Celebrating Ter Stegen's 400 games: A testament to his excellence
By Shree Desai
Marc-André ter Stegen celebrated his 400th game for FC Barcelona with a clean sheet against Mallorca. The German shot-stopper gave out a confident performance against Los Piratas, which kept The Blaugranes level until Lamine Yamal unleashed a beauty.
It was one of the better games from Barça as ter Stegen kept his third clean sheet in a row. This win keeps the League title hopes alive as Real Madrid sits only 5 points ahead of The Catalan Giants. After the match was done and dusted, everyone in the locker room congratulated the German and he was handed a special shirt for the occasion.
This puts The Berlin Wall only 10 games away from becoming the second goalkeeper with the most all-time appearances. Only two goalkeepers stand ahead in the race namely, Víctor Valdés and Andoni Zubizarreta who have played 535 and 410 games respectively for Barcelona.
Ter Stegen left behind Antoni Ramallets and Salvador Sadurní, who have 387 and 332 appearances, respectively. Ter Stegen is the only foreign goalkeeper in the top 5 list. The German will surely surpass Andoni Zubizarreta in the coming weeks with 11 confirmed games remaining for the season.
In all time standings, the German goalkeeper stands at 17th. He will fly up the ranks and will be in the top 15 by the end of the season. In the current squad, the shot-stopper is the one with the most appearances, followed by Sergi Roberto.
Journey So Far
Ter Stegen arrived at the Catalan capital in 2014. Since then, the German shot-stopper has managed to keep 168 clean sheets and has conceded 388 goals. He has played a total of 36,111 minutes. Ter Stegen has also been named in the Champions League squad of the season twice.
The Berlin Wall also has a UEFA Save of the Season and was named in the UEFA Fan's Team of the Year in 2018. He has been named in the ESM Team of the Year four times and has won the Zamora Trophy once. Lastly, the shot-stopper was named in the La Liga Team of the Season and also won the La Liga Player of the Season in 2022-23.