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| Valdés is mostly influenced by the playing of great goalkeepers Cañizares (whom he consideres an idol) and ]. | Valdés is mostly influenced by the playing of great goalkeepers Cañizares (whom he consideres an idol) and ]. | ||
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Revision as of 19:48, 28 May 2006
Víctor Valdés Arribas (born January 14, 1982 in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Catalonia), nicknamed Victor, is a Catalan football goalkeeper, who currently plays for FC Barcelona of the Spanish La Liga.
He started his career with FC Barcelona in 1992, in the club's secondary teams, before being promoted to the first FC Barcelona team, playing in La Liga. He only played a few matches in 2002-03 season, due the appearance of Roberto Bonano.
In the 2003-04 season, he became the first-choice goalkeeper (and has remained since then), and in the 2004-05 season, he played in almost all of Barcelona's matches. He is another product of Barcelona's youth system.
As of 2005-2006 season he has improved and has conceded less goals, but is still lacking some regularity, with excellent spells followed by very bad evenings. Although he is emerging as one of the best modern Spanish goalkeepers, he does not get selected for the national squad, as he has to compete against expert goalkeepers, such as, amongst others, José Reina, Santiago Cañizares and Íker Casillas, although Barcelona won for two consequetive times La Liga between 2004-2006.
As the season drew close, Valdés pulled some exceptional performance. Barcelona won the UEFA Champions League 2005-06 against Arsenal FC by 2:1 and during the match Valdés three times denied Thierry Henry on goal - one of the best modern strikers, who is rarely missing.
Valdés is mostly influenced by the playing of great goalkeepers Cañizares (whom he consideres an idol) and Oliver Kahn.
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