Steele: De Gea Can Get Even Better

David De Gea will soon be regarded alongside goalkeeping greats Edwin van der Sar and Peter Schmeichel, according to the man who influenced his transfer to Manchester United.

Eric Steele was Sir Alex Ferguson’s goalkeeping coach in the summer of 2011 and it was his thorough scouting that led to De Gea leaving Atletico Madrid for Old Trafford, when the Spaniard was tasked with the unenviable and unquestionably daunting job of replacing the retiring van der Sar.

After a sticky transition to life in English football, De Gea has truly excelled throughout his four-and-a-half seasons with United to become one of the best goalkeepers in the world – if not the best. At the age of 25, and having just made his 200th appearance for the club during Tuesday’s 3-3 draw at Newcastle United, Steele is confident that his former pupil can still progress to become an even better player.

"He’s got the potential to be a great like Peter Schmeichel and Edwin van der Sar," Steele told a recent edition of United Review. "The boy could be held in that regard because he’s only going to get better. He came to United at 19, so you’re looking now at a mature, physically developed goalkeeper. He’s got better, and he’s going to get even better. He’s 25 now. Schmeichel didn’t go to United until he was 28, so this boy – this man, now – has got so much more to come."

De Gea’s evolution is unmistakable but not unexpected for Steele, who watched the young Spaniard 17 times during his scouting process. Although replacing the 40-year-old van der Sar with a successor less than half his age for a bumper transfer fee was something of a punt, David’s recruitment never represented a gamble to the man who implored Ferguson to sanction the signing.

"Ultimately he was very well scouted and the decision was made by the main man, the manager," says Steele. "He said: 'Right, is this the way we’re going?' and we agreed. We bought young potential. Sir Alex was never afraid to bring young players into the club and blood them by putting them into the team. In terms of a goalkeeper, that’s what we did for the first time with David.

"There’s always a chance being taken while you’re scouting, but I saw David in the Europa League semi-final at Liverpool and that clinched it for me. He was phenomenal. He did things in the first 25 minutes of that game that made my mind up. I could have left after half-an-hour with the decision made. You think of the atmosphere, the state of the game… he didn’t look an 18-year-old lad.

"You look and go: 'Wow. There’s maturity, calmness beyond his years,' and that really was the start of me saying to myself that his was a special talent. And that’s been proven. He’s a very special talent in the goalkeeping world. We looked all around the world for a replacement for Edwin, but we always came back to David.”