"Why do goalkeepers traditionally wear No1 on their back? Not because they are the most important member of a team but because," says Eduardo Galeano, author of the acclaimed history of the beautiful game, Football in Sun and Shadow, "they're the first to pay. It's the keeper's fault, even if isn't."

	German goalkeeping legend Sepp Maier

Three in the spotlight
That's the opening paragraph of an article in the latest edition of Champions, the official UEFA Champions League magazine, which looks at the singular trade of goalkeeping and asks three practitioners - Nelson Dida (AC Milan), Timo Hildebrand (VfB Stuttgart) and Iker Casillas (Real Madrid CF) - how they view their role as the last line of defence.

Singular job
"The goalkeeper's role as martyr, punchbag and penitent may explain why the profession is, as the Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov said, 'surrounded with a halo of singular glamour'. Aloof, solitary, impassive, he is the lone eagle, the man of mystery, the last defender," the introduction continues.

Test of character
As well as speaking to Dida, Hildebrand and Casillas, Champions also talks to Bob Wilson, the former Arsenal FC and Scotland goalkeeper, who says that being a goalkeeper is the ultimate test of character. They have to be larger than life like movie stars. "You have this chasm - 192 square feet - of a goal to protect and you have to be a performer," said Wilson.

How they cope
Some goalkeepers are extroverts, some are introverted perfectionists. Champions tells us about Scottish custodian Harry Rennie, a trained engineer who spent hours making drawings of positions on the pitch from which a ball could be shot at goal. The brilliant Russian Lev Yashin coped as follows: "Have a smoke to calm your nerves and a drink to relax your muscles." Other keepers are superstitious. "I didn't like to change my gloves or shirt but I realised it was an illusion, performance matters," said German goalkeeping legend Sepp Maier.

Harder than before
Wilson stressed that goalkeeping is harder today than ever before: "The balls swerve more now, so often you have a fraction of a second to choose whether you catch, punch or parry away from goal. If the ball is coming too fast, you'll see keepers making saves with whatever part of their body they can get to the ball.

Old laws redundant
"They are using their wristbones more often because the ball bounces off hard bone, rather than soft tissue, it should bounce further. The new laws make the old laws about goalkeeping - the idea that you must always catch a ball a certain way - redundant."

Back-pass dilemma
"The back-pass rule has put more pressure on the keeper," Wilson continued. "The defender's not worrying about the goalie's natural foot when he makes a desperate back pass. And the keeper can only keep the ball for six seconds before he kicks it upfield or throws to start a move. Being nifty on your feet is going to become a lot more important in future."

An obsession
Sometimes, as a child, you may have been put in goal because you couldn't play anywhere else, but it often becomes an obsession - and former German goalkeeper Uli Stein remains fascinated. "The dream of flying fascinates me," he said. "The joy of moving through space. The exhilarating loss of orientation for fractions of a second. For a kid who likes to wallow in mud, what can be greater then keeping goal?"

Issue 3 of Champions appears in English, French and German, and is available at newspaper kiosks as well as at Europe's major stadiums.