Decision Time For Donnarumma

Yahoo

6 days ago

At 26 years of age, Gianluigi Donnarumma has racked up plenty of impressive feats on his resume. He was the second-youngest goalkeeper to debut in Serie A when he made his maiden appearance for AC Milan in 2015. One year later, he became the youngest goalkeeper to debut for the Italy national team. And in 2021, he became the first goalkeeper to win the official Player of the Tournament award at the UEFA European Championship after guiding the Azzurri to a penalty shootout victory against tournament hosts England. That same summer, Donnarumma departed his boyhood club for Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer, where he has continued to stake a claim as one of the best goalkeepers in world football.
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'There's a lot of older goalkeepers like Thibaut Courtois, Yann Sommer, and Manuel Neuer who are still anchoring their clubs,' stated retired French-American goalkeeper Quentin Westberg, who played at Paris Saint-Germain's academy between 1996 and 1998. 'Then you have Donnarumma who was a prodigy and started playing at 16, but after he won the Euros and signed with Paris, people would ask, 'Is he consistent?' This year, he's had a fantastic run in the Champions League and on top of being a good goalkeeper and making game-changing saves here and there, he's more consistent like Alisson. I don't see another young goalkeeper who meets all of that criteria like him…he's going to be extremely consistent just like Courtois, Sommer, and Neuer.'
Since joining Paris Saint-Germain, Donnarumma has continued to enhance his legacy and confirm his status as one of the finest goalkeepers in the game. He won his first-ever league title in 2022 as PSG reclaimed the Ligue 1 championship from Lille's grasp, whilst the 2022-23 season would see him claim another Ligue 1 title and the Trophée des Champions. And in the 2023-24 season under Luis Enrique, PSG would claim a domestic treble with the Trophée des Champions, the Ligue 1 trophy, and the Coupe de France, while exiting the UEFA Champions League semi-finals after losing to Borussia Dortmund.Advertisement
Despite losing all-time leading scorer Kylian Mbappé to Real Madrid on a free transfer, PSG have managed to go up another level and enjoy one of the greatest seasons in modern football history, and it's thanks in large part to their Italian shot-stopper. In their first match of 2025, Donnarumma kept AS Monaco's attack at bay by making five saves (four from inside the box) and showcasing a newfound accuracy in possession by completing 29 out of 32 passes as well as four out of seven long balls, as Ousmane Dembélé's injury-time goal saw them win 1-0 in the Trophée des Champions. Two months later, Donnarumma proved essential by saving Darwin Núñez and Curtis Jones' penalty efforts, leading PSG past Liverpool and into the Champions League quarter-finals.
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