After winning the Europa League with Atletico Madrid, Slovenian national team goalkeeper Jan Oblak also added the European Super Cup to his personal trophies cabinet, after beating local rivals Real Madrid 4-2 in overtime in Tallinn.
With such achievements and a large lobby for him to be nominated as the best European goalkeeper in this 20-21 season, we cannot ignore the fact that Jan Oblak could be labeled as one of the best Slovenian players ever.
With the European titles that Oblak won, he joined the former coach of Slovenia, Srecko Katanec, and Rene Krhin as the only Slovenes to ever win European titles. Amongst them, only Krhin has managed to win a UEFA Champions League with Inter Milan. However, he has barely played, so he’s not often mentioned as a football hero in Slovenia.
There’s also Brane Oblak, who is still remembered as one of the most talented Slovene players of all time, despite not winning European titles.
The keeper Oblak is the most expensive Slovenian football player ever, with his market value estimated to be around 100 million euros.
Throughout this piece of content, we’ll try to answer this controversial question, and provide you with our final verdict. Besides that, we’ll also go over some important aspects such as:
- Oblak’s titles with Atleti
- His Importance to the Spaniard Club
- The Role He’s Been Playing in the Current Season
- Is He The Best Slovene Ever?
Before we start, we’d like to reinforce the importance of our expert, Tomaš Selinec, on the makings of this article. Her hard work earned her our recognition, and if you want to know more about her work, you can check her out here.
Atleti’s Messi?
With incredible numbers, Slovenian goalkeeper has become Atlético’s most important player in the past ten years, especially after Griezmann‘s departure
Jan Oblak could be labeled as Atletico Madrid’s Messi. At least that’s what Diego Simeone said at a news conference, after winning and qualifying against Liverpool in a packed Anfield, which was the last UCL match before the so-called “new normal”.
The goalkeeper had a phenomenal performance in his 50th match in the Champions League, with nine difficult saves made, being largely responsible for the Spanish triumph against Liverpool.
But this is not surprising. This was just one more of the Slovenian’s great performances in the European club competition.
His first major achievement in the Champions League was against Bayern Leverkusen, in the 2014/15 season, when he had recently arrived at the club, and he was decisive in the penalty shootout, taking three penalties.
The following season he’s had a heroic performance once again, also against a German side, but this time it was Bayern Munich. The goalie made nine saves in the match, and also saved a penalty from Muller, and was decisive in ensuring a draw and qualification.
In the 2016-17 seasons, again against Leverkusen, the Slovenian made a sequence of three spectacular saves to once again hold the pressure of the opposing team.
His four Zamora trophies – an award given at the end of the season by the newspaper Marca to the goalkeeper with the cleanest sheets in La Liga – were instrumental for Atletico to qualify for the Champions League in each of these four years and win the Europa League in 2018.
With the departure of Griezmann, Oblak became even more decisive and important for Diego Simeone’s team.
Will Oblak win the Spanish League with Atleti this Season?
Oblak’s team is currently leading the Spanish La Liga, three points clear of Real Madrid, and with nine games to go.
While some are still feeling unconfident on Simeone’s men, there’s a very good chance they will make it this season. Oblak is obviously playing a gigantic role this season once again between the Colchonero sticks and has saved two penalties in the last two games, which is something huge.
Some bookies are offering odds of 13/10 for the win of Atleti and comparing these odds to other Spaniard clubs, bookies are considering them as their favorites to lift the big trophy at the end of the season.
In order to check out the best odds among the best bookmakers, you can head out to Mightytips, which is the most reliable source of betting tips for European football these days.
Conclusion – Is Oblak the Best Slovenian Ever?
Brane Oblak was also too big, but I think that even if Jan Oblak doesn’t win a UEFA Champions League in his career time, he is already the biggest Slovenian footballer of all time.
He attracts spotlights to Slovenia, makes some foreigners learn the language so that they can travel around and communicate within his homeland, and is a great shot-stopper, so I’d rate Jan Oblak as the greatest Slovenian footballer of all time.
Slovenski vratarji imajo že od nekdaj dobro zgodovino, vrhunski pa so tudi posamezniki igralci. Redno zastopajo največje klube v najboljših ligah in odločajo tekme na največjih tekmovanjih. Jan Oblak je trenutno najdražji igralec v 1. španski ligi in igra za Atletico Madrid. Stave na nogomet veljajo za najbolj popularne in zanesljive. Stavite pa lahko tudi na ostale športe. Poglejte stavno ponudbo in stavite še danes. Stavite na svoje favorite na sportne stave odbojko.
However, that’s just an opinion, and these can be subjective. Do you agree with us, though? Let us know in the comment section!
