Europe's elite eyeing the man keeping Costa Rica's World Cup dream alive

If you’re not a regular follower of La Liga, chances are you won’t have heard of Keylor Navas until his recent World Cup heroics for Costa Rica.

Only two goals conceded give some indication to his excellence between the sticks, but it will come as no surprise to Spanish football connoiseurs.

Levante are the current beneficiaries of his services, but with a ridiculously low buyout clause of €10 million, and a paltry weekly wage of just €5,000, the likelihood is that he will be very much in demand post World Cup.

Atletico Madrid in particular will be the in the market for a top-class replacement for Chelsea-bound Thibaut Courtois, and indeed it is understood that they have already had a bid rejected for Navas.

They won’t be the only takers. Real Madrid, Liverpool, Arsenal and FC Porto are among the club said to be monitoring his situation.

What marks him out amongst his peers is his supreme agility and boundless energy. Don’t forget this is a guy that loves having tennis balls fired at him in training. Saving larger footballs is a breeze after that right?!

Navas found himself in many experts La Liga teams of the season for 2013/14 after a quite astonishing campaign.

16 clean sheets and more match-winning performances than you would care to mention – including denying Atletico a win in their final title run-in – made him an easy pick for many.

His saves to shots ratio of 80.4 percent according to Opta is right out of the top echelon of his profession, and 160 saves throughout the season isn’t too shabby either.

Often a keeper will be let down by their distribution but here too Navas excels, 750 passes with an 84 percent accuracy for long balls.

At 27, Navas is coming into his prime as a player, and as a goalkeeper, you’d be right to suggest that he has a good number of years left in him at the top level.

Anyone signing him for €10 million is getting a bargain and a player who is  most definitely “fit for purpose.”

He started his career with Saprissa who it’s fair to say were one of the finest teams to come out of Costa Rica. His performances there helped the team to win the CONCACAF Champions League in 2005 and a number of other titles at national level. The former allowed his side to appear at the FIFA Club World Cup, from where his star shone ever brighter.

Best Goalkeeper at the Gold Cup, it wasn’t long before European scouts came calling. The young Navas decided that Spain would see the best years of his professional career and he settled on a move to Albacete in 2010.

Despite being in Spanish football’s lower tiers, word spread quickly and it wasn’t long before Navas was interesting clubs higher up the La Liga food chain.

In 2011, Levante signed him on loan initially and then made the move permanent. To his immense credit, Navas bided his time as understudy to Gustavo Munua until the latter left after a couple of seasons to sign for Fiorentina.

Given just how well he has done as a number one, Joaquin Caparros must be kicking himself that he didn’t allow Navas a path into first team action sooner.  He has been nothing short of a revelation, and has continued tnhat fine form onto the biggest stage of them all.

Can he do it again and help knock one of the favourites for the 2014 World Cup, Holland, out of the tournament?

Don’t bet against it, because Navas has upset the odds countless times before.

*Jason Pettigrove is a freelance FC Barcelona, Real Madrid and La Liga correspondent for @YahooSportsME as well as a number of other print/digital media. Follow him @jasonpettigrove