Asare joins Richard Kingson as only Ghana goalkeepers with two World Cup clean sheets

Benjamin Asare has written his name into Ghana’s World Cup history after becoming only the second Black Stars goalkeeper to keep two clean sheets at the tournament, joining Richard Kingson in an exclusive club.

The Hearts of Oak goalkeeper was once again solid as Ghana held England to a goalless draw in their second Group L game at the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Tuesday, June 23, 2026, days after also keeping a clean sheet in the 1-0 win over Panama.

In doing so, Asare not only matched a rare feat in Ghana colours, but also ended one of the Black Stars’ longest unwanted defensive runs on the biggest stage.

Before Asare’s emergence, Richard Kingson was the only Ghana goalkeeper to have managed two World Cup clean sheets.

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Kingson first shut out the Czech Republic in Ghana’s second group game at the 2006 World Cup, then repeated the feat four years later in the Black Stars’ opening 1-0 win over Serbia in South Africa.

But after that victory over Serbia in 2010, Ghana went 11 straight World Cup matches without a clean sheet.

The run began in the same tournament, with goals conceded against Australia, Germany, the United States and Uruguay.

It continued in Brazil in 2014, where Ghana let in goals in all three group games, and again at Qatar 2022, when the Black Stars conceded in each of their matches against Portugal, South Korea and Uruguay.

Asare has now brought that sequence to an end in emphatic fashion.

His story at this tournament makes the achievement even more remarkable. The 33-year-old did not begin Ghana’s World Cup campaign as first-choice goalkeeper, with Lawrence Ati-Zigi starting the opener against Panama.

But after Ati-Zigi was forced off at half-time, Asare stepped in, helped preserve the clean sheet in the 1-0 win, and has not looked back since.

Against England, he produced another assured display behind a disciplined Ghana defence to secure a second consecutive shutout and a valuable point for the Black Stars.

In the process, Asare has gone beyond simply filling in. He has put himself alongside Kingson in Ghana’s World Cup record books and given the Black Stars something they had been missing for over a decade: defensive security on football’s biggest stage.

FKA/JE

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