Why Real Madrid’s Lunin won’t win La Liga best goalkeeper

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Ukrainian shot-stopper Andriy Lunin in the absence of first choice goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has racked up impressive showings for the Los Blancos.

Of note was the outstanding performance in the UEFA champions league round 16 first leg against RB Leipzig. A man-of-the-match show in which he racked up 9 saves and picked up the player of the match award. 

Domestically, his performances have also been nothing short of inspiring and with the season gradually coming to an end, his performances for Real Madrid have been highlighted.

However, he will no longer be able to pick up the Zamora Trophy — which is awarded to the goalkeeper with the lowest ‘goals to game’ ratio in La Liga.

Barcelona shot-stopper Marc André ter Stegen is the current holder with a record 26 clean sheets over the 2022/2023 season. To get this award, a goalkeeper must play at least 28 league games, with at least 60 minutes played in each.

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As it stands, should Lunin play the rest of Los Blancos matches, he’ll only rack up a total of 27 appearances. Lunin currently boasts the best save percentage in the league with a staggering 78% metric and has kept 9 clean sheets in his 18 starts.

The Ukrainian, who signed for the Spanish heavyweights from Zorya Luhansk for £7.3million in 2020 after a surreal U20 world cup outing.Many Real Madrid fans have blamed Carlo Ancelotti’s choice of splitting game time between he and on-loan Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga as the reason why Lunin will miss out on this individual award.

A fan on X(formerly called Twitter) commented

‘Blame Carlo for this, those match he played Kepa instead of Lunin is the cause.’

Other fans also went on to rave about the club manager while another school of thought demanded that the rule be scrapped.

Real Madrid continue the charge for the Spanish championship with some games to go and will also look to add another continental trophy come may. As such, the club faithful will hope this doesn’t deter Lunin from keeping up the good form.