Unlike some of Europe’s other major leagues, LaLiga has a dedicated award that is handed out each season to the best goalkeeper, or at least the one who concedes the fewest goals. The Zamora Trophy was first established by the newspaper Marca in 1958, but keepers from every Spanish top flight season since the very first in 1929, have also since been recognised as recipients.
The record for Zamora Trophy wins by an individual goalkeeper is five, with three players having reached that mark. The current trends and statistical patterns suggest that record is likely to be surpassed by an active LaLiga keeper, with Jan Oblak and Thibaut Courtois already boasting eight Zamora Trophies between them.
What is the Zamora Trophy?
The Zamora Trophy is one of the main individual LaLiga awards handed out at the end of each season. It goes to the goalkeeper with the lowest “goals conceded per game” ratio.
Players must have appeared in a minimum number of games to be considered, currently set to 28 matches (with 60 minutes or more in each) for a 38-match season. That threshold has moved throughout the decades, according to the number of teams in LaLiga.
It takes its name from Ricardo Zamora, widely viewed as the first great Spanish goalkeeper. Playing for Espanyol, he was the keeper with the best ratio in the inaugural 1929 season. He was also the first player to finish with a “goals conceded per game” average of less than 1.00, managing the feat twice for Real Madrid in the 1931/32 and 1932/33 campaigns.
On rare occasions, two keepers have ended with the same average. In such cases, the award is shared with both players considered winners of the trophy.
Zamora Trophy winners – Which keepers have won the award the most?
Antoni Ramallets (Barcelona) – 5 wins
While in the early years of the Primera Division, the Zamora Trophy was not yet an official award, Deportivo La Coruña’s Juan Acuña effectively became the first player to surpass Zamora, with four wins between 1942 and 1951. His record did not last long though, with Barcelona’s Antoni Ramallets the dominant goalkeeper in the 1950s.
The Zamora Trophy had formally been established by the time of his back-to-back victories in 1958/59 and 1959/60. That took the Spain international’s tally to five wins, a record that has not been surpassed since.
The Barcelona-born keeper also won LaLiga on six occasions with his hometown club, with whom he continued to represent until his retirement in 1962.
Victor Valdes (Barcelona) – 5 wins
It would take more than 50 years for another goalkeeper to match the five Zamora Trophy wins of Ramallets. Perhaps fittingly, it was a Barcelona player who equalled the record, with Victor Valdes claiming his fifth and final Zamora Trophy in the 2011/12 campaign.
While he played during an era mostly remembered for Barca’s attacking brilliance, Valdes was the keeper with the best record for goals conceded in LaLiga during all four of Pep Guardiola’s seasons at the helm. That made him the first man to win the Zamora Trophy in four successive years.
He conceded just 16 goals in 32 matches in the 2010/11 campaign. Previously, only Depor’s Francisco Liaño during the 1993/94 season could better that, with an average of 0.47 goals conceded per game.
Jan Oblak (Atletico Madrid) – 5 wins
It wouldn’t take long for the four-year winning streak of Valdes to be matched. The rise of Diego Simeone’s defensively-minded Atletico Madrid side in the 2010s, helped ensure there was an Atleti recipient in six of the seven seasons between 2012/13 and 2018/19.
Thibaut Courtois was in goal for the first two, while Jan Oblak reeled off four wins on the spin at the end of the decade, a run that was only broken by Coutrois, now plying his trade across town for Real Madrid, in the 2019/20 season.
Oblak’s winning streak also saw him match Liaño’s all-time record of just 18 goals conceded in 38 matches in a LaLiga campaign. The Slovenian won the Zamora Trophy again during the 2020/21 season and is well placed to claim an outright record sixth title this term.
Juan Acuña (Deportivo La Coruña) – 4 wins
In addition, two men have won the Zamora Trophy on four occasions. During a higher-scoring period in Spanish football, Juan Acuña was a four-time recipient, despite not averaging under 1.20 goals conceded per game in any of his winning seasons.
The Depor keeper finished with the best average during the 1941/42 and 1942/43 campaigns. Seven years would pass before he’d finish with the best LaLiga goalkeeper stats again, but Acuña achieved another double triumph in 1949/50 and 1950/51.
Santiago Cañizares (Celta Vigo, Valencia) – 4 wins
One of the best goalkeepers and most colourful characters in LaLiga during the 1990s and 2000s, Santiago Cañizares was a four-time Zamora Trophy winner.
His first title came with Celta Vigo during the 1993/94 season. That was the last time the trophy was shared, with both Cañizares and Depor’s Liaño averaging 0.83 goals conceded per game, with the Galician sides both very tough to break down that year.
Despite moving to Real Madrid in the mid 1990s, Cañizares is best known for his time at Valencia. He won the Zamora Trophy three times in four seasons between the 2000/01 and 2003/04, picking up the award in each of Valencia’s title-winning campaigns under Rafa Benitez during the period.
Most Zamora Trophies – All the goalkeepers with 3+ wins
| Zamora Trophy wins | Winning seasons | |
| Antoni Ramallets | 5 | 1951/52, 1955/56, 1956/57, 1958/59, 1959/60 |
| Victor Valdes | 5 | 2004/05, 2008/09, 2009/10, 2010/11, 2011/12 |
| Jan Oblak | 5 | 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/19, 2020/21 |
| Juan Acuña | 4 | 1941/42, 1942/43, 1949/50, 1950/51 |
| Santiago Cañizares | 4 | 1992/93, 2000/01, 2001/02, 2003/04 |
| Ricardo Zamora | 3 | 1929, 1931/32, 1932/33 |
| Gregorio Blasco | 3 | 1929/30, 1933/34, 1935/56 |
| Jose Vicente Train | 3 | 1960/61, 1962/63, 1963/64 |
| Salvador Sadurni | 3 | 1968/69, 1973/74, 1974/75 |
| Luis Arconada | 3 | 1979/80, 1980/81, 1981/82 |
| Juan Carlos Ablanedo | 3 | 1984/85, 1985/86, 1989/90 |
| Thibaut Courtois | 3 | 2012/13, 2013/14, 2019/20 |
In total, 12 different players have won the trophy on three or more occasions, with Antoni Ramallets, Jan Oblak and Victor Valdes the joint record holders for the most Zamora Trophy wins, with five each.
While tactical approaches and the quality of the team’s defence clearly also has a big impact on the eventual recipient, the list of players on three Zamora Trophy wins does include some of the all-time great goalkeepers in LaLiga history.
Ricardo Zamora obviously features in that list and while footage from that era is more limited, with his name quite literally on the trophy, his legacy will most certainly live on, most likely for as long as there is football in this country.
Luis Arconada is another three-time Zamora Trophy winner who is widely regarded as one of the great Spanish goalkeepers. The Real Sociedad legend was the first man to win the award in three successive seasons, between 1979/80 and 1981/82, with La Real also winning LaLiga in two of those years.
More recently, Thibaut Courtois stands out as one of the modern-day LaLiga goalkeeping greats. While his 2018 move to Real Madrid, ensured his unpopularity at Atletico where two of his three Zamora Trophies were won, a steady stream of major domestic and European honours have cemented the Belgian’s status as one of the best goalkeepers of his generation.
At 32, Courtois still has time to add more Zamora Trophies to his collection. Aside from Courtois and Oblak, Unai Simon and Marc-Andre ter Stegen are the only other active LaLiga goalkeepers to have won the trophy, with both men recipients on one occasion.
