Romain Matthys: the details that make champions
Eight clean sheets in thirteen games and a rating of 94: the Castellón that has its eyes on LaLiga is being built in Romain Matthys' gloves.
Romain Matthys' latest performance deserves a closer look, because if nobody talks about it, it will never get the credit it is due. Just three saves in a dull Saturday lunchtime game, the kind that sends you to sleep if you have not had your siesta first. And those are precisely the matches that turn leaders into champions. Matthys was once again indispensable and decisive on an afternoon when almost nothing happened, the sort of contest only the best goalkeepers settle, the ones who appear when they are needed most.
On a lacklustre afternoon at Zorrilla, the goal comes from a rebound: Adam Jakobsen wins a penalty in the 66th minute, Álvaro Aceves saves it and the striker himself turns in the loose ball. The Belgian does the rest. Late on, Lachuer shoots from outside the box and Matthys gets a hand down and gathers at the second attempt, a crucial stop. Then, with the 90 already up, comes the intervention that decides the afternoon: Ramón Martínez meets a Miguel Rubio cross with everything in his favour and the keeper launches himself to brush the ball with his fingertips and tip it behind for a corner. Without that dive, Pablo Hernández's side would have let the win slip away at the last gasp; with it, the 0-1 makes them the new leaders of LaLiga Hypermotion: 30 points, one more than Almería, with a game in hand.
A low hand and a diving save in the 90th minute: that is how you win a Saturday at Zorrilla
And this is no one-off. This season Castellón have conceded five goals in thirteen matchdays and kept eight clean sheets, with Matthys between the posts for every minute. His Big Data Rating is 94, the highest among the 26 goalkeepers we analyse in LaLiga Hypermotion and the second-best of the 856 across our 37 leagues. He stops 87% of the efforts that force him into action (33 of 38 up to matchday 12) and keeps out more than opponents should score given the quality of their chances. On our player card, his five measures speak for themselves: 97th percentile for saves, 95 for goals prevented, 98 for clean sheets, 92 for distribution and 71 for penalties.
Nor is he just a reflex specialist. Castellón defend with the ball and their moves start in his gloves: 45 passes per game with 78.5% accuracy, numbers that belong to a sweeper rather than a shot-stopper. For a side that wants to rule through possession, he is the first passer.
A clean sheet is probably the most reliable sign of who finishes top. In 25 of the 33 leagues we analyse with complete data for 2025/26, the team that ended up first was among the three with the highest number of shut-outs, and in 15 it led that list. The exception is close to home: Racing, winners of the Segunda regular season last term, were one of the sides that kept their goal intact least often (8 of 42). Castellón want to be the rule.
Eight clean sheets in thirteen games: the matches nobody remembers are the ones that win promotions
Such form does not go unnoticed by the big clubs, and the winter window is just around the corner. Let us hope there are no surprises and Matthys stays all season. Pablo Hernández's team look like going up: you can see it in the unity they show on the pitch and in the hunger of a group of players who genuinely want it. Promotion to LaLiga with him as one of its main protagonists would be worth more than any move to a bigger club.
Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo in October 1882: "Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together." This Castellón is building its glory piece by piece, and Romain Matthys is the architect of the part nobody sees: a low hand, a diving save, one more afternoon without conceding.
Data: API-Football, 2026/27 season up to 01/11/2026 (12 LaLiga Hypermotion matchdays; Castellón-Eibar from matchday 13 has been postponed to 9 December) and the 2025/26 season. Valladolid-Castellón (14/11/2026) is not yet in the data: the result, goals conceded, clean sheets and match incidents come from LaLiga's minute-by-minute report and standings; the rating, percentiles, saves and passes do not include it. Big Data Rating and percentiles: Al Primer Toque, against the goalkeepers in the 37 leagues we analyse. Quote: Vincent van Gogh, letter to his brother Theo (22/10/1882).
