Iker Casillas Fernandez is a Spanish professional footballer who plays for Portuguese club Porto and the Spain national team as a goalkeeper.
Casillas began his youth career with Real Madrid in 1990. After gaining promotion to the senior team in 1999, he remained with the club for sixteen seasons, later serving as the club's captain. During his highly successful time at the Madrid club, he won five La Liga titles, two Copa del Rey titles, four Supercopa de Espana titles, three UEFA Champions League titles, two UEFA Super Cups, two Intercontinental Cups, and the FIFA Club World Cup. With 725 appearances for the club, Casillas is Madrid's second most capped player of all-time after Raul.
Casillas debuted for the Spanish national team in June 2000 at the age of 19. To date he has made a national record 166 appearances, making him the sixth-most capped male footballer in history and the joint-most capped European player. He became the nation's first choice goalkeeper at the 2002 FIFA World Cup and went on to play at UEFA Euro 2004 and the 2006 FIFA World Cup. In 2008, he was made captain of the Spanish team, leading them to their first European Championship in 44 years by winning UEFA Euro 2008. Under Casillas's captaincy, Spain went on to win its first ever FIFA World Cup in 2010 and retain the European Championship in 2012. At the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Casillas and teammate Xavi Hernandez joined Andoni Zubizarreta and Fernando Hierro in representing Spain at four World Cups.
Having won the IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper Award for a record five consecutive years, he is considered as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, placing second behind Gianluigi Buffon in both the IFFHS Best Goalkeeper of the past decade and quarter-century awards in 2010. Nicknamed San Iker (Saint Iker) for his ability to produce spectacular saves, in his prime he was an athletic keeper, known in particular for his outstanding speed, agility, reflexes, consistency and shot-stopping, as well as his positioning, concentration, penalty-saving and leadership.
Casillas was nominated for the European Footballer of the Year award in 2008, ranking fourth overall. At the end of 2012, he was voted into the UEFA Team of the Year for a record sixth consecutive time; he also holds the record for most appearances by a goalkeeper in the FIFPro World XI. As of 2011, Casillas is one of a very select group of players who have won all major club and national championship titles. On 19 October 2010, he became the goalkeeper with most appearances of all time in the UEFA Champions League and in November 2011, he became the most capped player of all time for the Spanish national team. In September 2015, he became the player with the most appearances in the UEFA Champions League. With over 150 caps for his national team, Casillas is the third captain in football history to lift the World Cup trophy, the Champions League trophy and the European Championship trophy, after Franz Beckenbauer and Didier Deschamps.
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