6 NEVILLE SOUTHALL

GOALKEEPER CAPS 92 1982-1997 GOALS 0

SCORING a goal for Wales was about the only thing this guy couldn’t do, but he certainly stopped plenty of them going into the Welsh net.

Utterly phenomenal. For a period Big Nev was the best goalkeeper in the world – during a time when there were plenty of good goalkeepers around, too.

Mark Hughes used to say Wales won big games because the strikers could conjure up a goal from nowhere and Big Nev would make a string of out-of-the-ordinary stops.

Some of them almost defied belief. Ironically, one of his greatest games for Wales was during a 7-1 drubbing under Bobby Gould against the Netherlands in Eindhoven. Were it not for Southall’s sheer brilliance that night, a Vinnie Jones-led Wales would have let in 20 goals. He could do nothing about the seven that went past him. He’d already produced about six worldclass stops before even Southall’s resistance cracked against a brilliant Dutch side.

First cap came in 1982 against Northern Ireland in the Home International Championships, Nev keeping a clean sheet in a 3-0 win. He was then undroppable, going on to win a record 92 caps.

Ironically, Southall made an error in the World Cup qualifier that mattered most, the 2-1 loss to Romania at the Arms Park in 1993 when he let a Georghe Hagi strike squirm under his body. There were disbelieving eyes inside the ground that night, so rare was a mistake from Nev.

More often than not he was monumental, for club as well as country. His status as an Everton legend is cemented. Close on 600 appearances, league title and FA Cup wins. A Euro triumph. Nev was just the greatest. For club and country.

From Llandudno, he moved down to South Wales in more recent times where he has worked as a teaching assistant in a Gwent school and has become something of a political activist, often voicing his views on social media.