Goalkeeper | The Loneliest Job in Football | FourFourTwo Films
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? FFT talks to the unique individuals who don the gloves to find out what makes them tick.
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00:00I think you've got to have the ability to keep the ball out the back of the net, but
00:12I think being crazy can help.
00:14It's hard for me to liken it to anything else.
00:16You are somehow always the guy who decides if you win or if you lose.
00:23You have to have a different sort of mentality, I'm going to have a brilliant mentality.
00:27You are literally an individual in the team sport and if you make a mistake you are there on your own.
00:57You stand on your own, cut off from the rest of the team, taking abuse from the opposition fans.
01:04Your job is to prevent the very reason supporters come to games. Goals.
01:11You voluntarily put yourself in the way of flying balls and no matter what you do,
01:16you always get criticised. So why on earth would you want to be one?
01:20Yeah, when you put it that way, I'm not quite sure myself, but
01:24in all seriousness, I think it's that reason almost to be different.
01:29I think you either have it or you don't.
01:31The majority of people like the glory of scoring goals and being the main focus of attention,
01:35whereas as goalkeepers, we're different.
01:38I get a kick out of stopping the goals.
01:41Denying a striker from scoring a great goal and seeing the look on his face when he's
01:45devastated, the crowd going, being disappointed that the goal wasn't scored.
01:49My immediate draw was I just love diving around.
01:51You know, I'm banned from diving around on the sofas at home, so
01:55diving around in the mud and playing football or, you know, I like just simple things like
02:00playing catch, cricket, being a fielder. They're all kind of tied in when I was a kid.
02:08Yeah, I think initially when I got into goalkeeping, it wasn't necessarily by choice.
02:13So for me, it was we didn't have a goalkeeper.
02:16And I remember I remember my first few games as a kid when I was seven years old,
02:19eight years old, and I saved a penalty in my third game.
02:22And we ended up going on to win the game by a single goal.
02:25And I remember the feeling that I got.
02:26And now I'm getting hairs on end.
02:28I remember the feeling I got.
02:29And yeah, I just felt like it was naturally quite good for the position.
02:36Probably first the motivation of getting beaten very hard.
02:41So this challenge of facing good strikers, good opponents who try to beat me.
02:48And sometimes they were successful, but sometimes I was better.
02:53And that was the kind of motivation I always liked.
02:57I used to kind of play centre back for my under-12s team.
03:00And the keeper who was playing was too old.
03:03So when he moved up with another keeper and for some reason I got chucked on goal,
03:07and I've been there ever since.
03:08So I wouldn't say destined, but that's where I've ended up.
03:12I was born to be a goalkeeper because simply of my genetics and of my father.
03:18So when I started to play, I wanted to be a striker like anybody else.
03:22But they said, no, no, your father was a keeper just going to goal.
03:26So very early it was decided for me.
03:30And once you get into that position, it's the most unique,
03:36for me, the best position you can play in professional football or in children's football.
03:41Because you are somehow always the guy who decides if you win or if you lose.
03:47And when you make a save that helps your team earn a victory,
03:50the rush is comparable to hitting the back of the net.
03:53The first moments of saving shots was always great.
03:57I remember even from an early age, I just think whenever you were able to save a shot
04:01and do the impossible and then everyone thinking, how on earth did he do that?
04:06It's always nice to make saves.
04:07I think if you then go on to win the game, it's very satisfying.
04:12But equally, there can be games where as a keeper, you might not have too much to do,
04:17but you really have to battle as a back four.
04:19And I think you just take so much pleasure in keeping a clean sheet
04:23and walking off at the end of the game without conceding,
04:28because you work so hard during the week to do that.
04:30And you almost feel like you've done your job if you come off and you've not conceded.
04:37I think patience in the moment is critical.
04:40I think you have to read the game really well.
04:42You have to be in the right spot, as you mentioned, physically.
04:44But the best saves that I've made have been at crucial times in the game.
04:51And I can always remember just being patient.
04:56And patience could actually be a split second.
05:01It's nice making pretty saves, big dives, big blocks.
05:05But saves that impact the match are the most important ones for me
05:10and give me the greatest pleasure.
05:12Even if it's a simple cross taken at 1-1
05:15and you end up winning the game 2-1 or the game finishes 1-1,
05:17they give me the biggest buzz because they affect the match.
05:21You look deeper, you want to protect the team,
05:23especially when you've got a team that you see working hard,
05:27putting challenges in, pressing.
05:30They do a lot more running, for instance, than a goalkeeper.
05:33The modern-day goalkeeper has to be able to do so much more than just save shots.
05:38From the introduction of the backpass rule
05:40to the development of balls that move like a plastic bag in a hurricane,
05:44there's always something making their lives that bit harder.
05:50For me, the goalkeeper's position has changed in the last 15, 20 years.
05:56The most of all in professional football.
06:01Because the position became much more complex.
06:04If you're looking at goalkeepers like Manuel Neuer or Ter Stegen from Barcelona,
06:10which are such unbelievable good football players with their leg,
06:14they are probably at the same level as a decent first or second division player
06:19in England or in Germany, just simply with their feet.
06:22The speed of the game, I think as a goalkeeper,
06:26shots are coming out much quicker, you need to be more agile.
06:30The ball can deviate in the air with the way the ball is now,
06:34and you need to be able to react as fast as you can.
06:37To do that, you need to be in the best shape you can be.
06:41You need to be as strong as you can
06:44to deal with the power of the ball coming at you or contact with other players.
06:50You need to be strong, you need to be flexible.
06:53Here's a good spring when you're dealing with crosses or shots.
06:56There's more and more aspects of the game that you need to work on.
07:01I'm not really a visionary, I don't see the next level or the next improvement,
07:06so it's always a great bonus to me when someone tells me
07:09that they've done something new and exciting and I feel it,
07:13and I'm like, yeah, I didn't know I needed that.
07:16The way that especially my company, Nike, look into things
07:19and the way they're trying to evolve it,
07:20they've got a specific goalkeeper section now.
07:24I'm always trying to look for the best ways of helping you, best grips.
07:28It's great for me, it's really interesting to meet up with them and see what they're thinking.
07:33First of all, when you want to become a top goalkeeper,
07:36it's mostly important that you can heavily concentrate
07:41and that you try to completely put the fear out of your game.
07:47So it's a mental setup and it's still very hard.
07:53What actually separates the good goalkeepers from the doping-free goalkeepers
07:57from the top goalkeepers is dominating your area,
08:01coming for crosses in every environment,
08:04and the technique there is catching but punching as well with your right and your left fist.
08:10So it's a show of dominance as well.
08:12If I show you I'm not that scared as you are, it's a big advantage already.
08:19It's, you know, some really special athletes in goal now.
08:22It's not as uncool to be a goalkeeper anymore,
08:25so it was almost the athletically blessed lads would look to try and play in every other position
08:32and use what they've been given.
08:33But now, you know, a great athletic build would be directed in goal.
08:38You know, you could really do great things,
08:39you can make an impact on the world stage as a goalkeeper nowadays.
08:42As the goalkeepers' job description has radically changed over the years,
08:46their training has evolved.
08:48No more aimless running in a session with the outfield players.
08:51Specialist coaches are devising bespoke programmes for the gym and the pitch
08:55to build athletes fit for purpose.
08:58Physical strength will help you do your job as a goalkeeper,
09:02but mental strength will help you survive.
09:04Yeah, I nearly quit on the back of the mistake.
09:07So I'd have been 25, 26, probably had my best ever season,
09:11and we had a playoff game championship against Hull City,
09:15and we lost the first leg.
09:17We were winning in the second leg and we looked really, really strong.
09:20And I made a bad decision.
09:21Ball went up, I thought I could get it.
09:23I didn't.
09:23They scored a really soft goal and they went on to win comfortably
09:26and they made the Premier League.
09:28The toughest thing was that it was the last game of the season.
09:30So that game finished.
09:32We then had the four-hour drive home.
09:35I had a six-week summer break.
09:36And you can imagine every single day I'm beating myself up,
09:40especially in the world of Twitter, Facebook and everything else.
09:42People were quick to let me know their thoughts.
09:45And I found that really tough.
09:47I remember the following season, I had a bit of a niggling injury.
09:49I actually pulled myself out of the team for a while
09:51and my career took a downward spiral.
09:53And that's where I really heavily got into the mental side of it
09:56because I knew it was either a case of you learn to deal with this
09:59or you don't.
10:01Yeah, I think the motivation for the book itself
10:03was that having gone through everything that I'd gone through
10:05and being very close to quitting the game
10:07to then have the best season of my life,
10:09I just thought that it was just a really nice platform.
10:11I wrote my book all on my BlackBerry, which are dying out now.
10:15I think I'm one of the last people with a BlackBerry, I think.
10:18But again, it was almost by accident.
10:19Like, it started out just a bit of a cathartic way
10:22of looking back over the season
10:23because it was such an extraordinary season.
10:25And before I knew it, this blog that I'd written was quite good.
10:29So I carried on with it.
10:30And two weeks in Florida and by the end of it,
10:32I had a book on my hands.
10:36You are literally an individual in the team sport
10:39and it is one of them where,
10:43you know, if you make a mistake, you're there on your own.
10:45And, you know, you can't...
10:47Obviously, you're made of the saves,
10:48but it's not like you can put up the other end and score.
10:51If you play for one of the best teams
10:52and maybe you don't get as much work,
10:54you know, mental strength is being focused for 90 minutes
10:56and making that one save when called upon.
10:59Mental strength is also if the team isn't doing so well, but you are.
11:02So, you know, winning as much as you want to,
11:03but you're playing well, so you have to continue to do your job.
11:06So there's many different ways
11:07you have to be mentally strong for as a goalkeeper.
11:09So I think that's part of the appeal,
11:10is the different scenarios
11:11and the ways that you have to be strong and wise than everyone else.
11:19It's fun.
11:19I do find it fun because I'd say 95% of the stuff
11:23that the battering you're getting is all quite lighthearted.
11:26It's people trying to be clever and witty.
11:29And you can actually isolate the people who genuinely,
11:32you know, some people absolutely lose their mind with you.
11:34Like they want to kill you
11:35and all you're doing is standing there and goal.
11:37And you can, you know, if you make eye contact,
11:41you can see the people around them.
11:42You can almost say, come on, like, what is this clown doing?
11:45But that's football.
11:47That's our position.
11:47It's, yeah, I'm going to say it's our job to take the good and the bad.
11:53It was mad because it was kind of like a derby in fairness.
11:57Our local derby was against a team called Loughran,
11:59but that's probably 10 kilometres away from where we were based.
12:02But there was, there was the odd bottle, there was the odd coin,
12:06there was the odd lighter.
12:07And in the end, I think I've just picked mine and thrown mine back.
12:10We were winning 3-1.
12:12But what I didn't realise was there was a fella doing the gate.
12:16He must have been 80 odd.
12:18And I thought, oh, it's a bad move because looking at this gate,
12:22it was a still gate.
12:23I'm thinking there's not a, not a chance his gate's coming through.
12:26It's, you know, it was the old fashioned barbed wire on the top.
12:30And I just thought, there's no way they're getting through here.
12:33And then the next minute, the game's still going on at this stage.
12:35And I could just see this, this fella,
12:38a Transformate with a massive leather jacket on his walkthrough.
12:42And I thought, I need this.
12:44And then his little mate ran behind him and then he wanted to pop as well.
12:47So I thought, we'll give him a dig and hopefully that'll settle it down.
12:51And then thankfully it did.
12:53And I got a hate mail, got death threats.
12:57Only a unique individual would choose to put themselves through all of this
13:00for very little credit,
13:02which is why the old adage says all goalkeepers are mad.
13:06Jens was definitely without question the maddest I've worked with.
13:11But he was probably the most professional.
13:14I don't know where I lie in that.
13:16I don't know whether I'm, I wouldn't say I'm crazy.
13:19I've done some stupid things.
13:21The maddest goalkeeper.
13:23I was working together with Graeme Stuck,
13:26my first goalkeeping partner at Arsenal.
13:30He was Irish.
13:32He was kind of mad in his lifestyle.
13:34He was Irish and he was a very funny guy.
13:39The Irish, sometimes they like to drink.
13:41And so probably when I was lying in bed sleeping,
13:46sometimes you could smell that he had one or two drinks.
13:53He was so funny and he was a good goalkeeper as well.
13:55I remember I raced Jens Lehmann and all the first team were coming out
14:00and they were all watching.
14:00They were all coming out and we used to do little relays on a Friday.
14:04Gerry Payton was a goalie coach and it would be like,
14:07so we'd say a country.
14:08So they'd say Peru, we'd go Chile, America, Belgium.
14:11And then on Peru, you'd have to sprint.
14:14And it was like first to three.
14:15And I'd sort of like done sprinting 2-0 against Jens.
14:18He was like, weren't the quickest, Jens, you know what I mean?
14:21And I was young and I was fit.
14:23And I remember on the last one, I've turned around and beaten backwards.
14:26And all the other lads had watched it,
14:28all the first team players had seen it
14:29and they all started hammering him.
14:31And he chased me.
14:32Jens kept chasing me.
14:33So I've stopped and he's carried on past the finish line to try and catch me.
14:38And I thought he wanted to kill me because they just hate losing.
14:42I don't think you've got to be crazy to be a keeper.
14:45I think you've got to be brave.
14:46I think you've got to be strong mentally.
14:50And I think you've got to have the ability to keep the ball out the back of the net.
14:53But I think being crazy can help.
14:56I played for like 25 clubs in 13 countries on all six FIFA continents,
15:01which makes me the only player so far who has achieved that.
15:05I love animals more than anything else.
15:10And I just had that fable for having exotic pets at home.
15:16So I had some monkeys in Singapore or some lizards,
15:20whatever you call it, I just had it.
15:22And when I played in New Zealand and I saw the beautiful penguins,
15:26I thought, well, why not?
15:27I maybe can cultivate them to be a nice pet within a few hours or a day.
15:33I realised that that won't work out.
15:34So I gave the penguin back into his normal life again.
15:39But that story follows me, of course, all the way around.
15:43When you've had a nightmare and you're getting it from the press,
15:46the fans and your teammates,
15:47there's a select group of people who understand your pain.
15:51The Goalkeepers Union.
15:53In this fabled brotherhood, everyone sticks together.
15:57Don't they?
15:59Once you play the position, I don't think you really do get it.
16:02I think that's why keepers are like that.
16:04I think they understand how hard the position is.
16:09Yeah, I think it's one of them.
16:11I think you just have that bond with other keepers just because of that.
16:16I think you really know how tough the position is
16:18and what you have to go through to be a goalkeeper
16:21and the highs and the lows that you experience.
16:24No, I've never understood the GK Union.
16:27You know, the whole Goalkeepers Union.
16:28Coaches used to say, look at the goalies, look at the union and all that.
16:32But I've never been on that.
16:34And I've told players openly and goalies openly
16:38that the union, it's not for me.
16:41Because I'll respect you and I'll train and I'll do what's right by you.
16:47If I'm not playing, I'll warm me up properly.
16:50I'll make sure I'm out there on time.
16:51I'll make sure the balls are ready.
16:52I'll make sure everything's spot on for you to have a good game,
16:55which even in itself is stupid because I want to play.
17:00But it's what's right.
17:01And that is what's right.
17:02Principally, that's what you should do.
17:08I think with the GK Union, there is a sense of brotherhood,
17:12just purely for the fact that you know what each other's going through.
17:16So like, even now when I'll see a mistake on TV, I'll know it's a mistake.
17:20But it winds me up when I see ex-goalkeepers giving a lot of stick.
17:25I think you certainly have sympathy for other goalkeepers.
17:30I think the Goalkeepers Union was born of
17:34goalkeepers understanding that it is a different position.
17:37We are kind of isolated in our work and in our criticism.
17:44And so, yeah, there's probably some sympathy there.
17:48And I think that's where if another goalkeeper doesn't have a great game,
17:52you're happy you won.
17:53But at the same time, you can also look at them and go,
17:57I've been there.
17:57I understand what that feels like.
17:59But other than that, it is a bit of a made-up type social club, if you will.
18:13For 90 minutes, the goalkeeper multitasks,
18:16switching from shot-stopper to sweeper-keeper,
18:19integrating themselves into the team both tactically and psychologically.
18:24They play on the edge.
18:26One save away from being a hero.
18:28One mistake away from being the villain.
18:31Is it the hardest job in football?
18:34That and probably being a striker.
18:36But, I don't know, I'd say it's one of them because you can make nine worldies
18:41and you make one mistake and people just remember you for the mistake.
18:44So I'd probably say goalkeeping is probably the toughest.
18:47We have to respect and appreciate each other's responsibility.
18:51You know, centre-halves have to go up.
18:54You know, they take elbows and cuts across the eye every other game.
18:58You know, a midfielder has literally got to bust his lungs to run up and on the field.
19:04I gotta be honest, I wouldn't want to do that.
19:06I don't have the wherewithal to run 13k in a game.
19:09But I need to respect the guy that does,
19:11just the way he has to respect me for putting my face in front of a 70 mile an hour shot
19:16and for diving around like an idiot where it all hurts.
19:19And so there's aspects to the game that need to be respected.
19:23We have a bigger responsibility and I think you have to take that on board.
19:28You have to be encouraged by that by taking on that responsibility.
19:32We have probably a bigger leadership role in the team than most players.
19:36Listen, sticking the ball in the goal is what wins matches,
19:41keeps managers in jobs, gets players promoted,
19:45gets players money for bonuses and whatever else.
19:47So that's probably the most important thing is scoring goal.
19:51But for me, I think the hardest job on the pitch is being a goalkeeper.
20:06you