Biography of Iker Casillas

Birthday :1981/05/20
Full name :Iker Casillas Fernández
Place of Birth:Madrid, Spain
Height :1.85 m
Weight :70 Kg
Position :
Goalkeeper
Nickname(s) :Saint Iker
Wife / girlfriend:Sara Carbanero
Lives in :Madrid

Club information
Current club:Real Madrid
Previous clubs:
National team:Spain

Youth clubs:

1990–1998 Real Madrid Youth

1998–1999 Real Madrid C

1999–2000 Real Madrid B

Iker Casillas Fernández is a Spanish goalkeeper who plays for Real Madrid Football Club as well as Spain's National Football Team.

Casillas was born on May 20, 1981 in Móstoles, Madrid and he still lives there.
Background

Casillas has always been a Real Madrid player. He started in the junior squad during the 1990-91 season and debuted in the senior side in the 1998-99 season when he replaced Bodo Illgner.

Casillas became the youngest-ever goalkeeper to ever play in a Champions League final in 2000 when Real Madrid beat Valencia C.F 3-0. Casillas was just 19 years old.

Following the Champions League won, Casillas remained in the starting lineup but his poor form meant that César Sánchez would take on the goalkeeper position. However, Casillas over took the position again when Sanchez got injured during Real Madrid's 2-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen during the 2002 Champions League Final. Since that incredible match, Casillas has been the number one goalkeeper for Real Madrid.
Club Football

Iker Casillas has never played for a club other than Real Madrid. And the club showed their appreciation towards him by offering him a life-time contract that would keep him at the club until 2017, with an automatic extension if he plays 30 competitive matches during the final season of the contract.

Casillas is now considered to be one of Real Madrid's legends in addition to teammate Rau'l Gonzalez Blanco, Puskas and Alfredo Di Stefano.
International Football

At age 16, Casillas was the youngest player in the Spanish squad that came runners-up to Brazil at the 1997 FIFA U-17 World Championship in Egypt.

He has since then been in the squad and he is currently the second-most capped goalie in the history of the Spanish national team, behind Andoni Zubizarreta.

Casillas won the UEFA-CAF Meridian Cup and FIFA World Youth Championship with Spain in 1999.

At Euro 2000, Casillas was an unused substitute for the Spanish national team but he was an important part of the team in the 2002 World Cup as he became the first-choice goalie when Santiago Cañizares had to withdraw from the tournament due to injury.

Casillas took part in all eight Group 6 matches during Euro 2004 qualifiers just conceding four goals. He also started all of Spain's Euro 2004 matches.

Iker continued conquering the goalie position in the 2006 FIFA World Cup captaining the team twice.

Rau'l's exclusion from Spain's squad for Euro 2008 meant that Casillas would be the team's captain and he did his job very well leading Spain to the title.

He started the first two Euro 2008 Group D games against Russia and Sweden before being rested in place of Pepe Reina for Spain's group stage elimination of Greece. Casillas saved two penalties from Antonio Di Natale and Daniele De Rossi as Spain eliminated Italy in the quarterfinals with a 4-2 shootout win following a goalless draw on June 22. Spain later went on to win the competition with a 1-0 win over Germany in the final on June 29; Casillas kept clean sheets for the quarterfinal, semifinal, and final matches, with Sweden's first round goal by Zlatan Ibrahimović being the last one scored against him. In his 82 appearances for Spain, he has kept 42 clean sheets.

On June 29, 2008 Casillas became the first goalkeeper-captain to lift the UEFA European Championship trophy when Spain beat Germany 1-0 in the final.[4] One of his saves during the quarterfinals versus South Korea during the 2002 FIFA World Cup was rated by FIFA as the top 10 saves of all time[5].

sumber : http://www.oleole.com/iker-casillas/biography/phi27o.html