Casillas becomes third goalkeeper to captain World Cup winning side

JOHANNESBURG - When Iker Casillas lifted the World Cup trophy presented to him by FIFA president Joseph Blatter and South African president Jacob Zuma, he became only the third goalkeeper to captain a side to World Cup glory.

Although it was Andres Iniesta’s goal late in the second half of extra-time that gave Spain the 1-0 victory against the Netherlands, the 29-year-old Real Madrid goalkeeper pulled off a number of world-class saves to deny the Dutch forwards.

The first goalkeeper to captain his side was Gianpiero Combi, who was the Italian goalkeeper in 1934, when the hosts beat Czechoslovakia 2-1 after extra-time.

Combi, who played his entire club career with Juventus, had all but retired from international football in 1934, when the country hosted the second edition of the World Cup.

In his place Carlo Ceresoli had taken over the Italian number one jersey and the Inter Milan goalkeeper helped his country qualify for the 1934 finals.

Italian coach Vittorio Pozzo however asked Combi to postpone his retirement to join the squad as a back-up for Ceresoli.

A few weeks before the start of the World Cup Ceresoli was injured in training and suddenly Combi found himself the first choice for his country.

Combi conceded just three goals as Italy captured their first-ever World Cup trophy.

48 years later it was Dino Zoff who became the second goalkeeper who captained a World Cup winning side, becoming the to-date oldest captain to lift the trophy.

Zoff was capped 112 times by Italy and is third in the all-time Italian rankings.

In 1968, he played his first game for Italy and in that year, in only his fourth international, he won the European championship with his country.

He did not feature in the 1970 World Cup finals when Italy lost the final 4-1 to Brazil, but played in the 1974 and 1978 finals, without success.

Going into the 1974 finals, he had been unbeaten in 1,142 minutes, which is the longest for any international goalkeeper. Haitian Emmanuel Sanon ended the unbeaten stretch with a goal for Haiti in their group game at the finals.

In 1982, when the World Cup was held in Spain, Zoff captained his side to a 3-1 victory against Germany in the final.

The world had to wait another 38 years until a further goalkeeper managed to take his side to World Cup glory and it was Casillas, who also won the Golden Glove award as the best goalkeeper of the tournament.