Top 25 Manchester United players of the Premier League era - #13

Sports Mole's countdown of the top 25 Manchester United players in Premier League history continues with number 13 - Edwin van der Sar.

Edwin van der Sar

Goalkeeper Edwin Van Der Sar of Manchester United gestures during the UEFA Champions League quarter final first leg match between Chelsea and Manchester United at Stamford Bridge on April 6, 2011© Getty Images

Manchester United's search for a replacement for Peter Schmeichel took them through the likes of Mark Bosnich, Massimo Taibi, Fabien Barthez, Roy Carroll, Tim Howard and more, but it wasn't until Edwin van der Sar joined the club in 2005 that they finally found the dominant presence between the sticks that they had been after.

Aged nearly 35 upon his arrival at Old Trafford, his signing from Fulham was seen as a short-term solution by many, but he went on to play for six more years at United before eventually hanging up his gloves aged almost 41.

Van der Sar holds the record for the oldest player to have ever won the Premier League - doing so in his final season at the club aged 40 years and 205 days - and his last ever game came in the 2011 Champions League final which United lost to Barcelona.

The Dutch shot-stopper had already landed Europe's biggest club prize with a man-of-the-match display in the 2008 final against Chelsea, though, 13 years after winning the same trophy with Ajax in 1995.

Perhaps his most notable achievement at Old Trafford was setting the world league clean sheet record during the 2008-09 campaign, though, going 1,311 minutes without letting in a goal in a season which ended with a Premier League and League Cup double, in addition to another Champions League final.

Van der Sar was named the best European goalkeeper that year, 14 years after scooping the same award with Ajax, and he went on to play for two more years before ending his career with 266 United appearances to his name.

The former Netherlands international won four Premier League titles, two League Cups and the Champions League during his time at Old Trafford, helping him to become the second-most decorated goalkeeper in football history.

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