Jordan Pickford Wins Coca-Cola Save of the Season
Jordan Pickford has been named the 2025/26 Coca-Cola Save of the Season winner for a moment that froze St James’ Park – and then ripped the heart out of Newcastle United.
Everton were clinging to a 3-2 lead deep into stoppage time, backs pressed against the Gallowgate End, when Sandro Tonali caught a dropping ball as sweetly as technique allows. His volley screamed towards the top corner. The home crowd were already halfway to celebration.
Pickford rewrote the script.
The England No 1 exploded to his right, flung up a strong hand and somehow diverted the ferocious strike onto the crossbar, the ball cannoning away to safety. It was not just a save; it was a match-winner in gloves, the defining act of a breathless away victory.
That single intervention has now been judged the best of the campaign, topping a shortlist of 10 outstanding stops from across the Premier League. Public votes, combined with the verdict of a panel of football experts, pushed Pickford’s effort clear of a stellar field.
A save that stunned the experts
The reactions to the save told their own story.
“It was worthy of a goal,” Everton manager David Moyes said afterwards. “Tonali couldn't have hit that any better or any sweeter if he tried again. It was technically brilliant, his volley, but I have to say that the save was out of this world.”
Alan Shearer, the Premier League’s all-time leading scorer with 260 goals and no stranger to spectacular strikes at St James’ Park, could only nod in admiration.
“It is a brilliant strike from Sandro Tonali, but an unbelievable save,” Shearer said. “The reaction to get that onto the bar was remarkable.”
From the pitch, the view was even more disbelieving. Centre-back Jarrad Branthwaite, watching from just in front of his goalkeeper, called it “the best save I have ever seen”.
When hardened professionals reach for superlatives, you know you are looking at something special.
Record-breaking season between the posts
The award caps a season in which Pickford dominated the goalkeeping honours.
That stop at St James’ Park had already earned him February’s Coca-Cola Save of the Month. It was one of two monthly awards he collected in 2025/26, making him the only goalkeeper this season to win Save of the Month more than once. Those two took his career tally to four – a Premier League record.
Nine of the 10 saves on the Save of the Season shortlist were previous Save of the Month winners. The only additional contender was Tottenham Hotspur’s Antonin Kinsky, whose fingertip denial against Leeds United in May also forced its way into the final reckoning.
From that elite group, Pickford’s intervention stood tallest. His winning save edged out standout efforts from James Trafford, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Martin Dubravka, David Raya, Alphonse Areola, Aaron Ramsdale, Karl Darlow and Kinsky.
This is not new territory for him, either. Pickford now joins the very short list of repeat winners, claiming the Coca-Cola Save of the Season for a second time after first lifting the inaugural award in 2021/22.
The stage was familiar. The pressure was enormous. The outcome, once again, belonged to Jordan Pickford – a goalkeeper who keeps finding new ways to stretch the limits of what seems possible in a Premier League goalmouth.
