Upwardly-mobile Mainz in safe hands with reliable Robin Zentner between the posts
There are many celebrating the 05ers rise to the dizzying heights of the UEFA Champions League places from the depths of relegation anxiety, but there are few more enjoying the team’s remarkable run than Mr. Mainz, Robin Zentner.
The 30-year-old goalkeeper – born in the nearby Eltville am Rhein – has been playing an integral role in the Carnival club’s current success. If Jonathan Burkardt’s goals (14 in the Bundesliga to date) have been firing Mainz to crucial victories and fourth place in the standings, then Zentner’s love for a clean sheet appears almost equally as important.
Only Bayern Munich's Manuel Neuer and Péter Gulácsi of RB Leipzig have bettered Zentner’s tally of nine clean sheets in 2024/25, three of which have come in the Nullfünfer's last five games. It’s a tally that represents a club record at Mainz, and tells a tale of a team who are operating in tandem.
“Everyone is working hard and we’re a team that works well together and has fun together,” Zentner explained, in quotes appearing on Mainz’s official website. “The quality in our team, in addition to how we approach our daily work, are what define us. We expect a lot from ourselves and want to achieve something,” he added.
Watch: Zentner's top 5 saves this season
Should that achievement be qualification for the UEFA Champions League, it would be a monumental feat for a side that only secured their Bundesliga status on the last day of 2023/24. Yet such has been the impact of coach Bo Henriksen’s workings at the Mainz helm, Zentner is now eyeing his highest finish at the club in what is his eighth season between the posts with the team.
With the best keeper efficiency (+8.2) of all Bundesliga custodians this season, Zentner also went into Matchday 24 as the division leader among goalkeepers with more than 10 appearances in terms of his percentage of shots saved (76 percent). What’s more, the 05ers boast the second-best defensive record in the Bundesliga this term, with only Bayern conceding fewer goals than Mainz’s 26. And of those 26, just 16 have been conceded from open play.
Watch: Mainz - Carnival & A Champions League Dream
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“Everyone has to continuously prove themselves and improve,” Zentner explained of life under Henriksen. “However, you have to approach each game individually. It’s not easy to win games in the Bundesliga, as we’ve seen recently,” the keeper continued. “But, if we perform to the best of our abilities, then we have a good chance of putting together a winning streak. That has to be our goal, because we have the quality needed to do so.”
Having recently surpassed 200 appearances for his boyhood club – Zentner joined the Mainz youth academy at 12 – the 6’4” shot-stopper was rewarded with a contract extension that ties him to the MEWA Arena until 2028.
His first senior appearance for the 05ers coming back in 2017, the goalkeeper subsequently had a two-year loan spell at Holstein Kiel – then in the German third tier – before becoming the main man in the Mainz goal from 2019/20. He is now his team's record appearance holder for a goalkeeper in the Bundesliga and fourth on the list in terms of all-time club appearances.
A serious knee injury and a once infamous air-kick aside, Zentner has been a secure presence for his team and his value to the cause has risen steadily with the coming of each new campaign. “In order to achieve this, you need to spend a few years starting games regularly for a club,” Zentner said.
Such consistency recently saw Hoffenheim goalkeeper Oliver Baumann earn his first senior caps for Germany at 34. Some four years Baumann’s junior, a Zentner call-up might not seem such a fanciful prospect for a player who once lined out for Germany’s U17s under Steffen Freund in 2010.
For now, though, Zentner will focus on the task at hand at Mainz, a team currently on course for celebrating the perfect ending to a carnival-style campaign.
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