Donnarumma has proved integral in guiding Paris Saint-Germain to the Champions League final
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For a man out of time, it might again be the right time. Gianluigi Donnarumma has felt football’s youngest anachronism, the type of player who had fallen out of fashion. Now he stands 90 minutes – or, given, his skill set, perhaps 120 and a penalty shootout – from a second achievement that would be out of keeping with the modern footballing world.
If Paris Saint-Germain win the Champions League on Saturday, their often tragicomic quest to conquer Europe would suddenly bring fulfilment. The 6ft 5in shot-stopper can seem the giant figure for the huge occasion. Rewind four years ago and his penalty saves from Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka enabled Italy to win Euro 2020, a feat rendered more extraordinary as it was surrounded by the failure to even qualify for the preceding or following World Cup, while the Azzurri still have not played a World Cup knockout game since 2006.
Donnarumma was named the player of Euro 2020. If PSG prevail against Internazionale, there is a strong case for the Italian to see off the competing claim of teammate Ousmane Dembele to take the award for the Champions League’s finest performer this season.
There is already a case he is the most influential. There were the semi-final saves from Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard, each exceptional in a different way, preventing an Arsenal comeback and following a brilliant first-leg stop from Leandro Trossard. In the quarter-final second leg, as Aston Villa rocked PSG, he denied Marcus Rashford, Youri Tielemans and Marco Asensio. At Liverpool, there were the shootout saves from Darwin Nunez and Curtis Jones. It was a tie of great goalkeeping. “The first game belonged to Alisson, the second game belonged to Donnarumma,” reflected Luis Enrique.
It has been a Champions League of great goalkeeping. Even in the seminal semi-final between Inter and Barcelona, a 13-goal extravaganza, Yann Sommer was arguably the man of the tie, making 14 saves across the two legs.
Which, the traditionalists would say, is what goalkeepers are paid to do. Except there was a shift in the job description which left Donnarumma looking like a dinosaur. The footballing goalkeeper became the must-have for any manager with a philosophy; they wanted the 11th outfield player, the goalkeeper who started the build-up. Indeed, there has been a suspicion that Luis Enrique would prefer more of a passer than Donnarumma.
Traditionalists would say Donnarumma (left) does what goalkeepers are paid to doopen image in gallery
Traditionalists would say Donnarumma (left) does what goalkeepers are paid to do (PA Wire)
And his pass completion rate for long passes compares unfavourably to those of virtually every other goalkeeper of an elite side.
But the goalkeeping goalkeeper has staged his comeback. Donnarumma still has a weakness against crosses, a factor in the goals when Arsenal beat PSG 2-0 in October’s group game, but he can be an inspired shot-stopper.
It is not about the number as much as the moments and the magnitude of them. Sommer has made far more saves in this season’s Champions League, 51 to 37, and with a better save percentage, of 82.8, which is second only to Alisson’s. In part, it reflects how parsimonious Inter were in the group stages.
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Donnarumma has made a comeback after returning to his best in the knockoutsopen image in gallery
Donnarumma has made a comeback after returning to his best in the knockouts (REUTERS)
In contrast, Donnarumma’s save percentage of 69.6 feels low but excludes his two shootout stops. But, more pertinently, he has been at his best in the knockout stages.
But then, increasingly, the Champions League can be decided by goalkeepers, including those hired in part because they pass the philosophical test. Thibaut Courtois was the outstanding individual in the 2022 final. Ederson may be the passer extraordinaire but Inter can bemoan his excellence in the final 20 minutes in 2023, just as Pep Guardiola never forgets it. There were echoes of Alisson’s display in 2019: not really needed until the final quarter of the game, but terrific then.
It sets the scene for Donnarumma against Sommer, each with the potential to be decisive. They represent different types of signings. The Swiss was a cut-price arrival after Inter signed Andre Onana on a free transfer and flipped him for a huge profit 12 months later but, well as the Cameroonian played for the Milanese club in the Champions League, looks an upgrade.
Donnarumma was the most expensive of free transfers when he joined PSG following his AC Milan departureopen image in gallery
Donnarumma was the most expensive of free transfers when he joined PSG following his AC Milan departure (Getty Images)
Donnarumma was the most expensive of free transfers, the Galactico of a goalkeeper. Perhaps he has an old-style PSG contract, one more suitable for the era of Lionel Messi and Neymar than Desire Doue and Bradley Barcola. It has not escaped attention in his native Italy: AC Milan fans waved fake bank notes at him when he returned to San Siro last season, while he has been booed on national duty for leaving his boyhood club.
Yet if Donnarumma feels a figure who is more emblematic of bygone days at PSG, that may be fitting, too. He might be the oldest 26-year-old in football, and not merely because it is almost a decade since his Serie A debut. He may be better suited to an age when goalkeepers were simply expected to save shots. But the saves he does make could leave him a European champion for both country and club.