FC Barcelona’s Chilean goalkeeper takes home award for top goals against average in La Liga
Season record includes 23 shutouts, surpassing Valdés and Zubizarreta on Club’s all-time list
Claudio Bravo will have some personal hardware to go along with FC Barcelona’s La Liga title this season. The Chilean goalkeeper not only played a huge role in FC Barcelona’s league championship campaign this season, but he’ll also add his very first Ricardo Zamora Trophy, awarded to the La Liga goalkeeper with the best goals againsta average.
Bravo’s numbers are spectacular, having only given up 19 goals in 37 league games this season, well ahead of Valencia’s Diego Alves, who conceded 29. Bravo did not play the final game of the season, giving way to Jordi Masip after the team had clinched the La Liga title with a game to spare. With Saturday’s two goals conceded to Deportivo, Barça have given up 21 in total this season. No team has surrendered fewer goals since the 1993/94 season, when Deportivo only gave up 18.
Bravo’s 0.51 goals against per game put him third on the all-time list in La Liga, only behind Paco Liaño’s 0.47 average with Deportivo in that 1993/94 season, and Víctor Valdés‘ 0.50 with Barça in 2010/11. Valdés, however, only played in 32 of the 38 La Liga matches that year.
Bravo the record breaker
In addition to the Zamora Trophy, Claudio Bravo set two new records this season. He set a new La Liga record by going 754 minutes without conceding to open the season, surpassing Pedro Maria Artola‘s previous record of 560 minutes which was set in 1977/78. In addition, Bravo racked up a record 23 shutouts in the 37 games he played. The previous record of 20 was achieved by both Valdés (2004-05) and Andoni Zubizarreta (1988/89).