Butt had a pretty extraordinary career and is perhaps best remembered as a goalkeeper who scored goals rather than prevented them. The 26 he netted in the Bundesliga is the most by a goalkeeper – all from the penalty spot. He missed only four league games between August 1997 and February 2007 with Hamburg and (from 2001) with Leverkusen, where he was first choice in the Werkself side that famously finished runners-up in the Bundesliga, DFB Cup and UEFA Champions League in 2002. The four-time Germany international scored eight times in 263 competitive appearances for Leverkusen, before leaving for Benfica in 2007 after being ousted by Rene Adler.
He was back in the Bundesliga a year later, though, when Bayern picked him up on a free. He made a total of 91 appearances over four years in Munich, sometimes as No.1, sometimes back up. He became the first goalkeeper to score in regular time for the club when he converted a penalty against Juventus in the 2009/10 Champions League group stage – all three of his European goals actually came against the Italians, with one each for HSV, Leverkusen and Bayern.
After the 2002 final, he reached the Champions League showpiece two more times with Bayern, in 2010 and 2012, but had already been demoted to No.2 behind Manuel Neuer by the time the latter came around. It was the second time he’d been a treble runner-up – the only Bundesliga player to suffer the fate twice. Butt retired at the end of that season.
