GOAT Index

Two legends at a time. Thousands of votes. One ranking.

0Voters
0Matchups judged

Lev Yashin: the case for the GOAT

Who's greater?

Standings

Filter voters

    About you

    Optional

    This lets the standings split by age and region, so you can see where generations and continents disagree. Votes are anonymous: no name or email is ever collected.

    Lev Yashin: the case for the GOAT

    Goalkeeper · Soviet Union · Born 22 October 1929, Moscow, Soviet Union · Died 1990 · Career 1950–1970

    Agile, commanding goalkeeper known as the Black Spider for his all-black kit. Spent his entire career at Dynamo Moscow and kept goal for the Soviet Union in four World Cups.

    Career highlights

    Why Lev Yashin could be the GOAT

    Yashin is the only goalkeeper ever to win the Ballon d'Or. He modernised his position, organising his defence and coming off his line, and is widely regarded as the greatest keeper of all time. The Ballon d'Or's goalkeeper award now bears his name.

    What fans say

    Lev Yashin is #28 of 30 in the fan ranking, with a 1–6 head-to-head record from 82 Men's football votes. See the full Men's football GOAT ranking

    Lev Yashin head to head

    How the ranking works. Every head-to-head vote is a result, like a game. The standings use a Bradley–Terry model, the same idea behind chess ratings: beating a highly rated legend counts for more than beating a long shot. Ratings are shown on a chess-style scale centred on 1500.

    One vote per matchup per person. If you see a pairing again in another session your new answer replaces the old one, so nobody can stuff the ballot by repeating a matchup.

    Anonymous by design. No account needed. A quick bot check from Cloudflare runs once when you arrive, and your votes are tied to a random ID kept in your browser, not to your name or email. Privacy policy.

    Photo credits

      Photos come from Wikimedia Commons under the licenses listed. Each links to its source page.