In a highly prestigious honour for the player and his club, Bayern star Manuel Neuer has been named the World's Best Goalkeeper of 2013. Eleven years after FCB great Oliver Kahn last won the global award, Neuer comfortably topped the annual poll conducted by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) from Gianluigi Buffon of Juventus and Chelsea’s Petr Cech. Neuer succeeds Spanish icon Iker Casillas, winner of the vote for the last five years.
Neuer was a regular in the treble-winning Bayern team last season and has subsequently gone on to lift the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup. In the 27th running of the IFFHS poll among editorial staff and experts from 70 countries and chosen from all the football continents, the Munich keeper received 211 points, significantly ahead of Buffon on 78 points and Cech on 64. Neuer is the first German to top the vote since Kahn, a three-time winner in 1999, 2001 and 2002.
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