What You Need To Know
Goalkeepers before van der Sar tended to be lumbering and single-purpose.
Van der Sar changed the game by effectively becoming an 11th outfield player.
The real lesson in van der Sar's retirement is to go out on top.
One April afternoon in 1991, Ajax Amsterdam’s goalkeeper, Stanley Menzo, limped off injured. When his replacement bounded on, you wanted to laugh. The 20-year-old Edwin van der Sar was big-eared, rail thin and dressed entirely in purple with tiny shorts. By way of warming up, he literally skipped around the penalty area. He looked like a particularly camp gymnast. Then he began to keep. Twenty years on, as Manchester United’s keeper prepares to retire next month, he has redefined his profession.
