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David de Gea becomes the first non-British player to make 400 Premier League appearances for a club after starting for Manchester United against Leeds… with the Spaniard the youngest goalkeeper to reach the milestone
- David de Gea has reached the milestone of 400 Premier League appearances
- All of the Spanish goalkeeper’s matches in England have been at Manchester United
- De Gea is the youngest goalkeeper to achieve the milestone and United’s first
Manchester United’s David de Gea reached the milestone of 400 Premier League appearances on Sunday.
The goalkeeper, who moved to Old Trafford from Atlético Madrid for around £19m in 2011, has been the club’s number one ever since.
All of his English football appearances have been for the Red Devils, with his 400th milestone coming in the clash against rivals Leeds United at Elland Road.
The official Premier League account tweeted: The first @ManUtd goalkeeper to reach 400 #PL appearances!
“Congratulations on a historic moment, D_DeGea,” followed by an emoji of applause.
Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea reaches 400 Premier League appearances
The Spanish goalkeeper, 32, achieves the milestone as a starter against Leeds United on Sunday
Iconic United goalkeepers from years past such as Peter Schmeichel, Edwin van der Sar and Fabien Barthez follow De Gea in the competition.
The international with 45 caps is also the first non-British or Irish player to reach 400 Premier League appearances for a club.
Only five players outside Great Britain and Ireland have played more caps: Mark Schwarzer (514), Sylvain Distin (469), Brad Friedel (450), Petr Cech (443) and Jussi Jaaskelainen (436).
Furthermore, he is the youngest goalkeeper to reach 400 Premier League appearances, at the age of 32 years and 97 days, with Shay Given (33y 335d), David James (34y 287d), Cech (34y 358d) and Schwarzer ( 37 and 172d) following him.
After the club’s 2-1 win against Crystal Palace at Old Trafford, in which Casemiro was sent off for putting his hands around the neck of Eagles midfielder Will Hughes, De Gea backed the January loan signing of Marcel Sabitzer to step up in his absence.
He said: ‘We already lost Christian [Eriksen, to injury]Now Casemiro, great players for us. But we have a bigger team, the players are ready to play, everyone is really focused.
“Sabitzer has already shown himself, he played 15 to 20 minutes and he did very well, he made some good tackles, he’s good on the ball and everyone is ready to play.”
The Austrian midfielder made a 16-minute cameo against Palace last week in his first appearance for the Manchester club.