After another award, is ex Socceroo Langerak the best goalkeeper in Asia?

Former Socceroo Mitch Langerak has been named the J-League's MVP for the month of September.

Mitch Langerak was voted the J-League 1's most valuable player for the month of September. The Australian is currently in his fourth season in the Japan, all of which have been spent playing for Nagoya Grampus.

It was the goalkeepers' second time winning the award in the last twelve months. He also won the trophy for his performances last December.

Last year he broke the J-League record for most clean sheets by goalkeeper in a single J-League campaign, registering seventeen in the thirty-four game regular season. His exploits helped Nagoya finish third in the league, their highest placement in the J-League 1 in a decade.

He has since broken this record registering nineteen clean sheets this 2021 J-League season. Nagoya still have two games to contest before the season's conclusion. In April he also broke the J-League's record for the most consecutive games with clean sheet, getting nine in a row.

Nagoya have only conceded twenty-four goals this season, the second lowest goals against in the J-League 1. Langerak was between the posts for all of his club's regular season games that lead to this amount.

🧤 Breaking records and keeping all the sheets very clean âœ¨ Take a bow, @MitchLangerak25! pic.twitter.com/eJOdGlL4Jr
— J.LEAGUE Official EN (@J_League_En) October 8, 2021

While Nagoya is strong defensively, in part because of Langerak, they have struggled to find the back of the net in comparison to the teams ranked equal or just above them in points. Arguably Langerak's performances have helped Nagoya stay in their current fourth place position.

Speaking of winning the award the goalkeeper stated:

"As you said, this is a great title for me as a goalkeeper because usually players with many goals get this title. I am happy to be able to help the team."

The former Socceroo announced his retirement from international football earlier this year. He had first made his debut for Australia in 2013 and got eight caps total. He was also part of the 2014 World Cup squad and made the 2015 and 2019 Asian Cup teams.

Langerak stated family and the desire to avoid long spells away from them due to COVID-19 quarantines as his reasons for retiring from the Socceroos.