It isn’t overly usual for goalkeepers to earn huge fees, in spite of their importance to a team. In the case of Kepa Arrizabalaga, though, it was his promise that resulted in Chelsea willing to pay a huge sum of money for him in 2018. They may well not have had to pay quite so much had Liverpool not signed Alisson Becker for £67 million a week before. That made the Brazilian the world’s most expensive goalkeeper whilst also taking him off the market, meaning that Chelsea needed to trigger Kepa’s release clause of €80 million if they wanted to sign him. So it was that a relatively young goalkeeper became the most expensive in the world.
Who is Kepa Arrizabalaga
Kepa Arrizabalaga Revuelta was born in the Spanish town of Ondarroa on the third of October 1994. Known simply as ‘Kepa’, he joined the youth setup at Athletic Bilbao when he was just ten-years-old, remaining at the club until 2011 and making his way through the youth system there. As a Basque player it was always likely that he was going to be signed up by Bilbao as soon as he showed any footballing promise, whilst the fact that he grew to be six foot two inches meant that goalkeeper was a position that he was seemingly destined to play.
Making it Through the Youth System
Having signed for Athletic Bilbao aged ten in 2004, Kepa was sent to the farm team Basconia in the January of 2012, making his senior debut in the Tercera División. On the fifth of May he was called up to the Bilbao senior squad for a La Liga game against Getafe, but he remained an unused substitute in a 0-0 draw. He was included in the club’s pre-season plans and then promoted to the reserve team in the January of 2013, making his debut in the 16th of February 2013 when he kept a clean sheet in a 1-0 win against Logroñés in a Segunda División B game. Initially, he struggled to break through at there Basque club.
In the January of 2015 he was sent on a loan to Segunda División side Ponferradina until the end of the campaign, then in the July he signed a loan move to the second tier side Real Valladolid for the entire season, missing only three matches. When he returned from that loan he was moved up the first team as the third choice goalkeeper behind both Gorka Iraizoz and Iago Herrerín, eventually making his Spanish top-flight debut on the 11th of September 2016 in a 1-0 away win against Deportivo de La Coruña. Such was the reputation that he had gained that rumours of a move to Real Madrid circulated before he signed a new contract on the 18th of January 2018.
Moving to Chelsea
The contract that Kepa signed at the start of 2018 meant that he would be with the club until 2025, but it was mainly signed in order to protect his value. It included a release clause of €80 million, which Chelsea were required to trigger in order to sign the player from the Spanish side. They did so on the eighth of August 2018, with the Spaniard becoming the world’s most expensive goalkeeper as a result. He signed a seven-year contract with the London side, coming in to replace Thibaut Courtois after the Belgian goalkeeper had departed Stamford Bridge to sign for Real Madrid, the club that had been linked with Kepa.
His debut came three days after his arrival in London, keeping a clean sheet against Huddersfield Town that proved to be one of six clean sheets that they managed to keep in the opening stages of the league season. In fact, they went unbeaten across the first 12 games of the 2018-2019 season, eventually losing 3-1 to London rivals Tottenham Hotspur. On the 24th of January, the Blues faced the same team in the League Cup, which went to a penalty shoot-out that Chelsea won 4-2 thanks to a save by Kepa from Spurs’ Lucas Moura, helping to earn him the reputation of something of a penalty specialist.
Arguing with Sarri & Struggling to Hold his Place
The win over Tottenham saw Chelsea make it to the final of the League Cup, facing Manchester City in a game that finished 0-0 after extra-time. With just minutes of the match left, the Blues’ manager, Maurizio Sarri, attempted to substitute Kepa off for Willy Caballero for the penalty shoot-out, but Arrizabalaga refused to be substituted. Instead he gesticulated wildly from the field and didn’t leave, with Sarri eventually relenting. Although he saved a penalty, Chelsea still lost 4-3 and in the post-match discussion both player and manager said that it had been a misunderstanding and that all was fine between them.
In the club’s next match, Kepa was dropped from the Chelsea starting lineup, missing the Premier League game against Tottenham Hotspur, but returned in the March after. He went on to save two penalties against Eintracht Frankfurt in the semi-final of the Europa League, helping the Blues to win the competition after defeating Arsenal in the final. During the 2019-2020 season, with Frank Lampard as the manager, Kepa struggled to maintain any sort of form and was eventually dropped for Caballero, not regaining his place until the FA Cup match against Liverpool in the fifth round at the start of March 2020.
Winning Trophies & Losing Finals
Kepa Arrizabalaga was the chosen goalkeeper for the Stamford Bridge club at the start of the 2020-2021 season, but when he made an error in the game against Liverpool that Chelsea lost 2-0, Lampard publicly criticised him for it. On the 24th of September, the Blues made the decision to sign Édouard Mendy, resulting in Kepa becoming the club’s second-choice goalkeeper until the middle of October. He returned for a 3-3 draw with Southampton, receiving criticism from the press for his performance. When Thomas Tuchel was brought in as the replacement for Lampard, however, Kepa’s fortunes at Chelsea began to change.
Under the Tuchel management, Kepa kept five clean sheets in eight games, achieving a save percentage of 89.4%; significantly higher than under any previous manager. When the Blues made the Champions League final against Manchester City, he was named as an unused substitute as they won 1-0. He came on in the 119th minute of the Super Cup in 2021, saving two penalties as the Blues won the trophy. He also saved a decisive penalty in a League Cup game against Aston Villa, surpassing Petr Čech as the club’s most successful penalty saver, being reinstated to the first team in the January of 2022 as Mendy departed for AFCON.
He played well in the Club World Cup semi-final as the Blues went on to win the competition. They also made it to the final of the League Cup where they faced Liverpool, with the match ending 0-0 after 120 minutes and going to a penalty shoot-out. Kepa obviously fancied his chances of being a difference maker, but failed to save a single penalty as all of the outfield players scored. This meant that the goalkeepers had to take penalties, with Caoimhin Kelleher dispatching his well for the Merseyside club. That put the pressure on Kepa, whose penalty went high and wide to hand the victory to Liverpool, who won a domestic cup double that season when they also defeated Chelsea in the FA Cup.
Re-Emergence & Loans
In 2022, Chelsea made the decision to replace Tuchel with Graham Potter, who brought a new goalkeeping coach with him. Mendy suffered poor form as well as an injured, presenting Kepa with the chance to play more regularly. He made a series of good saved and kept five successive clean sheets, going ten hours without conceding before eventually seeing Manchester United score a last-minute header against him. After the turn of the year he won three successive man of the match awards, finishing the season with the Premier League’s third-best save percentage, in spite of a change of manager midway through.
Incredible reflexes from @kepa_46 🤯#PLAwards | @Castrol pic.twitter.com/tm9IGFJBnB
— Premier League (@premierleague) June 4, 2023
Not only did he keep clean sheets, earning his 50th for the club against Brentford in the October, but at the Premier League’s end of season awards his save against Aston Villa in the match prior to the Brentford game won the Save of the Season award. In spite of this, on the 14th of August it was confirmed that he was joining Real Madrid on a one-year loan in order to cover for the long-term injury of Thibaut Courtois. He failed to make an impact there, however, and lost his place to Andriy Lunin as Los Blancos won a La Liga and Champions League double. On the 29th of August 2024 he signed a season-long loan with AFC Bournemouth, having made 163 appearances for Chelsea.