Who’d be a goalkeeper? You stand on your own, cut off from the rest of the team, taking abuse from the opposition fans. Your job is to prevent the very reason supporters come to games - goals. You voluntarily put yourself in the way of flying balls. And no matter what you do, you always get criticised. You'd have to be mad to be one, right? FourFourTwo talks to the unique individuals who don the gloves to find out what makes them tick.
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00:00 (crowd chanting)
00:02 (crowd cheering)
00:09 - I think you've got to have the ability
00:10 to kick the ball out the back of the net,
00:11 but I think being crazy can,
00:14 it's hard for me to liken it to anything else.
00:17 - You are someone who always,
00:18 the guy who decides if you win or if you lose.
00:22 (crowd cheering)
00:23 You have to have a different sort of mentality,
00:24 almost like a villain mentality.
00:26 - You are literally an individual in the team sport
00:29 and if you make a mistake, you're there on your own.
00:32 (upbeat music)
00:34 - Goalkeeping chooses its victims.
00:50 They do not choose the job.
00:52 And when you read the job description,
00:54 it's easy to understand why there are so few applicants.
00:58 You stand on your own, cut off from the rest of the team,
01:01 taking abuse from the opposition fans.
01:04 Your job is to prevent the very reason
01:06 supporters come to games, goals.
01:09 You voluntarily put yourself in the way of flying balls
01:14 and no matter what you do, you always get criticized.
01:18 So why on earth would you want to be one?
01:20 - Yeah, when you put it that way,
01:21 I'm not quite sure myself, but in all seriousness,
01:25 I think it's that reason almost to be different.
01:29 I think you either have it or you don't.
01:31 A majority of people like the glory of scoring goals
01:33 and being the main focus of attention,
01:36 whereas as goalkeepers, we're different.
01:38 I get a kick out of stopping the goals,
01:41 denying a striker from scoring a great goal
01:44 and seeing the look on his face
01:45 when he's devastated the crowd going,
01:47 being disappointed that the goal wasn't scored.
01:49 - My immediate draw was I just love diving around,
01:53 banned from diving around on the sofas at home,
01:55 so diving around in the mud and playing football
01:57 or I like just simple things like playing catch,
02:01 cricket, being a fielder,
02:03 they're all kind of tied in when I was a kid.
02:05 - Yeah, I think initially when I got into goalkeeping,
02:10 it wasn't necessarily by choice.
02:13 So for me, it was, we didn't have a goalkeeper.
02:16 And I remember my first few games as a kid
02:18 when I was seven years old, eight years old,
02:20 and I saved a penalty in my third game.
02:22 And we ended up going on to win the game by a single goal.
02:25 And I remember the feeling that I got,
02:27 and now I'm getting hairs on end,
02:28 I remember the feeling I got.
02:29 And yeah, I just felt like it was naturally
02:31 quite good for the position.
02:34 - Probably first the motivation of getting beaten very hard.
02:41 So this challenge of facing good strikers,
02:45 good opponents who tried to beat me.
02:48 And sometimes they were successful,
02:51 but sometimes I was better.
02:53 And probably that was the kind of motivation
02:55 I always liked.
02:56 - I used to kind of play centre back for,
02:59 you know, my under 12s team,
03:01 and the keeper who was playing was too old.
03:03 So when he moved up with another keeper,
03:05 and for some reason I got chucked on goal,
03:07 and I've been there ever since.
03:09 So I wouldn't say destined, but that's where I've ended up.
03:12 - I was born to be a goalkeeper
03:14 because simply of my genetics and of my father.
03:18 So when I started to play,
03:19 I wanted to be a striker like anybody else.
03:22 But they said, "No, no, your father was a keeper,
03:24 "just going to goal."
03:26 So I, very early it was decided for me.
03:30 And you know, and once you get into that position,
03:34 it's the most unique, for me, the best position
03:37 you can play in professional football
03:39 or in children's football,
03:41 because you are somehow always the guy who decides
03:45 if you win or if you lose.
03:47 - And when you make a save that helps your team
03:49 earn a victory, the rush is comparable
03:51 to hitting the back of the net.
03:53 - But the first members of saving shots was always great.
03:57 I remember even from an early age,
03:58 I was just thinking whenever we were able to save a shot
04:01 and do the impossible, and then everyone,
04:04 you know, thinking how on earth did he do that?
04:06 - It's always nice to make saves, I think.
04:08 If you then go on to win the game, you know,
04:10 it's very satisfying.
04:12 But equally, there can be games where as a keeper,
04:15 you might not have too much to do,
04:17 but you really have to battle as a back four.
04:19 And, you know, I think you just take so much pleasure
04:22 in keeping a clean sheet and walking off
04:24 at the end of the game, you know, without conceding,
04:28 because you work so hard during the week to do that.
04:31 And, you know, you almost feel like you've done your job
04:34 if you come off and you've not conceded.
04:37 - I think patience in the moment is critical.
04:40 I think you have to read the game really well.
04:42 You have to be in the right spot,
04:43 as you mentioned, physically.
04:44 But the best saves that I've made
04:48 have been at crucial times in the game.
04:51 And I can always remember just being patient.
04:56 And patience could actually be a split second.
04:58 - It's nice making pretty saves, big dives, big blocks,
05:05 but saves that impact the match
05:09 are the most important ones for me
05:10 and give me the greatest, greatest pleasure.
05:12 Even if it's a simple cross taken at 1-1
05:15 and you end up winning the game 2-1
05:16 or the game finishes 1-1,
05:17 they give me the biggest buzz
05:19 because they affect the match.
05:21 You look deeper, you want to protect the team,
05:24 especially when you've got a team
05:25 that you see working hard,
05:26 you know, putting challenges in, pressing.
05:28 You know, they do a lot more,
05:30 they do a lot more running, for instance,
05:32 than a goalkeeper.
05:33 - The modern day goalkeeper has to be able to do
05:36 so much more than just save shots.
05:38 From the introduction of the back pass rule
05:41 to the development of balls that move
05:42 like a plastic bag in a hurricane,
05:45 there's always something making their lives
05:47 that bit harder.
05:48 - For me, the goalkeeper's position has changed
05:54 in the last 15, 20 years.
05:56 The most of all in professional football
06:01 because the position became much more complex.
06:04 If you're looking at goalkeepers like Manuel Neuer
06:07 or Thijs Degen from Barcelona,
06:10 which are such unbelievable good football players
06:12 with their leg,
06:14 you know, they are probably at the same level
06:16 as a decent first or second division player
06:19 in England or in Germany,
06:20 just simply with their feet.
06:22 - The speed of the game,
06:23 I think as a goalkeeper,
06:26 shots are coming that much quicker,
06:27 you need to be more agile.
06:29 Obviously the ball can deviate in the air
06:32 with the way the ball is now
06:34 and you need to obviously be able to react
06:36 as fast as you can.
06:37 And you know, to do that,
06:38 you need to be in the best shape you can be.
06:40 You need to be as strong as you can
06:44 to deal with the power of the ball coming at you
06:47 or contact with other players.
06:49 So, you know, you need to be strong,
06:51 you need to be flexible
06:52 and you obviously need a good spring
06:54 when you're dealing with crosses or shots.
06:55 So there's more and more aspects of the game
06:58 that you need to kind of work on.
06:59 - I'm not really a visionary.
07:04 I don't see the next level, the next improvement.
07:06 So it's always a great bonus to me
07:08 when someone tells me that they've done something new
07:11 and exciting and I feel it and I'm like,
07:13 yeah, I didn't know I needed that.
07:14 But the way that especially like my company, Nike,
07:18 look into things and the way they're trying to evolve it,
07:20 you know, they've got a specific goalkeeper section now.
07:24 I'm always trying to look for the best way,
07:26 best ways of helping you, best grips.
07:27 It's great for me.
07:30 It's really interesting to meet up with them
07:31 and see what they're thinking.
07:35 - First of all, when you want to become a top goalkeeper,
07:37 it's mostly important that you can heavily concentrate
07:41 and that you try to completely put the fear out of your game.
07:47 So it's a mental setup and it's still very hard.
07:53 What actually separates the good goalkeepers
07:57 from the top goalkeepers is dominating your area,
08:01 coming for crosses in every environment.
08:04 And technique there is catching,
08:06 but punching as well with your right and your left fist.
08:10 So it's a show of dominance as well.
08:12 If I show you I'm not that scared as you are,
08:15 it's a big advantage already.
08:17 - It's, you know, some really special athletes in goal now.
08:22 It's not as uncool to be a goalkeeper anymore.
08:25 So it was almost the athletically blessed lads
08:29 would look to try and play in every other position
08:32 and use what they've been given.
08:33 But now, you know, a great athletic build
08:37 would be directed in goal.
08:38 You know, you could really do great things.
08:39 You can make an impact on the world stage
08:41 as a goalkeeper nowadays.
08:42 - As the goalkeepers job description
08:44 has radically changed over the years,
08:46 their training has evolved.
08:48 No more aimless running in a session
08:50 with the outfield players.
08:51 Specialist coaches are devising bespoke programmes
08:54 for the gym and the pitch to build athletes fit for purpose.
08:58 Physical strengths will help you do your job
09:01 as a goalkeeper,
09:02 but mental strengths will help you survive.
09:04 - Yeah, I nearly quit on the back of the mistake.
09:07 So I'd have been 25, 26,
09:09 probably had my best ever season.
09:11 And we had a playoff game championship against Hull City.
09:15 And it was, we lost the first leg.
09:17 We were winning in the second leg
09:18 and we looked really, really strong.
09:20 And I made a bad decision.
09:21 Ball went up, I thought I could get it.
09:23 I didn't.
09:23 They scored a really soft goal
09:25 and they went on to win comfortably
09:26 and they made the Premier League.
09:28 The toughest thing was that it was
09:29 the last game of the season.
09:31 So that game finished.
09:33 We then had the four hour drive home.
09:35 I had six weeks summer break
09:36 and you can imagine every single day,
09:38 I'm beating myself up,
09:40 especially in the world of Twitter,
09:41 Facebook and everything else.
09:42 People were quick to let me know their thoughts.
09:45 And I found that really tough.
09:47 And I remember the following season,
09:49 I had a bit of a niggling injury.
09:50 I actually pulled myself out of the team for a while
09:52 and my career took a downward spiral.
09:54 And that's where I really heavily got
09:56 into the mental side of it,
09:57 because I knew it was either a case of,
09:59 you learn to deal with this
10:00 or you don't.
10:01 Yeah, I think the motivation for the book itself
10:04 was that having gone through everything
10:06 that I've gone through
10:06 and being very close to quitting the game,
10:08 to then have the best season of my life.
10:10 I just thought that it was just a really nice platform.
10:13 I wrote my book all on my BlackBerry,
10:14 which are dying out now.
10:16 I think I'm one of the last people
10:17 with a BlackBerry, I think.
10:18 But again, it was almost by accident.
10:19 Like it started out just a bit of a cathartic way
10:22 of looking back over the season
10:23 because it was such an extraordinary season.
10:25 And before I knew it,
10:26 this blog that I'd written was quite good.
10:29 So I carried on with it
10:30 and two weeks in Florida.
10:32 And by the end of it,
10:33 I had a book on my hands.
10:34 - You are literally an individual in the team sport
10:39 and it is one of them where,
10:43 you know, if you make a mistake,
10:44 you're there on your own.
10:45 And you can't, obviously you make other saves,
10:48 but it's not like you can put up the other end in score.
10:51 - If you play for one of the best teams
10:52 and maybe you don't get as much work,
10:54 you know, mental strength is being focused
10:55 for 90 minutes and making that one save
10:57 when called upon.
10:59 Mental strength is also if the team isn't doing so well,
11:01 but you are.
11:02 So, you know, winning as much as you want to,
11:03 but you're playing well,
11:04 so you have to continue to do your job.
11:06 So there's many different ways
11:07 you have to be mentally strong for as a goalkeeper.
11:09 So I think that's part of the appeal
11:11 is the different scenarios
11:12 and the ways that you have to be strong
11:13 and wiser than everyone else.
11:15 - It's fun.
11:19 I do find it fun 'cause I'd say 95% of the stuff
11:23 that the battering you're getting
11:25 is all quite lighthearted.
11:26 It's people trying to be clever and witty.
11:29 And you can actually isolate the people who genuinely,
11:32 you know, some people absolutely lose their mind with you.
11:35 Like they want to kill you
11:35 and all you're doing is standing there and goal.
11:37 And you can, you know, if you make eye contact,
11:40 you can see the people around them
11:42 and you can almost say, come on,
11:43 like, what is this clown doing?
11:45 But that's football.
11:47 That's our position.
11:48 It's, yeah, I'm gonna say it's our job
11:50 to take the good and the bad.
11:52 - It was mad because it was kind of like a derby in fairness.
11:57 Our local derby was against a team called Loughran
11:59 but that's probably 10 kilometers away
12:01 from where we were based.
12:02 But there was a Yod bottle, there was Yod coin,
12:06 there was a Yod lighter.
12:08 And in the end, I think I've just picked one
12:09 and thrown one back.
12:10 We were winning 3-1.
12:12 But what I didn't realize was there was a fella
12:15 doing the gate.
12:16 He must've been 80-odd.
12:18 And I thought, oh, it's a bad move
12:20 because looking at this gate, it was a still gate.
12:23 I'm thinking there's not a chance the gate's coming through.
12:26 It was the old-fashioned barbed wire on the top.
12:30 And I just thought, there's no way to get him through here.
12:33 And then the next minute,
12:34 the game's still going on at this stage.
12:35 And I could just see this fellow,
12:38 transformed, like with a massive leather jacket
12:41 on his walkthrough.
12:42 And I thought, oh, I need this.
12:45 And then his little mate run behind him
12:46 and then he wanted to pop as well.
12:47 So I thought, we'll give him a dig
12:50 and hopefully that'll settle it down.
12:51 And then thankfully it did.
12:53 And I got a hate mail, got death threats.
12:57 Only a unique individual would choose to put themselves
12:59 through all of this for very little credit,
13:02 which is why the old adage says,
13:04 all goalkeepers are mad.
13:06 Jens was definitely without question
13:09 the maddest I've worked with,
13:12 but he was probably the most professional.
13:14 I don't know where I lie in that.
13:16 I don't know whether I'm, I wouldn't say I'm crazy.
13:19 I've done some stupid things.
13:21 - The maddest goalkeeper.
13:23 - I was working together with Graham Stuck,
13:26 my first goalkeeping partner at Arsenal.
13:30 He was Irish.
13:32 He was kind of mad in his lifestyle.
13:34 He was Irish and he was a very funny guy.
13:37 But the Irish sometimes, they like to drink.
13:41 And so probably when I was lying in bed sleeping,
13:46 sometimes you could smell that he had one or two drinks.
13:52 And he was so funny and he was a good goalkeeper as well.
13:55 - I remember I raised Jens Lehmann
13:58 and all the first team were coming out
14:00 and they were all watching, they were all coming out.
14:01 And we used to do little relays on a Friday.
14:05 Gerry Payton was a goalie coach and it would be like,
14:07 so we'd say a country, so they'd say Peru.
14:09 We'd go Chile, America, Belgium,
14:11 and then on Peru, you'd have to sprint.
14:14 And it was like first to three
14:15 and I'd sort of like done sprinting two nil against Jens.
14:18 He was like, weren't the quickest, Jens, you know what I mean?
14:21 And I was young and I was fit.
14:23 And I remember on the last one,
14:24 I've turned around and beat them backwards.
14:26 And all the other lads had watched it,
14:28 all the first team players had seen it
14:29 and they all started hammering him.
14:31 And he chased me, Jens kept chasing me.
14:33 So I've stopped and he's carried on fast to finish line
14:37 to try and catch me.
14:38 And I thought he wanted to kill me
14:40 because they just hate you losing.
14:43 I don't think you've got to be crazy to be a keeper.
14:45 I think you've got to be brave.
14:47 I think you've got to be strong mentally.
14:49 And I think you've got to have the ability
14:51 to kick the ball out the back of the net.
14:53 But I think being crazy can help.
14:56 - I played for like 25 clubs in 13 countries
14:59 on all six FIFA continents,
15:01 which makes me the only player so far who have achieved that.
15:05 I love animals more than anything else.
15:10 And I just had that fable for having exotic pets at home.
15:16 So I had some monkeys in Singapore or some lizards,
15:20 whatever you call it, I just had it.
15:21 And when I played in New Zealand
15:24 and I saw the beautiful penguins, I thought, well, why not?
15:27 I maybe can cultivate them to be a nice pet
15:31 within a few hours or a day.
15:33 I realised that that won't work out.
15:35 So I gave the penguin back into his normal life again.
15:39 But that story follows me, of course, all the way around.
15:43 - When you've had a nightmare
15:44 and you're getting it from the press,
15:46 the fans and your teammates,
15:47 there's a select group of people who understand your pain.
15:51 The Goalkeepers Union.
15:53 In this fabled brotherhood, everyone sticks together.
15:57 Don't they?
15:58 - Once you've played a position,
16:00 I don't think you really do get it.
16:02 I think that's why keepers are like that.
16:04 I think they understand how hard the position is.
16:07 And yeah, I think it's one of them.
16:11 I think you just have that bond with other keepers
16:14 just because of that.
16:16 I think you really know how tough the position is
16:18 and what you have to go through to be a goalkeeper
16:21 and the highs and the lows that you experience.
16:24 - No, I've never understood the GK Union.
16:27 You know, the whole Goalkeepers Union.
16:28 Coaches used to say, "Oh, look at the goalies,
16:31 "look at the union," and all that.
16:32 But I've never been on that.
16:34 And I've told players openly and goalies openly
16:38 that the union, it's not for me
16:41 because I respect you.
16:44 And I'll train and I'll do what's right by you.
16:47 If I'm not playing, I'll warm me up properly.
16:50 I'll make sure I'm out there on time.
16:51 I'll make sure the balls are ready.
16:52 I'll make sure everything's spot on
16:54 for you to have a good game,
16:56 which even in itself is stupid
17:00 because I want to play, but it's what's right.
17:01 And that is what's right.
17:02 Principally, that's what you should do.
17:04 - I think with the GK Union,
17:09 there is a sense of brotherhood.
17:12 Just purely for the fact that
17:14 you know what each other's going through.
17:16 So like, even now when I'll see a mistake on TV,
17:18 I'll know it's a mistake,
17:20 but it winds me up when I see ex-goalkeepers
17:23 giving a lot of stick.
17:25 - I think there's, you certainly have sympathy
17:28 for other goalkeepers.
17:29 You have, I think the Goalkeepers Union
17:31 was born of, you know, goalkeepers understanding
17:36 that it is a different position.
17:37 We are kind of isolated.
17:42 In our work, in our criticism.
17:44 And so, yeah, there's probably some sympathy there.
17:48 And I think that's where,
17:50 if another goalkeeper doesn't have a great game,
17:52 you're happy you won.
17:53 But at the same time,
17:55 you can also look at them and go,
17:57 I've been there, I understand what that feels like.
17:59 But other than that, you know,
18:01 it is a bit of a made up type social club, if you will.
18:06 (upbeat music)
18:09 - For 90 minutes, the goalkeeper multitasks,
18:15 switching from shot stopper to sweeper keeper,
18:18 integrating themselves into the team,
18:20 both tactically and psychologically.
18:23 They play on the edge.
18:25 One save away from being a hero.
18:27 One mistake away from being the villain.
18:30 Is it the hardest job in football?
18:33 - Darling, probably being a striker.
18:35 But, I don't know, I'd say it's one of them
18:38 because you can make nine worldies
18:40 and you make one mistake
18:41 and people just remember you for the mistake.
18:43 So I'd probably say goalkeeping is probably the toughest.
18:46 - We have to respect and appreciate
18:48 each other's responsibility.
18:50 You know, center halves have to go up.
18:53 You know, they take elbows and cuts across the eye
18:56 every other game.
18:57 You know, a midfielder has literally got to bust his lungs
19:01 to run up and down the field.
19:02 I gotta be honest, I wouldn't want to do that.
19:04 I don't have the wherewithal to run 13K in a game.
19:08 But I need to respect the guy that does
19:10 just as the way he has to respect me
19:12 for putting my face in front of a 70 mile an hour shot
19:14 and for diving around like an idiot where it all hurts.
19:18 And so there's aspects to the game
19:20 that need to be respected.
19:22 - We have a bigger responsibility
19:23 and I think you have to take that on board.
19:27 You have to be encouraged by that,
19:29 by taking on that responsibility.
19:31 We have probably a bigger leadership role
19:33 on the team than most players.
19:35 - Listen, sticking the ball in the goal
19:38 is what wins matches, keeps managers in jobs,
19:43 gets players promoted, gets players money for bonuses
19:45 and whatever else.
19:46 So that's probably the most important thing,
19:49 is scoring gold.
19:50 But for me, I think the hardest job on the pitch
19:53 is being a goalkeeper.
19:54 (upbeat music)
19:56 (upbeat music)
19:59 (upbeat music)
20:01 (upbeat music)
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