PICK OF THE BUNCH
How Jordan Pickford went from a ‘scrawny kid’ to England’s No 1
Kevin Ball said: ‘You’ll never make it with that attitude.’ Jordan fired back: ‘I will!’
JORDAN Pickford was on the England team bus for the first time in 2016 when captain Wayne Rooney took a sneaky picture on his mobile phone. The snap was sent to John O’Shea, a teammate of the young goalkeeper at Sunderland.
George Honeyman was in the Black Cats dressing room when O’Shea shared it with the rest of the squad. ‘Rooney wrote, “Hasn’t said a word!”,’ reveals the midfielder, a pal of Pickford since the age of 11 at the club’s academy.
‘It was funny, Jordan was so lively at Sunderland, he never shut up. But he’d gone there and not spoken at all — we found it quite unusual!’
The ribbing did not end there, as Honeyman recalls: ‘Jordan’s not the type to brag, but he came back to training and let slip something about “Wazza”. He got a bit of stick for that.’
Less than two years on and that impressionable rookie is England’s No 1, becoming the most expensive keeper in British history last summer when he joined Everton for £30million. He will earn his fourth cap when he lines up against Tunisia next Monday for England’s World Cup opener.
Speak to those who know Pickford best, however, and they will tell you that such inexperience will not faze the 24-year-old.
Honeyman was on FaceTime with him earlier this week and says he is ‘raring to go’. That, it would seem, has always been his way.
‘I played with him all the way through and he’s always been a fierce competitor,’ adds Honeyman. ‘He had his mood swings if he didn’t get his own way, but the main reason he has succeeded is how competitive and aggressive he is. Off the pitch, he’s the life and soul, no one dislikes him.
‘Everyone says goalkeepers are mad, but he genuinely is a nutter, in the nicest way. He loves his boxing, motocross, golf, he’s just a full-on, fun guy to be around.’
Former Sunderland academy boss Kevin Ball was club captain when he first met Pickford, then a five-year-old autograph hunter at his hero’s car window.
Born in working-class Washington, eight miles from the Stadium of Light, Pickford was a Sunderland fanatic — just like his builder dad, Lee, and his mother, Sue.
‘He asked for my autograph and a photo and said I was his favourite player,’ remembers Ball, now a club ambassador. ‘He showed me that picture years later and asked if I recognised who was in it. I said, “The handsome one is obviously me, and I’m guessing that scrawny little kid is you?”.’
Their relationship was not always so jovial, Honeyman recalls.
‘We were away at Blackburn and Bally was giving Jordan a bit of stick for one of their goals and they started arguing. Bally said, “You’ll never make it with that attitude”. Jordan just stared straight back at him and said, “I bet I will”.
Ball recalls the tale with affection, adding: ‘I had to make him understand where he was and what he needed to do to get to where he wanted to be.
‘He thought he was the best. He knew he had potential and athletic ability. He wanted to be in the first team at 17 and was pushy, but I liked that. He challenged me.’
Pickford rang Ball on the morning of his senior debut to say thank you. He is, it seems, a young man who will never forget his roots.
He now lives on Merseyside with childhood sweetheart Megan Davison but made a point of returning to the North East to collect his Football Writers’ Young Player of the Year award in February.
‘He’s a typical, down-to- earth lad, there is no arrogance, it’s all confidence,’ says former Sunderland goalkeeping coach Adrian Tucker, who worked with Pickford after his first-team breakthrough.
REMARKABLY, that did not arrive until January 2016, coming on the back of loan spells and more than 100 appearances at Darlington, Alfreton, Burton, Carlisle, Bradford and Preston.
‘What I love about him is his mental strength,’ says Tucker. ‘We used to play golf together and I would give him a thrashing, but he’d always come back for more.
‘I remember going to watch him when he was on loan at Bradford against Yeovil. He got absolutely clattered by their big centre forward. The first thing he did was get straight back up. I thought, “You’ll do for me, son”.’
It was not always Pickford being clattered, however. Sunderland’s juniors were away at Crystal Palace when his usually dependable kicking let him down.
What followed has stayed with Honeyman, and he laughs as he begins: ‘He mishit this clearance and it’s obviously annoyed him. It wasn’t going to make halfway. Jordan has realised and gone steaming out, chasing after it.
‘The ball landed with their player on the centre circle and he was just getting himself composed, unaware that Jordan was running towards him at full speed.
‘It was one of the best tackles I’ve ever seen! He’s sent their guy absolutely flying but won the ball with it. He wiped him out, I don’t think the lad recovered. But that’s Jordan — determination, pride in himself and confidence.’
Keeping Pickford within the confines of his area was a constant issue for Ball, too. Not because he was prone to a rush of blood, but due to the skills he had honed playing in the street with older brother Richard Logan, a onetime striker for Darlington.
‘We had one session where we put the goalkeeper at centre back, just to help them understand the game from the position directly in front of them,’ says Ball.
‘Jordan was unbelievable. He was just as good as an outfield player because of that natural talent with his feet. The way he can strike a ball with pace and accuracy.
‘But that also became a problem. We wanted to play the ball out from the back and the keepers had to use the defenders.
‘I remember Jordan pinging the ball 50 yards to the right winger with his first touch. I said, “What are you doing, we want to play out from the back?”.
‘He said, “Yeah, but I’m better than them”. I looked at him and thought, “Yeah, you’re probably right”.’
Honeyman, too, recalls his friend’s playing ambitions. ‘He was always desperate to go outfield during training.
‘But even at Under 16s we were getting bigger crowds because people were coming just to watch him, and that never happens for a goalkeeper. They used to come just to see his kicking. That showed how special he was, even back then.’
Pickford was pulling on to his mother’s driveway in October 2016 when he got the call to say he had been selected for England.
Sue did not believe her son when he delivered the shock news. But they certainly believe him now.