I LOOK BACK WONDER CHANGED
WHAT if? It’s the question everyone asks at some time in their lives, and fortrevor Steven the eternal unknown surrounds the shoot-out drama of the 1990World Cup semi-final in Italy. What if he had been one of England’s five penalty-takers on that unforgettable night? Would he have scored and helped overcome West Germany to reach the final?
Steven, a star midfielder with Everton, Rangers and Marseilles, played for his country in four major tournaments from 1986 to 1992, but the final moments of the Italia 90 campaign are the images burned into his memory.
“The penalty shoot-out was very surreal,” he says from his home in Dubai, where he was working until the lockdown as a TV football pundit. “We knew the original five penalty-takers chosen were still on the field – so that wasn’t a debate. It was just a case of the order they went in.
“I was the next to go if it went to sudden death because I had been the penalty-taker at Everton for a few years.
“In my head was the thought that I know how to take penalties. I was Everton’s record penalty-taker for many years. I scored 28 out of 32, which was pretty good.
“It was brilliant when we scored our first penalties and then a terrible feeling when what happened happened. The balloon was punctured so quickly. It was all over in a split second.
“The dream had gone, yet it was alive when each of the guys walked up to take their penalty. It was an amazing sensation.” Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle were the players who failed to score with their penalties and Steven’s impeccable spot-kick skills were left unused – and unremarked by history.
“I do look back at the shoot-out and wonder:what if?” says the 56-year-old.
“The penalty was running through my mind. I had a favourite place to go and I would generally go bottom right or right hand side as you look at the goalkeeper. I had already decided to do that.
“You have to imagine you are going to take a penalty. I was used to it, the mental issues. In club football as the penalty-taker, you are always a moment away from taking a penalty, so you are mentally geared up for