One of Spain's top goalkeepers? Real Madrid stopper Kiko Casilla profiled as Leeds United complete deal

Real’s power has shown signs of fading badly in the past six months but they expect the highest standards of performance in Madrid and a reserve goalkeeper is one of the few players who can get by without making waves.

Casilla committed his first four years as a professional to Real without playing once, a spectator behind the immovable Iker Casillas, and he returned there in 2015 after a successful hiatus at Espanyol. Real paid £5m to bring him back but made it clear that they were signing him as second-choice. He played 30 times in three-and-a-half years as a second spell in Madrid took him past his 30th birthday.

Now 32, Casilla has 136 La Liga appearances to his record - a relatively small number for keeper of his age - but despite his role as perennial understudy, there are few Spanish goalkeepers who observers in his homeland rate above him. David De Gea is one and Kepa Arrizabalaga another but Leeds United, at face value, are about to land a signing whose reputation is out of their league. “Kepa, De Gea are ahead of him,” journalist Guillem Balague told the YEP, “but I would say that he is one of the top five Spanish goalkeepers.”

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Madrid’s academy developed Casilla, a stocky, imposing figure at 6’3”, after sourcing him from Nastic as a teenager but despite him featuring in three successive Champions League wins as substitute cover for Keylor Navas - the most recent under Zinedine Zidane last season - his best and most productive years played out at Espanyol.

The Catalonian club took Casilla on a free transfer in 2007, at a time when he had just turned 20. They loaned him out twice to the lower leagues but he was blooded properly in 2011-12, Mauricio Pochettino’s last full season as head coach. By 2013 Casilla had established himself in a side who were mid-table in La Liga and the following year he was capped by Spain for the first and only time to date.

Balague said Casilla was part of the “first generation” of Spanish keepers who, with the instruction and guidance of coaches like Pep Guardiola, embraced the notion of expanding their game and playing with their feet. It was what Marcelo Bielsa asked of his keepers at Leeds after becoming head coach in June and it is what he will ask of Casilla once his transfer to Elland Road goes through. Bielsa was specific about the type of signing he wanted this month and Newcastle United’s Karl Darlow and Fulham’s Fabri - another Spaniard - were both considered as alternatives.

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Balague said: “I’m an Espanyol fan and when he came to Espanyol we didn’t know much about him. What he proved to be early on was a very good, instinctive shot stopper. He was quick with his reactions, he saved a lot of points and he became one of the stars of Espanyol. Eventually Real Madrid needed him as a number two and so he went, going back home to Real Madrid.

“By that point he was in the generation, perhaps the first generation of Spanish goalkeepers, who were complete players, complete goalkeepers. In my mind he was one of the early ones who seemed comfortable playing with the ball, especially with his right foot, anticipating actions. He wasn’t a reactive goalkeeper but a proactive one.”

For Bielsa, the ability of his keeper to direct play from the back and distribute the ball accurately over different ranges is as crucial as the basics of goalkeeping itself. Leeds concede the fewest shots on goal per game in the Championship - 9.6 over 27 games so far - and Bailey Peacock-Farrell’s average of two saves in every match is one of the lowest amongst goalkeepers who are playing regularly in the league.

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Leeds reached the basis of a deal for Casilla last week, prior to their win over Derby County on Friday, and Casilla flew to England on Tuesday after sitting out a training session with Real Madrid earlier in the day. Leeds scheduled his medical for Wednesday afternoon and expect to confirm his arrival today, signing Casilla to a permanent contract. At 32, it marks his first switch away from his native Spain.

“He was strong enough on aerial balls but I feel that with every goalkeeper who comes to England, that’s the thing they’ve got to get used to,” Balague said. “Where it’s a foul anywhere else in the world, referees don’t give a foul (in England) and goalkeepers are less protected, even in the six-yard box.

“He’ll have to get used to that but like everybody who goes into a new job, he’ll need that time for adaptation and due to the circumstances at Leeds, I think you’ll see him in the line-up pretty soon.

“Tactically he’s intelligent. He knows what the team requires and he adapts to that very well. He made it to the national side but he decided to go for the comfort zone, if you like, of going to Real Madrid. If he hadn’t, he could have been a regular in one of the top five teams in Spain.”