Ter Stegen, Zamora award but not the record he craved

Marc André Ter Stegen won his first Zamora Trophy, but missed out on the prize of being the goalkeeper with the best goalkeeping average goals against in the history of La Liga in a single season. The German keeper might have had the coveted record had he not played in Balaídos, but he also wanted the clean sheet record of 27 and decided to go for it.

With the 3-0 win over Mallorca last weekend, Ter Stegen equalled Paco Liaño's 26 clean sheets in the 1993-1994 season at Deportivo, which was the best record in history. At least in the five major leagues. But he did not want to share that honour and took a risk to try and beat it.

The German went into the final matchday having conceded just 17 goals, one less than Liaño himself and Jan Oblak, who also conceded 18 goals in the 2015-2016 season with Atlético. This meant that Ter Stegen had the best average ever: 0.472 goals conceded per game. A lower average than Liaño and Oblak (0.473 per game). Had he not played, he would have gone down in history.

The goal scored by Gabri Veiga was his 18th of the season, the same as Liaño and Oblak, but with one less game, which means that Ter Stegen has finished with an average of 0.486 goals per game. 

The German was penalised for his half-time substitution at Nuevo Zorrilla two games ago, as the Zamora Trophy only counts games when a minimum of 60 minutes are played. The two goals conceded in Pucela counted for him, but the match did not, which is why he finished with a higher average than Liaño and Oblak.

Ter Stegen kept thehope of closing the season with both records in his pocket until the 43rd minute, when Gabri Veiga got the better of Christensen and Marcos Alonso to fire home. Already out of the running for those two records, Ter Stegen gave way to Iñaki Peña in the 60th minute, so as not to make the same mistake as in Valladolid where he let in more.