Peter Schmeichel, or 'The Great Dane', is one of football's most successful ever goalkeepers and was twice voted 'The World's Best Goalkeeper' in 1992 and 1993. He played his best club football throughout the nineties at Manchester United, where he played from 1991-1999. The 6 ft 4 in tall keeper had a very intimidating physique and wore XXXL football shirts; these shirts had to be made specially.

Schmeichel's spell at Man Utd saw him win the English Premier League title some 5 times, the English FA Cup 3 times, the English League Cup, the FA Charity Shield 4 times, the UEFA Super Cup and - in his final season - the UEFA Champions League. Prior to his move to Manchester Utd he had been part of a Brondby team that won the Danish Superliga 4 times in 5 seasons, and in 1992 he was part of the Denmark team that caused a huge upset when they won the 1992 UEFA European Championship. He rounded off the decade by winning the Portuguese Superliga with Sporting CP.

Interestingly, Schmeichel even scored 11 goals in his career including one in a competitive international game for Denmark. Schmeichel also still holds a number of records within the game, despite retiring six years ago, these include most capped Denmark player with 129 caps and the record for the best clean sheets-to-games ratio. An astonishing 42% of games that he played in the English premier league ended without his team conceding a goal.

Schmeichels personal honours even manage to match his team honours, winning the UEFA Goalkeeper of the Year in 1992, 1993 and 1998, winning the IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper in 1992 and 1993, Danish footballer of the year in 1990, 1993 and 1999, and the Danish Goalkeeper of the Year in 1987, 1988, 1990 and 1992.

If this article was called 'The Most Charismatic Goalkeepers Of The Nineties' then this man would be at the top, in fact he is probably the most charismatic goalkeeper in history. You see Chilavert had that something extra special, not only did he have immense goalkeeping skills but he also had the unusual trait of being a great free kick and penalty specialist. Such was his ability from dead ball situations that he finished his playing career in 2004 having scored an incredible 69 goals, including 8 in competitive internationals for Paraguay. Some of these goals were also crucial. Chilavert smashed the record for the number of goals to be scored by a goalkeeper, and the likely hood of him being beaten in my lifetime must be at least 5000/1! He is also the first and only goalkeeper ever to score a hat-trick.

So why isn't Chilavert top of this list? He simply is not as medal laden as Schmeichel and played much of his career in the more obscure South American leagues instead of the prime European leagues. It cannot be doubted however that Chilavert is the only goalkeeper of the decade, or even history, that could become the teams talisman. Chilavert was an enigma, an extrovert, and his achievements within the game - although they do not rival Schmeichel - should not be understated. Chilavert was a three time winner of the IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper award, one more time than Schmeichel, but his two spells in the tough European leagues were both brief and for mediocre teams. He never played for a Juventus, a Milan, a Manchester United or a Real Madrid.

Chilavert's achievements were instead restricted to the South American Leagues, where he enjoyed his most successful spell of his career in Argentina playing for Velez Sarsfield between 1991 and 2000. It was during this spell that he won the Argentine League Player of the Year in 1996 and the South American Footballer of the Year award in the same year. He was part of a Velez team that won 5 domestic competitions, 3 continental competitions and 1 intercontinental cup.

Walter Zenga is one of those players that could probably be considered more of an 'eighties' player then a 'nineties', purely because he spent most of his high level careers playing in the former decade. The reason I have placed Zenga on this list is because of his honours packed first few years of the nineties, during which he achieved more than he had for the whole of the 1980's. Zenga reached the big time in 1982 when, after spells with three lower league Italian clubs, he signed for the giants Inter Milan. Within a couple of years he had been called up to the Italian Olympic soccer team for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, where the Italians just missed out on a medal by finishing fourth.

In 1985, within a year of the Olympics, his impressive performances had seen him called up to the Italian national team for his competitive debut; a career that lasted 7 years and saw him win 58 caps. It was towards the late eighties that Zenga began to reach his peak, becoming Italy's first choice 'keeper in time for the 1988 European Championships in Germany. The following year, 1989, saw Zenga's first domestic success when his stunning performances helped his team Internazionale to the Italian Seria A title; the club had also won the Italian Supercup in the same year. His success this year saw him win not only many plaudits, but also the 1988 IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper award.

Of course all of the above success appeared in the eighties, and it is the success in the nineties which counts, however Zenga would go on to cement his place in football folklore with another three or four superb seasons. In 1990 Italy hosted the World Cup and Zenga was an be an ever-present in a team that managed a third place finish, Zenga achieved the record breaking feat of five consecutive clean sheets and a total of 518 minutes without conceding a goal; it is a record that still stands and he won the UEFA Goalkeeper of the Year for the first time. He also won the IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper Award for the second consecutive year, an award he was to win yet again in 1991 after he had lifted the UEFA Cup with Inter. He remains the only goalkeeper to ever win the IFFHS award for three years in a row, although three other keepers have won the award three times or more.

Zenga was to win the UEFA Cup again in 1994 however, at 34 years of age, his form had begun to take a dive. Within a year he had played his last game for Italy. Zenga had spells at Sampdoria, Padova and then New England in the MLS before retiring in 1999 at the age of 39 before pursuing a varied but successful management career.

Dutchman keeper Edwin van der Sar made his professional debut for Ajax at the age of 20 in 1990, and it didn't take long for him to win major honours when in 1992 his first senior club won the UEFA Cup. This was followed up in 1995 with a UEFA Champions League medal, with van der Sar's form leading to him winning the Best European Goalkeeper award in the same year. The next year Ajax, enjoying one of the most successful spells in their history, reached the final again but Edwin had to put up with a runners up medal after losing a penalty shoot out with Italian giants - and his future club - Juventus.

It was during van der Sar's spell at Ajax that he broke into the Holland national team, first as an unused substitute in the 1994 World Cup, before making his debut in June 1995 against Belarus. van der Sar subsequently played in the team for the next three major international competitions, where the team were knocked on penalties on each occassion. Edwin made a total of 226 domestic league appearances for Ajax and scored 1 goal, he had been part of a team that won the Dutch Eredivisie some 4 times, as well winning 6 other domestic honours. His form for Ajax saw him win the Dutch Football Goalkeeper of the Year 4 times in succession between 1994 and 1997, the only player to do so, and also won the Dutch Golden shoe in 1998.

In 1999 he signed for Italian giants Juventus after deciding that he had achieved all that he could in Dutch football, however he was soon on the substitutes bench following the emergence of Gianluigi Buffon. This was no disgrace however as Buffon has gone on to win World Goalkeeper of the Year some 4 times and has a World Cup winners medal to his name. van der sar has since played football in the English premiership, where he is currently playing for league champions Manchester United at the age of 38.  In four years at Manchester United he has won the English Premiership four times, as well as the UEFA Champions League. Some would argue that van der Sar is still playing as well as ever but the forthcoming 2009/10 season is rumoured to be his last.

Many may be wondering why Kahn is so far down this list because he was, without a shadow of a doubt, as good as any other keeper featured. The reason is simply that Kahn played his best football, and has had more success in, the current decade. He would probably be in my top two best goalkeepers of the 'Noughties'.

Kahn's big break came in 1990 as a 21 year old when he was given the number 1 shirt at his first club Karlsruher SC, a learning curve that saw him eventually playing a key role in his clubs impressive UEFA Cup run of the 1993/94 season, which saw the German's knocked out in the semi-final. His impressive form in this competition saw him win his first international cap and a move to giants Bayern Munich prior to the 1994/95 season for a then world record fee for a goalkeeper. After a frustrating injury marred first season, Kahn established himself as a formidable player for Munich and Germany in the season that followed, picking up his first winners medal as a part of the 1996 UEFA Cup winning team and also winning the 1996 UEFA European Championship with Germany. He went on to play a part in two Bundesliga winning seasons for Munich in 1997 and 1999, as well as winning another 4 coveted domestic trophies.

By the end of the nineties Kahn had begun to be recognised as one of, if not the, best goalkeeper in the world. He won the IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper award in 1999 and the Best European Goalkeeper award in the same year. He had already been voted Best Bundesliga Keeper four times. It was to be amazing form that he would carry into the next decade, winning the World's Best Goalkeeper again twice and honours which included the UEFA Champions League trophy, but that can be covered more in depth when I inevitably do a hub entitled 'Best Goalkeepers of The Noughties'.