Now or never for Marc-Andre ter Stegen's Barcelona record hopes

The match between Barça and Mallorca at the Spotify Camp Nou on Sunday will be very special. It will be special for Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba because they will say goodbye to what has been their fans for more than a decade. And it will be special for the fans themselves because they will be saying goodbye to the current stadium, to which they will not return until November 2024.

The match will also be important for Marc-André Ter Stegen, although in this case, on a sporting level. The German is assured of winning the Zamora Trophy for the first time, but against Mallorca he has the chance to tie down a couple more of the records he is chasing and which have caused him to play the last two games despite the fact that the team, already champions, had nothing at stake.

Ter Stegen has kept 25 clean sheets in La Liga this season and will be hoping to equal Paco Liaño's record of 26 clean sheets against Mallorca, set in 1993-94, when he kept 26 clean sheets for Deportivo. The German tried to do so against Real Sociedad and Valladolid, but a lack of competitive tension throughout the team meant that he conceded two goals in each game.

Better percentage

Those four goals conceded have also meant that Ter Stegen has moved a little further away from the other record he is chasing: to be the best Zamora, the goalkeeper with the lowest percentage of goals conceded. This honour is shared by Paco Liaño and Jan Oblak. Both conceded 18 goals in 38 games. Deportivo's Oblak in the aforementioned 1993-94 season and Atlético de Madrid's Slovenian in 2015-16. Both have a ratio of 0.473 goals conceded per game.

Ter Stegen's goals per game after the Valladolid game is a little worse, at 0.485 goals per game. The figure comes from dividing the 17 goals the German has conceded by 35 games played, because according to the Zamora rules, the game in Pucela does not count towards the trophy but the goals he conceded do. The reason is that he only played 45 minutes and should have played a minimum of 60 minutes for the match to count.

If the German keeps a clean sheet against Mallorca, he will achieve a double goal. The 26th clean sheet and the best percentage, as he will have an average of 0.472 goals conceded per game. He would no longer play in Vigo in the last league game.