World Cup 2026 Goalkeeper Stats: Saves, Goals Prevented, Penalties Saved, Crosses Caught & More

The 2026 World Cup has been a memorable one for goalkeepers – particularly from the tournament’s underdog nations.

Veteran stopper Vozinha became a global sensation following his performances for Cape Verde, while Curaçao's Eloy Room put in an outstanding display in the Blue Wave’s goalless draw with Ecuador.

It was a similar story for Saudi Arabia custodian Mohammed Al-Owais, too, who made a series of first-class saves to secure a point against Uruguay.

But there have also been impressive showings from the competition’s bigger names, with Jordan Pickford producing a notable masterclass in England’s 3-2 win against Mexico.

And it would be remiss not to mention Unai Simón, who is yet to concede a single goal across all five of Spain’s matches to date.

With so many standout moments to reflect on, now feels like as good a time as ever to dive into the goalkeeping data from the World Cup so far.

So, ahead of the quarter-finals kicking off later today, here are some of the key stats from this summer’s showpiece in the United States, Mexico and Canada…

World Cup Most Saves: Gill’s goalkeeping heroics key to Paraguay run

Plenty of goalkeepers have been particularly active at this World Cup, but none more so than Paraguay’s Orlando Gill.

The 26-year-old made a competition-leading 23 saves en route to the Last 16, before La Albirroja were eventually eliminated by France.

That run included a famous shootout victory over Germany, of course, as well as a pair of Group D clean sheets against Türkiye and Australia.

Just behind Gill is the aforementioned Room with 20 stops – a remarkable effort when you consider that Curaçao only played three matches while stateside.

Incredibly, 15 of those saves came in their draw with Ecuador, which is just one behind Tim Howard’s all-time record for the USA against Belgium in 2014.

Portugal’s Diogo Costa ranks third on the list (19) with Vozinha just behind on 18. They are followed by a trio of stoppers on 16, in Al Owais, Bart Verbruggen (Netherlands) and Gregor Kobel (Switzerland).

Only Kobel remains in the tournament from that list, though, and is likely to add to his tally against the attacking prowess of Argentina in the quarter-finals.

World Cup 2026 Most Saves

World Cup Goals Prevented: Maximum impact from Ghana’s Ati Zigi

While a goalkeeper’s save count is a useful statistic, it can be somewhat skewed by certain stoppers having to face far more shots than others.

A better reflection of a keeper’s contribution is ‘goals prevented’, which takes their expected goals on target faced (xGOT) and subtracts the actual number conceded from that figure.

And it is Ghana’s Lawrence Ati Zigi who is leading the way on that front with 2.91 goals prevented, despite only actually playing two games in the competition.

Ati Zigi featured the first half before going off injured in the Black Stars’ 1-0 group stage victory over Paraguay before returning in their Last 32 defeat to Colombia, but made eight saves and conceded just once across 135 minutes of action.

The St. Gallen custodian is only just ahead of Norway’s Ørjan Nyland (2.48), though, who will be looking to continue his eye-catching World Cup to date when the Scandinavians take on England this Saturday.

Elsewhere, breakout star Patrick Beach prevented 1.86 goals for Australia – 0.98 of which came in their opening game against Türkiye.

Gill (1.68), South Africa’s Ronwen Williams (1.60) and Mexico’s Raúl Rangel (1.40) have all also impressed, while Benjamin Asare is the second Ghanaian goalkeeper to prevent more than one goal at the tournament (1.12).

World Cup 2026 Most Goals Prevented

World Cup Penalties Saved: Egypt stopper Shobeir leads the way

Only three goalkeepers have saved penalties at this World Cup if we exclude shootouts, which makes it all the more surprising that Egypt’s Mostafa Shobeir has stopped two of them.

Shobeir dived to his left to keep out Mehdi Taremi’s low spot-kick in their second Group G match versus Iran, before repeating the feat against Lionel Messi in the Round of 16 match-up with Argentina.

The 26-year-old was also involved in a 4-2 shootout triumph over Australia, though the Socceroos’ profligacy meant he didn’t actually need to make a save as Egypt progressed.

Meanwhile, Nyland and France’s Mike Maignan are the other two goalkeepers who have saved a penalty apiece.

The former’s stop came in Norway’s iconic 2-1 Last 16 win over Brazil, while Maignan’s save actually came against the Norwegians when they met in Group I.

World Cup 2026 Most Penalties Saved*

*Stats exclude penalty shootouts

World Cup Crosses Caught: Costa and Diaw dominate their boxes

Modern goalkeepers are required to have an all-round skill set, with command of their area a crucial attribute.

That can partly be measured by a keeper’s ability when coming for crosses – an area where Portugal’s Costa has excelled at the 2026 World Cup.

He leads the way for crosses caught with seven, one ahead of fellow custodians Mory Diaw (Senegal) and Zion Suzuki (Japan) who have claimed six each.

There is little to choose from between goalkeepers when it comes to this metric, though, as evidenced by Lionel Mpasi (DR Congo), Mahmoud Abunada (Qatar) and Thibaut Courtois (Belgium) sitting just behind on five.

However, we see slightly more variation if assessing stoppers on a per 90 minutes basis, with Diaw climbing into top spot at 2.28 per 90.

The Le Havre man is in front of Uzbekistan’s Utkir Yusupov (2) and the USA’s Matt Turner (2), who place ahead of Abunada (1.67) and Suzuki (1.5).

World Cup 2026 Most Crosses Caught

World Cup Accurate Goal Kicks: Shobeir shines again

High-quality distribution is another important part of contemporary goalkeeping, with the ability to produce an accurate goal kick key to retaining possession or setting off attacking moves.

Egypt’s Shobeir once again comes to the fore with regards to this skill, proving that there is far more to his game than penalty-saving heroics.

The Al Ahly star has delivered 42 accurate goal kicks at the 2026 World Cup, which is six more than second-place Camilo Vargas (Colombia) and – remarkably – 18 more than Gill and Williams in third (24).

Kobel (23), Croatia’s Dominik Livakovic (22), Costa (21) and Al Owais (20) complete the list of players to manage 20 or above – but there is some variation if we look at overall long passes, rather than just goal kicks.

Norway’s Nyland is top of the charts for accurate long passes overall (42), with Gill and Rangel also registering notable tallies of 38 and 35, respectively.

England stopper Pickford ranks fifth, meanwhile (26), one place below South Africa’s Williams (30).

World Cup 2026 Most Accurate Goal Kicks