Gianluigi Donnarumma

The season in numbers

All competitions

43 games, 16 clean sheets

Ligue 1

24 games, ~82% save rate, Ligue 1's best

Champions League

15 games, clean sheet in the final

UCL final

Clean sheet vs Inter in a 5-0 win

Awards

2025 Yashin Trophy, FIFA The Best Goalkeeper, Ballon d'Or 9th

The contract that wouldn't get written

Gigio arrives at Milan at 15, debuts at 16, becomes Player of the Tournament at Euro 2020 at 22. In June 2021, he signs for Paris on a free. Milan refused his terms, he refused a last cut, and Italy watches one of its biggest talents walk for zero euros. Most valuable free transfer in history at the time.

Four seasons later, his profile splits the room. He stops everything within reach, but his distribution, under a coach like Luis Enrique who wants to build from the back, is a running point of friction. 2024-25 opens with a question the club won't ask publicly yet: will Paris extend? The answer keeps getting pushed, match after match.

Meanwhile, he plays. He plays everything. 24 Ligue 1 matches, 15 UCL matches, both domestic finals. Best save percentage in the division. The tactical debate gets postponed. Paris needs him in goal.

Three European nights

Anfield, March 11, 2025. Round of 16 second leg. In the 98th minute, Luis Díaz plants a header point-blank. Donnarumma claws it out one-handed. Opta later measures the save at a 19% chance of succeeding. The shootout follows. Núñez goes left, Donnarumma does too, the ball is dragged off-frame. Curtis Jones, to the right, same result. Salah scores. PSG's five all go in. Paris through.

Villa Park, April 15, 2025. Quarter-final second leg, PSG up 3-1 on aggregate. For 90 minutes, Aston Villa press, clawing the scoreline back to 3-2 on the night, and Donnarumma produces three stops that put Paris into the semis: point-blank on Rashford, 20 yards on Tielemans, a last-ditch rush off the line on Asensio. UEFA rate him 8 out of 10, Player of the Match.

Emirates then Parc, April 29 and May 7, 2025. Arsenal second leg. Inside four minutes, he palms a point-blank Martinelli volley. Later, an Ødegaard strike on the edge of the box. Then a 64th-minute Saka half-volley, fingertipped around the post. After the match, Mikel Arteta sums it up: 'When you look at the two games, who has been their best player on the pitch has been the goalkeeper.'

Key moments

Five moments from a season where Donnarumma became the world's best, then was shown the door by the very club that had just lifted the Champions League with him.

1. 2025-03-11

   Anfield, the two saves

   Penalty shootout against Liverpool. Donnarumma blocks Núñez and Jones. Paris go through. The keeper becomes the touchstone of the campaign.

2. 2025-04-15

   Villa Park, Player of the Match

   Quarter-final second leg at Villa Park. Decisive stops on Rashford, Tielemans, Asensio. UEFA rate him 8 out of 10. PSG advance 5-4 on aggregate.

3. 2025-05-07

   Arsenal second leg, Arteta admits

   2-1 against Arsenal at the Parc. Key saves from Martinelli, Ødegaard, Saka. Arteta post-match: 'Their best player across the two matches was the goalkeeper.'

4. 2025-05-31

   Munich, clean sheet in the final

   Final won 5-0 against Inter. Clean sheet. Donnarumma lifts the trophy with his teammates.

5. 2025-09-22

   Paris, Yashin Trophy

   Ballon d'Or ceremony at the Châtelet. Donnarumma is handed the Yashin Trophy. Best goalkeeper in the world 2025. 9th in the overall Ballon d'Or ranking.

The final, then the trophies

Munich, May 31. Final. The scoreboard reads 5-0 for Paris. Inter only manage two shots on target across the whole match. L'Équipe rate him 7 out of 10 and sum the night in four lines: 'He had no save to make in the first half. Nothing he could do on Thuram's off-target header at 38. Dives cleanly on the Frenchman two minutes later and produces a tidy ground save at 75. Assured in the air from corners. Clean on his distribution.' That last line, in August, will no longer be enough for Luis Enrique. For now, Donnarumma lifts the trophy in Munich with his teammates.

September 2025. Théâtre du Châtelet. Ballon d'Or. Donnarumma is handed the Yashin Trophy, awarded to the best goalkeeper in the world over the calendar year. In the overall Ballon d'Or ranking, he finishes 9th, a rare top-10 for a modern keeper. Ten days later, FIFA give him The Best Goalkeeper award. Three global honours in the same year.

At that point, he is still technically a PSG player.

The door in August

August 2025. Off-season. The extension never landed. Luis Enrique, in a press conference, takes public ownership of the break: 'I want a different profile for that position.' Paris sign Lucas Chevalier from Lille. On August 13, when the UEFA Super Cup squad list goes out ahead of the Tottenham match, Donnarumma is not in it. Message received.

A few days later, Manchester City close the deal. £26 million, five years, Donnarumma replaces Ederson. He is 26. He leaves Paris with a Champions League, a Yashin Trophy, and two faces to his record: the keeper who held Paris together across three European nights against Liverpool, Villa and Arsenal, and the player a tactical project decided to move on from. Both are true.