•  Crystal Palace are leading the race to sign Getafe goalkeeper David Soria, who impressed as first-choice in La Liga last season.
•  Soria has attracted attention due to his strong performances and a reported release clause of €12m.
•  The 30-year-old keeper could be a solid addition to Crystal Palace, with a higher success rate and more penalty saves than their current option.

Crystal Palace are in pole position to sign Getafe goalkeeper David Soria this summer, according to fresh reports.

Who is David Soria?

Soria is a goalkeeper who has played his football at the Coliseum Alfonso Perez since joining from Sevilla back in 2018, and despite not being Jose Bordalas’s official number one, he last season established himself as first-choice between the sticks having started all 38 matches in La Liga.

The Spaniard’s contract length is unknown which is extremely unusual, but either way, having emerged as his homeland outfit’s overall second-best-performing player during the previous campaign with a WhoScored match rating of 6.84, he’s grabbed the attention of Roy Hodgson in the Premier League.

Football Insider recently reported that Vicente Guaita is ready to quit this summer as a result of not wanting to be a back-up option behind Sam Johnstone, who the same outlet state is expected to remain the preferred choice from the start of the new campaign onwards, and is therefore exploring his options.

Should the current shot-stopper depart, the Eagles boss will need to enter the market to find a suitable replacement to bolster his ranks in the net, and if the following update is to be believed, the 30-year-old appears to be the player that chiefs are going after in the hope of bringing him to Selhurst Park.

Are Crystal Palace signing David Soria?

According to Spanish outlet AS (via Sport Witness), Crystal Palace are the “most interested” club in signing Soria ahead of the 2023/24 campaign. Getafe’s goalkeeper has “several proposals” on the table, in particular from the top-flight and indeed the blue and reds.

The La Liga outfit’s president Angel Torres is “aware” of the attention and has made it clear that his €12m (£10m) release clause will have to be paid to sanction his sale, and whilst it’s unknown whether the board would be willing to cash out, they are certainly “at the front of the queue” at things stand.

Guaita is believed to be looking to return to his former club and a deal for Soria could depend on the formerly mentioned player going the other way.

How good is David Soria?

Crystal Palace may view Soria as a second-choice goalkeeper to Johnstone considering that he’s 30 years of age and not getting any younger, but having been previously hailed a “key performer” by journalist Josh Bunting, he could be a solid player for Hodgson to have in the building looking at his record.

The Madrid native last season kept 13 clean sheets from 38 La Liga games, form which saw him receive six man-of-the-match awards, as per WhoScored, but there was a lot of excellent work that he did to keep the ball out of the back of the net in the build-up.

The 6 foot 3 colossus recorded 119 saves from 166 shots on target against, giving him a success rate of 75.3% which was higher than Guaita’s 72.4%, showing that he could be an upgrade on the option that the boss already has available to him, not to mention he made four out of eight penalty saves over the course of the campaign, so this may well be a deal to watch.