Daniel Peretz's rise from Bayern Munich reserve to Championship mainstay has now been stamped with a number to prove it: according to ONE, the Israeli goalkeeper finished the season with a 77.1% save percentage, the best of any goalkeeper in professional English football to play at least 15 matches.
That ranking, ONE reports, spans the Premier League and the English Football League combined — meaning Peretz's efficiency between the posts topped every qualifying keeper in the English game this season, not just those in the second tier where Southampton play.
The stat caps a remarkable year for the 26-year-old, who arrived at St Mary's on loan from Bayern Munich in January and barely looked back. He started 25 league matches for Southampton, was part of a stretch in which the club went 21 games unbeaten with him playing every minute, and helped drive a run to the FA Cup semi-finals and the Championship promotion play-offs.
Southampton were later thrown out of those play-offs after admitting to spying on the training sessions of Oxford United, Ipswich Town and Middlesbrough — a scandal that overshadowed the closing weeks of the campaign but did not dent the club's faith in their goalkeeper.
In June, Southampton made the move permanent, agreeing a four-year contract with Bayern Munich reportedly worth around €7 million (£6.05m) for a player Bayern had signed from Maccabi Tel Aviv back in 2023 but never fully established in Munich.
Peretz, an established Israel international, becomes only the second Israeli to represent Southampton after midfielder Eyal Berkovic, who played for the club in the 1996-97 season — a link ONE's report and the club's own announcement both note with pride.
For a goalkeeper who spent long stretches on loan at Hamburg SV searching for regular football before finding it at Southampton, topping England's save-percentage charts is the clearest evidence yet that the move paid off.
