Where David de Gea ranks among Manchester United goalkeeping legends

After 545 appearances and 12 years, David de Gea is no longer a Manchester United player. He ends the spell with the seventh-most United appearances of all-time, having been one of the only stalwarts of an ever-changing team throughout the last decade.

As this chapter in their respective stories comes to an end, how will De Gea be remembered when he’s compared to other United and Premier League goalkeepers?

We've crunched the numbers to find out.

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One of De Gea’s biggest assets to United has been his longevity, as 415 of his appearances came in the Premier League, and his total appearances outnumber any United goalkeeper. When you consider that he’s still only 32 years old, and has played in the top flight for Athletico Madrid prior to his time in Manchester, it reflects well on him, and only six Premier League goalkeepers have more.

His impressive total sees De Gea doubling Edwin van der Sar’s 266 and comfortably ahead of Peter Schmeichel’s 398 respectively. To find anyone who comes close, you have to go back to the 1960s and 70s, when Alex Stepney was stopping shots for United when they won the European Cup as the first English club to do so and his appearance number is only six fewer than De Gea’s.

The number he has been able to reach says a lot about his time at United, even while suffering difficult spells, he hasn’t been replaced for long periods of time.

His first challenge to the number 1 jersey came in the 2020/21 season, when a combination of injuries and squad rotation saw him share the role with Dean Henderson