265: Jose Luis Chilavert, Paraguay, Panini World Cup France 98

When Budweiser landed the sponsorship deal for the Premier League in 2005 their advertising team were quick to look to assuage football fans’ concerns with a campaign stating that the American beverage giants would stick to beer rather than looking to interfere with the beautiful game. Based on their product it could be argued that they might want to reconsider even that but thankfully the top flight was not subjected to “added time multi-ball” to avoid 0-0 draws. The rules of the game, however, are constantly evolving as shown by the various interpretations of handball in the first Premier League season to enjoy VAR or the addition of everyone’s favourite footballing thing to moan about in the first place. 

This has led to various conversations about what rules would we the public change. For example I would make it a bookable offence for any goalkeeper who didn’t go up for a corner or advantageous free kick in any minute of added time when their side was either drawing or trailing by a solitary goal. Only six shot stoppers have found the net since the conception of the Premier League and only half of those have been as the result of a late dash into the penalty box rather than a fortuitous headwind. Respect to Alisson Becker for sealing victory for Liverpool against West Bromwich Albion last season but even more credit must go to Peter Schmeichel for his mere consolation for Aston Villa against Everton in 2001 and Brad Friedel who thought he had saved a point for Blackburn Rovers against Charlton Athletic in 2004 only to concede shortly afterwards.

In South America goalkeepers are far less shy about giving back as good as they get. Brazil’s Rogerio Ceni scored a frankly ridiculous 131 goals in his career while the Peruvian keeper Johnny Vegas, not to be confused with the Lancastrian comedian, managed an impressive 45. Colombian icon Rene ‘El Loco’ Higuita of course chipped in with 41 strikes, including three for his national side, while another Brazilian, Marcio, scored forty goals between 2002 and 2019. At international level, however, all of these pale in comparison to Paraguay’s Jose Luis Chilavert who scored a record eight goals for his country to go alongside his 59 at club level. That is more than England strikers Jamie Vardy, Les Ferdinand, Theo Walcott and Emile Heskey although we can lay part of the blame for one of those on Carlton Palmer’s failure to hit them with enough killer passes.

Chilavert’s impressive goalscoring record owed much to his excellence at set pieces. Whilst at Real Zaragoza he honed his craft by practising up to a hundred free kicks after each training session despite the fear he put in the hearts of the club’s supporters with his regular forays out of his penalty box. At his next club, Argentina’s Velez Sarsfield, he scored 48 goals across 341 appearances helping the club to four Primera Division titles as well as the Copa Libertadores and the Intercontinental Cup. He reached double figures in front of goal in both the 1996/97 and 1997/98 campaigns and became the first goalkeeper to score a hat-trick the following season when he scored three penalties against Ferro Carril Oeste. He moved on to France with Strasbourg in 2000 where his penalty secured a shootout victory in the Coupe de France final over Amiens before calling time on his career in 2004 back with Velez Sarsfield.

On the international stage Chilavert scored important goals in World Cup qualifiers and the 1997 Copa America but also proved himself to be a very able goalkeeper in the more traditional sense. His two clean sheets in the first round at France 98 helped Paraguay out of a tricky group ahead of Spain and Bulgaria and set up a knockout clash against the hosts. As you may have gathered by now today’s subject didn’t lack confidence and had spent the build up to the tournament announcing himself as the best goalkeeper in world football. Clearly buoyed on by kissing the head of the competition’s other stand out shot stopper Laurent Blanc breached Chilavert’s defences in extra-time to send the South American side out. However, in part due to his bravado, FIFA named Chilavert in the team of the tournament granting him yet another personal accolade to go alongside his three IFFHS World’s Best Goalkeeper gongs.

Jose Luis Chilavert’s unconventional career was not without its controversies. He came to blows with the equally shy and retiring Faustino Asprilla and Diego Maradona on the pitch and traded verbal barbs with national and continental administrators both during and after his career. Although he is yet to enter formal politics, like Bebeto and Theo Zagorakis, Chilavert has been a vocal critic of his nation’s politicians and has been touted as a potential future president of Paraguay although his diplomacy skills might need a bit of work following his homophobic comments about British ambassador Matthew Hedges back in 2012. He might not be your first choice in the halls of power, or even your first choice between the sticks, but if there was a last minute set piece to settle a crucial tie there were few others you would want stepping up more than Jose Luis Chilavert. Not bad for a goalkeeper.