Pickford has the calmness and courage to shine in the English goal
‘THE KEY IS TO BE CONFIDENT, NOT ARROGANT. I’M NOT FAZED BY THIS CHANCE’
THE first World Cup he can recall, Jordan Pickford says, is the 2002 tournament in South Korea and Japan.
He remembers going into school in Sunderland after England’s defeat by Brazil. He was eight years old then. He remembers Ronaldinho’s free-kick and the ball sailing over the head of David Seaman, the goalkeeper who liked to refer to himself as ‘Safe Hands’, and into the net for Brazil’s winner.
He must remember Rob Green chucking one in against the US in England’s opening game of the 2010 tournament, too, but no one asks him about that. This conversation is not supposed to be a highlight reel of great goalkeeping gaffes but Pickford gives the impression he is not the type to be bothered if it were. Somebody mentions Seaman again and tells Pickford to watch out for 50-yard lobs in Russia. ‘I’ll be okay,’ he says.
Pickford gives every indication that he will indeed be okay. No one knows yet whether he has won his battle with Jack Butland to start England’s opening game of the World Cup against Tunisia in Volgograd a week tomorrow, but there is a feeling that he may have edged slightly ahead in the thoughts of manager Gareth Southgate. If he gets the nod, it is unlikely that he will be incapacitated by nerves.
Pickford may be a product of Sunderland’s Academy of Light, but he has hardly had a cosseted footballing apprenticeship. He came up the hard way with a series of loan spells at non-League clubs.
‘I had a spell playing for Alfreton,’ he says, ‘and I remember a corner at Wrexham when they put seven players on top of me. The first corner, I could have come and got it, the second one I came and took it. And they ran away.
‘It’s all about game management. You can’t be frightened. You only get one chance. I’ve always taken that chance and taken it well.
‘I remember playing for Darlington when I was 17, too, and just coming for crosses. Being confident but not arrogant is the key. I was confident in my ability and in my bravery. Back then I was just coming for crosses when I could but as you get older, it’s all about learning game management from those matches you played in.
‘That is the biggest learning curve you get when you are younger. You are always learning and crossing bridges.
‘The idea of going from that to playing at the World Cup doesn’t faze me. I can’t wait to get out there and do my best. I’ve always embraced it and wanted to do well. I feel that you can’t let it faze you too much because that is when you put pressure on yourself and I’ve never done that before.
‘I made my debut at Wembley against Germany and it was sold-out 90,000. That was new to me but I embraced it and used that atmosphere to make me better.’
If the battle between Pickford and Jack Butland is still too close to call with confidence, one of the factors in favour of the man who became the most expensive British goalkeeper in history when Everton signed him for £30million from Sunderland a year ago is that he is supremely confident with the ball at his feet.
‘I grew up playing it out from the back at Sunderland,’ says Pickford. ‘I was always in goal but I was always in the possessions, so I’ve always been comfortable with my feet and I was always learning that. So it is not something new to me.’
His career has moved fast since his non-League days, but any idea that he might be pinching himself at the thought of being the starting No1 for England at the World Cup elicits a shake of the head.
‘I’ve always wanted to be a footballer,’ says Pickford, ‘and I’ve always wanted to play for England, so I’ve never really felt any other way. I’ve kept level-headed and just kept plugging away, day in, day out. That’s all I’ve ever known, really.
‘Now, going through the system with England, that is the pathway to get to these big stages.’