Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
FOSTER CARE
Pearson looks after his in-form keeper with a new deal and says: I want to keep Ben because I value him as a player and as a person
BEN FOSTER is already the nicest footballer in the Premier League – now Nigel Pearson wants to give him a new deal for being one of the meanest.
The Watford keeper, who has kept nine clean sheets despite spending all season in the relegation zone, is out of contract this summer.
Hornets messiah Pearson wants to keep the former England stopper at Vicarage Road because only Burnley’s Nick Pope (11) and Liverpool’s Alisson Becker (10) have directed more shut-outs in the top flight.
Foster, 36, went viral this week when Watford published a video of his reunion with 12-year-old leukaemia patient Molly Hall and fulfilling his promise to ‘sign’ her as a mascot for last Saturday’s stunning 3-0 win over runaway leaders Liverpool.
Check it out on Youtube. Foster pushes her across the pitch in her wheelchair and leaves Molly swooning: “He’s my best friend.”
It’s not the first time this season ‘Fozzie’ has been a safe pair of hands off the pitch as well as Watford’s last line of defence.
In December, driving home after the 0-0 draw with Crystal Palace, Foster and his wife Kate rescued an elderly man who had toppled into a ditch, took him home and even offered to cook him Christmas dinner.
Premier League footballers are too often damned with faint praise because of their astronomical wages, hide beneath dustbin-lid headphones or ignore wellwishers by pretending to talk on their mobile phones.
But Foster, is one of the good guys. He was too modest to speak about his ‘date’ with
Molly this week, but head coach Pearson was happy to praise his keeper’s humanity – and enduring agility.
He said: “It’s not an empty gesture. Ben is a genuine, authentic person and he’s been a great player for us as well.
“I would very much like to keep him because he is picked for what he brings to the team – I value him as a person and his contribution as a player.
“All the players have to understand why they are picked and what they bring to the party, and what Ben brings to us is experience, quality, undoubted ability and a telling presence in the dressing room.
“He is the type of person I like around the place, and his clean sheets tell you that, as a defensive unit, we have been effective as well.
“Most goalkeepers would be generous enough to tell you they are part of a unit – it’s a specialist position, of course, but I’m sure he would recognise the contribution of his teammates to that record.
“To keep clean sheets, keepers need organisation and ability among the individuals in front of them.
“But it is true Ben has been exceptional in key moments.
“As well as having an incredible appetite to play, he trains fantastically hard, he’s thoroughly professional and that’s why he is able to produce such good performances at the age of 36.”
Spaniard Gerard Deulofeu will be out for at least six months after rupturing anterior cruciate ligaments and suffering torn cartilage in his right knee against
Liverpool.