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Only Argentina separates Hugo Lloris from becoming statistically the most successful goalkeeper in World Cup history.
The France goalkeeper could equal Brazil's Gilmar dos Santos (1958 and 1962) as the only goalkeeper to have won two World Cups by starting the final.
Goalkeepers who won the World Cup as starters
- Enrique Ballesteros (Uruguay/1930)
- Gianpiero Combi (Italy/1934)
- Aldo Olivieri (Italy/1938)
- Roque G. Maspoli (Uruguay/1950)
- Toni Turek (Germany/1954)
- Gilmar dos Santos (Brazil/1958)
- Gilmar dos Santos (Brazil/1962)
- Gordon Banks (England/1966)
- Félix Miélli Venerando (Brazil/1970)
- Sepp Maier (Germany/1974)
- 'Pato' Fillol (Argentina/1978)
- Dino Zoff (Italy/1982)
- Nery Pumpido (Argentina/1986)
- Bodo Illgner (Germany/1990)
- Claudio Taffarel (Brazil/1994)
- Fabien Barthez (France/1998)
- Marcos (Brazil/2002)
- Gianluigi Buffon (Italy/2006)
- Iker Casillas (Spain/2010)
- Manuel Neuer (Germany/2014)
- Hugo Lloris (France/2018)
The Tottenham keeper, should he beat the Albiceleste in the final, will become the first goalkeeper to have won the World Cup twice as captain.
It is worth remembering that only four goalkeepers have captained their team in World Cup finals: Gianpiero Combi (Italy/1934), Dino Zoff (Italy/1982), Iker Casillas (2010) and Hugo Lloris himself (2018). "It's a golden opportunity to go down in history," he acknowledged after eliminating Morocco.
There is a record that Lloris, unless he does not play due to exceptional circumstances, will break whatever happens against Argentina. France's keeper will overtake Manuel Neuer (19) to become, with 20, the most-capped goalkeeper in World Cup history.
The 35-year-old former Nice and Lyon man is coming off the back of another record at Qatar 2022. In the 2-1 quarter-final victory over England, he overtook Lilian Thuram (142) as France's most-capped player.
He has 144 caps, 117 goals conceded and 63 clean sheets since making his debut against Uruguay (0-0) on November 19, 2008, aged 21 years and 10 months, under Raymond Domenech.
"I'm proud, but it's still secondary. The World Cup comes first. I'm sure that when the tournament is over I'll appreciate these records even more," said Lloris.
He's going to fall just short of another record... unless he makes it to 2026. Lloris, who is coming off the back of a 2-0 clean sheet against Morocco, has eight clean sheets at World Cups. The record holder in this category is held by Peter Shilton and Fabian Barthez, with 10.
Before that, however, the final awaits: "We were exhausted against Morocco, but it will be a great final because Argentina are a great team. They have a player in their ranks who is football history, like Messi, but we have the arguments to fight them."