Top 5 all-time goalkeepers in hockey

Sreejesh has played a crucial role in India's performance recently and also received FIH Goalkeeper of the Year in 2022.

Goalkeepers play a vital role in hockey with most of the goals currently being scored from penalty corners making their role even more essential. During the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Sreejesh saved a penalty corner in the last six seconds to win the bronze medal playoffs match against Germany. There are many more instances where goalkeepers have played a massive role in the team’s success. In this article let us look at the top 5 goalkeepers.

Manuel Vivaldi

The Argentinian goalkeeper has represented his country for more than two decades from 2001 to 2021 and played a total of 288 games most of which have represented Argentina. Vivaldi was the first choice reserve during the 2004 Athens Olympics but since then has been the first choice till the end of his career. Argentina did not have much success during any of the Olympic games across the last two decades finishing 11th and 10th at the 2004 and 2012 Olympic Games respectively but came back stronger to win gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Nicolas Jacobi

The 35-year-old has represented Germany in more than 200 matches since making his debut way back in 2008. He was part of two Olympic medal-winning squads first as a reserve first-choice goalkeeper in the 2012 London Olympics where Germany won gold and was the main player during the 2016 Rio Olympics bronze medal team. Apart from playing for the National team he has good experience playing for several clubs in Germany and was part of Delhi Waverider in the Hockey India League.

Andrew Charter

Andrew Charter has represented Australia since 2011 and was part of the Olympics in 2012, 2016, and 2020. He was part of the Australian team which for the first time qualified for the finals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after the 2004 Athens Olympics but failed to win gold losing to Belgium in the shootouts. Before representing Australia he had a good experience playing for the club teams in the Australian territory. Currently, he is an active member of the Kookaburras team and is close to reaching the 200 caps for Australia.

Jaap Stockmann

The 38-year-old retired goalkeeper is considered one of the best who has represented the Netherlands hockey team in a career spanning over a decade. He made his international debut in 2007 and played his last game in 2017. The most memorable moment was winning the silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics and was also the reserve goalkeeper at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Apart from representing the national team, he has played for several clubs across Europe and was part of the Punjab Warriors team in the Hockey India League. He received FIH Goalkeeper of the Year in 2014 which year he won a Bronze medal at the World Cup. Stockmann won a silver medal in the 2010 World Cup and a gold medal at the World League in 2013.

PR Sreejesh

PR Sreejesh is regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in modern times winning back-to-back FIH Goalkeeper of the year awards ( 2021 and 2022 ). He has represented India in over 250 games since 2006 taking part three times at the Olympics. Sreejesh major success came at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics where he made a crucial save against Germany with six seconds left to win a bronze medal after four decades. 

He worked very hard to improve his skills every year. In 2016 after being appointed the captain, India finished 12th at the 2016 Rio Olympics losing to lower-ranked teams. Since then India has never looked backwards winning major titles with Sreejesh standing rock solid at the goalpost.