Bart Verbruggen is discussing his goalkeeping idol, Edwin van der Sar.“You’re a little kid, you’re Dutch, Edwin van der Sar was the best goalkeeper in the world at the time,” says the Netherlands and Brighton & Hove Albion No 1.“It might be a bit biased, but he was. It’s normal that you idolise him and you take his game apart, you take things and you ask your father questions: ‘Why does he do this? Why does he do that?’ It’s just somebody I’ve always looked up to.”Aspiring to reach the heights of Van der Sar sets the bar high. He won the Champions League with Ajax (1995) and Manchester United (2008) among 26 major trophies in a career which included 130 caps for his country and appearances at two World Cups.“In general, you can never compare eras,” Verbruggen says. “Sometimes you hear the discussion about, for example, in basketball, who was better, Larry Bird or LeBron James? You can’t tell because the games change and evolve.“When he played the game, the demands on a goalkeeper were very different to what they are today. Not easier or harder — different.“What I look up to the most with him was how decisive he was for the teams he played for, and how reliable and consistent he was. That’s what I’m trying to do but in my style of play, in my era, for my teams. That will change a bit from how he played the game. But the principle of being important in big moments and being reliable, that is something I strive to do”.Verbruggen enters the World Cup at 23 as one of the most promising goalkeepers around, an emerging force as a shot-stopper and with the ball at his feet.Steady improvement since joining Brighton from Anderlecht for £16.3million in 2023 — establishing himself as first choice for club and country — has the drum beats banging about the potential of a move for Verbruggen this summer.Bart Verbruggen has established himself as Ronald Koeman’s No 1 (Robin van Lonkhuijsen/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)He has kept 17 clean sheets across 74 Premier League games in a row over the past two seasons, playing a significant role in successive eighth-placed finishes under German head coach Fabian Hurzeler. The latter has earned Brighton a place in Europe for the second time next season, when they will compete in the Europa Conference League.Hurzeler, 33, recently told The Athletic that Verbruggen has become even more professional in his approach since reuniting with compatriot Jelle ten Rouwelaar, who was appointed by Brighton as goalkeeper coach last summer following spells under Ruud van Nistelrooy at Manchester United and Leicester City. Ten Rouwelaar has worked with Verbruggen since the latter was 15 years old at NAC Breda in their homeland, then at Anderlecht.“I try to always focus on the process,” Verbruggen says during an interview with The Athletic and other media at Brighton’s training centre in Lancing. “I am obsessed with the process and the results are always because of how good your process is. I always look at what I am doing now and how I can make it even better to give me a better chance to succeed and to show my quality.