Fabulous Foxes trio are my number one No.1s...
WHY do people want to be goalkeepers or referees? You may think they are crazy but they are both essential to the game of football. Keepers and refs last longer than the outfield players in most cases for obvious reasons, so there are naturally less of them.
More about referees another week, but this week it is the goalies!
There have been some great goalkeepers during my 50 years in the Midlands.
Three Leicester City greats top my list – Gordon Banks, Peter Shilton and Kasper Schmeichel.
That is not because it is the club that I support but because of what they have achieved in the game.
Of course there have been good goalies elsewhere.
Quite a few played for several different clubs in the region.
Here is a reminder of some of the keepers from our clubs:
■ Aston Villa have an outstanding current goalkeeper in Emiliano Martinez from Argentina.
In my time here, several names stand out: Jimmy Cumbes, Jimmy Rimmer, Nigel Spink, Australian
Mark Bosnich, Thomas Sorensen (Denmark), and the Americans Brad Friedel and Brad Guzan.
■ Birmingham City, with Dave Latchford in goal from 1969 to 1978. Ian Bennett had a long run, too. Maik Taylor won the most international caps – 58 with Northern Ireland.
Also between the posts who spring to my mind – Tony Coton, Lee Camp, Les Green, Jeff Wealands, Joe Hart and Jack Butland.
■ Coventry’s top man was Steve Ogrizovic who spent 16 years with the Sky Blues, including the 1987 FA Cup-winning team. Also in my time, Bill Glazier, Jim Blyth, Les Sealey and Magnus Hedman.
■ Derby County, besides Shilton and Camp, had Russell Hoult, Kevin Poole, Eric Steele, Steve Sutton, Scott Carson and Martin Taylor.
■ Stoke City had Banks
and Shilton – Gordon’s premature retirement caused by losing the sight of his right eye in a car accident in October 1972. Earlier that year, Gordon was in the Stoke team that won the League
Cup at Wembley. Others include
John Farmer, Steve Simonsen, Carl Muggleton, Asmir Begovic (Bosnia
and Herzegovina), Jack Butland, Sorensen, Martin Prudhoe and Gavin Ward.
■ West Bromwich Albion favourite John Osbourne was at the Hawthorns from 1967 to 1972 and then 1973 to 1978.
Others include Hoult, Carson, Tony Godden, Dean Kiely, Paul Barron, Mark Grew, Ben Foster and for four years Sam Johnstone, who won three England caps before moving on this summer.
■ Wolves had the likes of Phil Parkes, Gary Pierce (1974 League Cup final),
Wayne Hennessey, Carl Ikeme, Michael Oakes, Mike Stowell and the two brilliant Portuguese players, Rui Patricio and now Jose Sa.
■ Nottingham Forest relied on Shilton in their glory days under Brian Clough.
Forest also had keepers like Jim Barron, Steve Sutton, Mark Crossley, Camp, Karl Darlow and now the outstanding Brice Samba named in the PFA Team of the Year!
■ Leicester with Banks, Shilton and Schmeichel leading the way.
Banks was at Filbert Street from 1959 to 1967. He, of course, won the World Cup with England in 1966.
But he made way the next year for Shilton who was with the club from 1965 to 1974.
Banks won the League Cup with the Foxes in 1964 and 73 caps for England.
I saw Banks make his Leicester debut at Filbert Street on September 9 1959.
I was 14 and sat with my grandad behind the Leicester first half goal high up in the Spion Kop. It was a 1-1 draw with Blackpool.
The only memory of that was the first time Gordon touched the ball. He threw it out to the left wing!
He was a brilliant goalkeeper who made that historic close range save from Pele’s header in the 1970 World Cup.
Leicester had by then moved him to Stoke to put their faith in the young Shilton, who was also a legendary keeper. Manager Matt Gillies made that decision.
Shilton, a local lad, made his first team debut aged just 16 versus Everton and went on to help win the old Second Division in 1971 and the FA Charity Shield in the same year.
Peter went on to play for 11 clubs including Stoke, Nottingham Forest and Derby.
He joined Coventry but did not play in a league game, although he amassed 1005 in his career.
He still has the most England caps – 125.
Schmeichel has a difficult act to follow – his dad Peter, who had a trophy- littered career at Manchester United and was captain when they recorded the 1999 treble by winning the UEFA Champions League.
He played for Denmark 129 times and captained their 1992 UEFA triumph.
Kasper was on loan to several clubs when at Manchester City – including the Sky Blues – but when moving from Leeds to Leicester in 2011 he helped change the club and his fortunes.
Leicester won the top League title for the first time in 2016 and then the FA Cup for the first time last year with Kasper as captain with great saves versus Chelsea.
He is having a great career at Leicester, with 80 Denmark caps to date.
You may think goalkeepers (and referees) are crazy but they are both essential to the game of football.