ISL Golden Glove 2022-23 race: Vishal Kaith tops goalkeepers list
ATK Mohun Bagan's Vishal Kaith won the race for the ISL Golden Glove award this season with 12 clean sheets.
Football
The race for the Indian Super League (ISL) Golden Glove 2022-23 award saw the top goalkeepers in the competition go head-to-head for the coveted title. After a tense season, ATK Mohun Bagan's Vishal Kaith bagged the ISL Golden Glove 2022-23 award with 12 clean sheets in 24 matches - a whopping five more than any other custodian in the league.
The ISL Golden Glove award is presented to the league’s best goalkeeper every season. The goalie with the most clean sheets wins the Golden Glove.
Vishal Kaith's showings between the sticks helped ATK Mohun Bagan clinch their maiden ISL trophy. This is also the most number of clean sheets by any goalkeeper in a single season of the ISL, exlipsing Gurpreet Singh Sandhu's 11 from 2019-20.
ISL Golden Glove 2022-23 standings
Czech goalkeeper Jan Seda won the inaugural ISL Golden Glove award in 2014, as he kept six clean sheets for FC Goa in 14 appearances. Cameroonian Apoula Edel bagged the award in 2015, representing Chennaiyin FC and keeping six clean sheets in 13 matches.
Former Mumbai City FC goalkeeper Amrinder Singh became the first Indian to win the Golden Glove award in 2016 with five clean sheets in six matches. Interestingly, he played 540 minutes in that edition - the bare minimum to be in contention for the award.
Since then, Indian goalies have won every edition of the Golden Glove award. Much of it can be attributed towards ISL teams preferring Indian goalkeepers and keeping their overseas quota for outfield positions.
Former India international Subrata Paul, representing Jamshedpur FC, walked away with the Golden Glove in the 2017-18 edition while Bengaluru FC ace Gurpreet Singh Sandhu clinched the award in 2018-19 and 2019-20, making him the only goalkeeper to have won the ISL Golden Glove twice.
Kerala Blasters FC’s Prabhsukhan Gill kept seven clean sheets in 20 outings in the 2021-22 edition to win the award, which made him the youngest goalkeeper to win the ISL Golden Glove. He was 20 years old at that time.