The 5 goalkeepers who faced Lionel Messi on 3+ occasions and never conceded against him
Former Inter Milan, Villarreal and Valencia goalkeepers are among the shot-stoppers who have never conceded against Lionel Messi, despite facing him on multiple occasions.
While Messi has managed to score against the vast majority of keepers that he’s faced over the years, a select few have been able to deny him.
Using stats gathered from MessiStats, here are the five goalkeepers who played against Messi on three or more occasions and never conceded a single goal against him.
Renan Brito Soares
Messi faced Renan on three occasions from 2008 to 2010 but never managed to find the back of the net against the Brazilian shot-stopper.
While Messi did manage to beat the former Valencia goalkeeper on all three occasions, he never managed to score himself.
The 39-year-old retired from professional football in 2022 and he’s now the head coach of Brazilian side Barra Futebol Clube.
Sebastian Viera
Messi also faced Viera on three occasions while the Uruguayan shot-stopper played for Villarreal from 2005 to 2009.
Along with failing to score against the Villarreal star, Messi also lost against him in two of their three meetings.
While the Argentine never managed to score past Viera, it is worth noting that he did assist Bojan Krkic for his goal against Villarreal back in October 2007.
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Sergey Ryzhikov
Rubin Kazan always proved to be somewhat of a bogey side for Messi as he never scored against the Russian outfit on four occasions.
Ryzhikov was largely responsible for keeping the Argentine forward quiet as he was between the sticks in each of Rubin Kazan’s last four meetings with Barcelona.
Along with never scoring against Ryzhikov, he never provided an assist against him either in 238 minutes of football.
Perhaps even more impressive than that is that Ryzhikov went unbeaten against Messi in his first three standoffs with the Argentine wizard, although Messi did claim victory in his fourth meeting with him.
Carlos Erwin Arias
Messi has scored more goals against Bolivia (11) than he has against any other nation, but he never managed to score against Arias.
On the international stage, Messi faced the Bolivian star on four occasions and he fired a blank in all four matches.
During one of the games, Argentina suffered a humiliating 6-1 loss to the South American minnows back in April 2009.
Messi also failed to win any of his last three meetings against Arias, losing once and drawing twice.
Julio Cesar
Cesar is undoubtedly the most high-profile goalkeeper on this list and he also boasts the best record against Messi too.
In total, the Brazilian shot-stopper played 449 minutes against the Argentine forward and he never conceded a single goal against him.
Cesar faced Messi on two occasions on the international stage with Brazil and he also played him three times in the Champions League while at Inter Milan.
The Brazilian made arguably his most iconic save to deny Messi during Inter’s Champions League semi-final clash back in 2010.
“I don’t know if it was the best one, but it is surely the most famous and important,” Cesar told La Gazzetta Dello Sport when describing his iconic save against Messi.
“Everyone remembers it. Still today, people ask me how I managed to do it. I stretched well.”