If his record at ASSE has been marred by a difficult last year, Stéphane Ruffier can be proud to have lived up to the greatest goalkeepers over the decade.
In recent times, Stéphane Ruffier has taken a lot for his grade at AS Saint-Etienne. Put on the sidelines by Claude Puel and unwilling to get involved in the Greens’ new project, the emblematic doorman will most likely leave Forez this summer after nine years of good and loyal service.
In the footsteps of Neuer, Buffon and Courtois
If he will probably not have the exit he deserves at ASSE, the former Bayonnais will nevertheless leave a good record of his passage. Balance hardly tarnished by this last green season where it will not have been very decisive. Indeed, as recalled by “Fox Sport”, Stéphane Ruffier is one of the five gatekeepers who made the most clean sheets over the decade with 117 games without conceding goals. “Ruf” is only preceded by three monuments: Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus, PSG) and Thibaut Courtois (Atletico Madrid, Chelsea, Real Madrid).
A monster in a team of molluscs. He could have aimed infinitely higher. pic.twitter.com/7uMqaysxaL
– Dylan D. (@DylanDsrt) March 28, 2020
First Frenchman, he is tied with the excellent (and also undercut) Slovenian goalkeeper Samir Handanovic (Udinese, Inter Milan). In addition, Stéphane Ruffier appears in the typical team of the decade in Ligue 1 made by the statisticians of Opta …