Ter Stegen now in top three for appearances by a Barça goalkeeper
The trip to the Estadio do Dragão has special significance for Marc-André ter Stegen. On facing Porto for the first time in his career, the German became the goalkeeper with the third most competitive appearances ever for FC Barcelona.
His start in the second Champions League group stage game was the stopper's 387th game as a blaugrana, putting him into the top three alongside Antoni Ramallets, who featured between the sticks from 1947 to 1961.
Ramallets equalled, Zubi and Valdés in his sights
Contracted up to 2028, Ter Stegen now has the challenge to continue making blaugrana history and end up becoming the goalkeeper with the most appearances ever for the Club. If everything goes to plan, he should surpass the 410 games by Andoni Zubizarreta this season, the former keeper who actually brought him to Barça during his stint as sporting director. However, he will still have quite a number of games to go to reach the 535 appearances by Víctor Valdés.
Whatever happens, his third position is further testament to his effect at the Club since his arrival in 2014. What's more, with Ter Stegen now in third place, and most likely outright third place when he will probably play against Granada this weekend, an interesting stat has been created.
A top three of European champions
The stat is that the three goalkeepers with most appearances are also the three goalkeepers who became European champions as blaugranas. Ter Stegen himself won in Berlin in 2014/15, while Zubizarreta won the first at Wembley in 1992, before Víctor Valdés won three, 2006 in Paris, 2009 in Rome and 2011 at Wembley.
With a number of years left as the custodian of the blaugrana goal, Ter Stegen is likely to want to add another accolade to his collection of a Champions League, five Liga titles, five Copa del Reys, three Spanish Super Cups, one European Super Cup, and a World Club Championship.