the best in the world, and I hope he will stay here," said Simeone.

In addition, former Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger has also praised Jan Oblak, “Oblak is the best goalkeeper in Europe today. Tonight he was doing well, and to be honest we were frustrated by him. When we were one goal ahead, we thought the next goal would be easy, but it turned out that our estimation was wrong, "said Arsene Wenger after the first leg of the Europa League semi-final against Atletico in April 2018.

But do you know footballovers, before becoming a great goalkeeper, Jan Oblak was just a goalkeeper who was often underestimated. At the start of playing in Spain, he rarely got the opportunity to play with Atletico Madrid.

Jan Oblak is a goalkeeper who was born in Slovenia on 7 January 1993 in Škofja Loka, the academic, economic and cultural center of Upper Carniola, a city of only 12,000 people.

Oblak started his career playing at the Locan academy from 1998 to 2003, he then moved to the Olympian academy and played there until 2005.

Oblak returned to his adventure to another club, this time he joined the Olimpija Ljubljana academy. In the 2009/10 season, Oblak officially earned a place in the first team. He performed well and made 34 league appearances, before being offered a contract by Italian club Empoli in 2009.

Although many clubs wanted to sign him, he committed his future to Olimpia Ljubljana and signed a contract extension until 2011.

But in the summer of 2010, he was recruited by the Portuguese club, Benfica. They believed in the ability of the then 17-year-old goalkeeper, but unsure of his mentality, maturity and ability to cope with his move to a big club and the pressure that came with it.

With Benfica, he was mostly loaned out to other clubs in the Portuguese league, Oblak spent time at Olhanense, União de Leira and Rio Ave before his chance with Benfica finally came.

This happened, when Artur Moraes, the main goalkeeper of Benfica, suffered an injury. Oblak was given gloves and the opportunity to prove his quality came.

He played 28 matches and conceded 8 times in all competitions. His good performance with Benfica in the 2013/14 season attracted Atletico.

Finally, on 16 July 2014, he officially signed a contract with Atletico Madrid.

When imported from Benfica with a dowry of 16 million euros, or around Rp. 256 billion, many Atlético Madrid supporters doubted the quality of Jan Oblak. No wonder, because that price made him the most expensive goalkeeper in La Liga at that time.

In fact, Oblak is very confident. First, he was imported from Benfica at a price that is not cheap — 16 million euros. Second, his performance in his last season with Benfica was so good. Oblak conceded only 8 goals in 28 games.

But footballovers, that special record doesn't seem to make the Atletico coach entrust the team goalkeeper to him. Simeone still believes in Miguel Angel Moya's quality as the number 1 goalkeeper for Atletico Madrid.

Early in his career with Los Rojiblancos, Oblak rarely got minutes to play, he even had to wait a month to make his competitive debut.

The match against Olympiacos in the Champions League on 16 September 2014 became Oblak's debut with Atletico. The match was an opportunity for Oblak to prove himself to Simeone. To prove that he deserves to be La Liga's most expensive goalkeeper.

But instead of showing his slick performance, his appearance was far from brilliant.

In the match which took place at the Karaiskaki Stadium, he faced three kicks on target and all three were goals. The defeat was suffered by Atletico Madrid with a score of 3-2.

What a bad debut game for the most expensive goalkeeper in La Liga. Simeone also seemed to give up on lowering Oblak again. Oblak's hopes had already vanished to take the position of the main goalkeeper from Moya's hands.

Atletico even offered Oblak to return to Benfica as his performance did not match expectations. However, Benfica didn't want it.

After that match, Oblak had to wait for about three months to return to play, he played a match against L'Hospitalet, a Spanish third division club in the Copa Del Rey, His performance was good, but it was not a benchmark because all he faced was a small team.

On 17 March 2015, he replaced the injured Moya in the 23rd minute of the Champions League last 16 second leg against Bayer Leverkusen, he did his job and kept a clean sheet in the 1-0 home win.

The match continued to a penalty shootout after the aggregate was equally strong. In the shootout, he saved Leverkusen's three shots. Atletico madrid also strolled into the quarter-finals.

Four days later, because the main goalkeeper was injured, he made his debut in La Liga, he managed to Clean Shet in a 2-0 win over Getafe.

Miguel Angel Moya's injury towards the end of the 2014/15 season turned out to be a blessing for Jan Oblak, he was played a lot more. Oblak made a good performance against fierce rivals Real Madrid in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

After that, he was trusted to be Atletico Madrid's main goalkeeper. Oblak won a place in the hearts of Simeone and Atletico supporters. His self-confidence has also increased.

Entering the new season, he was more trusted to appear and managed to prove his quality as a goalkeeper with a bright future. Oblak's brilliant performance in the 2015/16 season helped bring Atletico to the Champions League final.

Now, over the last few seasons he has cemented his status as one of the best in the world, thanks to his brilliant performances he has won the Zamora Trophy for three consecutive seasons.

He broke the records of Viktor Valdes and Antoni Ramallets, who were only able to achieve it twice in a row.

As a great goalkeeper, Oblak managed to record his 100th streak without conceding in 178 games. In comparison, Manuel Neuer needed 188 games, Gianluigi Buffon needed 222, Victor Valdes achieved that in his 217th game, and Iker Casillas had a record 100 zero goals after 306 matches.

Apart from the Ricardo Zamora Trophy, Oblak also won various other individual awards such as the best Slovenian player for four years in a row and the best goalkeeper in the league in the 2015/16 and 2017/18 seasons.

That is Jan Oblak, who was underestimated, has now become one of the leading goalkeepers in the world. With such a brilliant performance, Oblak became the target of many strong European teams.

But Atletico madrid are certainly not going to let go of the goalkeeper just like that. Even now he has been tied up until 2023.