Pick of the lot
It was just about the only thing Jordan Pickford got wrong all game. “It was a daft injury by myself,” the England goalkeeper recounted. “I went to punch the [ground] and ended up punching my knee and hurt my thumb. It was a bit of anger. But I’m a man, not a mouse. I’m fine, and I’ll live another day, won’t I?”
Pickford left Samara Stadium on Saturday with a heavily bandaged left hand, a glass vase to commemorate a Player of the Match performance in England’s World Cup quarter-final win over Sweden, and his new-found status as the pride of a nation.
The global reputation of English goalkeepers has taken a battering in recent years, but Pickford is reshaping opinions with his standout performances in England’s surprising run to the World Cup semi-finals in Russia.
Four days after being England’s penalty-shootout star against Colombia in the round of 16, the 24-year-old Pickford produced three brilliant one-handed saves in a 2-0 win over Sweden to ensure that his team ultimately enjoyed smooth progress to a last-four match against Croatia.
The only previous England goalkeepers to appear on such a stage were Gordon Banks – the World Cup winner from 1966 – and Peter Shilton, a veteran of 125 international caps who was 40 when he played in the 1990 World Cup semifinal loss to West Germany.
CAREER IN PROGRESS
They are England’s two greatest goalkeepers. The way Pickford’s career is progressing, he could be joining that elite group. Pickford is the most expensive British goalkeeper in history, after joining Premier League team Everton from Sunderland last year for a fee that could rise to US$38.3 million, and the thirdcostliest goalkeeper ever after Italy great Gianluigi Buffon and Brazil’s Ederson Moraes of Manchester City. He is breaking the mould. Away from his agility and shot-stopping, no previous English goalkeeper has showed such composure and technical ability with his feet, a trait that England manager Gareth Southgate sees as vital for his team’s approach. “Pickford, for me, is sort of the prototype of what a modern goalkeeper should be,” Southgate said. “To be able to play the way that I think we want to play going forward, we need goalkeepers of that ilk.”