True characters in football

Tidigare publicerad på Chelsea Vital

The most fascinating figure in football is the goalkeeper.

Theirs is a position that demands a totally different kind of character, players that simply are more interesting than most. And who differ from the rest of the crowd.

We all love and follow the striker, a powerful dynamo in the midfield or a defender like JT. They usually also get to be the stars. Goalkeepers rarely are made the stars, because honestly we still pick the least good of the lads to fill that post and the friendly game at the meadows. The fat guy that can not run or the bumbling one with three left feet, you know how it was. Still, among those a few incredible players emerge.

The goalkeeper attracts not only those their young friends consider not good enough to play as an outfield player, but different characters. It is a position few choose, a lot are in a way forced into it. Still it`s the position that creates the more fascinating characters anyway. Quite often they are the thinkers of the team. Sometimes the loons of the team, say Grobbelaar, Barthez, The Scorpion Higuera and you probably understand what I mean. Or the rooving crazies like the German goalkeepers, Kahn, Schumacher, Lehmann. Men breed on adrenaline like it was mother`s milk.

The goalkeeper is my idol.

No one is more abused or put under bigger scrutiny. If Lamps make a mistake in a game, nobody but him maybe, notices and remembers. If the goalkeeper makes a mistake the odds are that it is fatal. Often it will be the talk of the pub.

So naturally that was the position I choose for myself. Inspired by two of the world`s 20-30 ever best goalkeepers. Peter Bonetti of Chelsea, the Cat, and Ronnie Hellström. (The latter made one mistake in his career, guess what everyone still wants to talk about?! It is probably the only thing they remember of the 1970 World Cup). Being the awkward loon I was.

It is the lonielist, most exposed place in the team. You don`t even train and warm up with the other players. When I started there was no coaches for goalies. The best advice you would get was, catch that fricking ball. And when to they show those pesky clips on television, it is usually the goalie that is the butt of the jokes. And they are sometimes hilarious like the goalie that kicks the ball in his own goal - I did that once. My excuse was that the pitch was uphill. Trully it was. It was not a football pitch, just a patch of grass. And I stepped on a stone and made a perfect bicycleta… Took a couple of days to get over it.

Goalkeeper was what I wanted to be. Until I put my hand on a ball that a friendly forward trod on. A bit like Diaby and Terry. My fingers went in different directions. It is still as crooked as an American president (of the greenery kind). After that my career was over and I had to settle for playing as a right winger.

All because I kind of developed a quality not wanted in goalkeepers. A fear of the ball.

Something I was the last to realise. I also played goalie in handball (that is team handball, not that american game with a glove hitting a small black ball). My teammates, did not so somberly, tell me that they could not have me in the team as I went down on my knees with my eyes closed when they shot at me. Not a useful quality.

Goalkeepers also have to endure more pain than others, that was the point with that excursion. Look at the helmeted one and remember that. And they still have to be there to get more pain. A bit like boxing. Being a goalkeeper in England is also tougher than in any other country. In Italy the refs protects the goalies much more. In England goalkeepers are expected to take more hits and knocks than anywhere in the world. And with this season as evidence, maybe the English refs should reconsider a bit.

That is why I am fascinated by goalkeepers. They are not like the other players. Would the second best player in England as a right winger stay with a club he knows he will almost never play for? Cudicini did. Why? The only answer I can find is that he loves the club and does not care about his career. He is happy enough diving for balls at Cobham.

And I am convinced that I right now have the honour of watching, the grace of seeing how the best goalkeeper ever develops at Chelsea. Petr Cech. He will be better even than Gordon Banks, the Russian keeper Lev Yashin (considered to be the best ever) and the rest. They say Buffon is best. No. He is not. Casillas is not better, not even Canizares. And the thing about goalkeepers are that they are rarely any good until their late twenties. Cech is not even there yet. Had Petr come from the big football countries nobody would doubt the fact that he is the best.

Petr Cech will be remembered as the best goalkeeper ever if he does not have to cut his career short. And he plays for Chelsea!

He is not a bullient character. He is subdued, has a fairly bad posture (as have a lot of tall people that have to hunch down in school). He does not talk big words. He does not date supermodels. He just is the best. He has everything a great goalkeeper needs. There is not one tool missing in the toolbox. He even has the confidence despite his low key approach to everything.

His first season in the Premiership was sensational. Nothing but. He set new records and did virtually nothing wrong. Still I think he is much better now.

His second season was so so. I was disappointed until I learned that he had played the entire season injured. With a shoulder injury. That is like Drogba playing with a wooden foot. And he picked up another at the World Cup. 99 out of 100 players would have sought out treatment. Petr still tried to repeat his debut season.

He started this season very good after his operations. Better than expected after the injuries. And then that horrible day at Reading. I still think Hunt could have avoided the accident and that is why I can`t stand his cowardly behaviour not even visiting and apoligising to Petr. It was not intentional, but it deserved a sincere apology. Hunt was very careless.

But what Petr has done now is almost miraculous. Back after only three months. And playing like a god. Only four goals conceded, and two of those at the illfated Liverpool game when we had no defence.

The ugly headgear apart. (I know that there was an aesthetic reason I never could get into rugby). He has maybe not dominated games but he has made vital saves in each and every game. Against Portsmouth the most obvious ones. His turning and getting a hand on the Cole header is more than pure class. World class. The other save was maybe a bit more spectacular, but actually much easier to make. We call that television saves.

It is not only those qualities that make him so important. You saw Hilario making good saves. But Hilario could not control and run the defence. Cech can. He knows where he wants each and every one in front of him. He and Terry together are the Sun Tzus of football. Just count the goals admitted when those two play together.

Believe me, when Cech`s career is over in 10-15 years (hopefully all at Chelsea) he will be unequivocally the best goalkeeper ever. He will have set new standards for goalkeepers. And without being an obnoxious twerp like some teutonics I will not mention. (And on that note a mentioning of the Rennes goalkeeper coach must be the best in the world too; Cech, Isaksson -if Pearce one day will understand what he got- and the new French sensation I can`t remember the name of…).

Cech has it all. He`s good on the line. Great reflexes. Good hands. Unusually good feet for a goalie. He is good on high balls. He reads the game excellenty and positions himself accordingly. He is very calm and exudes confidence the defence can draw from. The thing I might admire the most is that he is always alert. There are quite a few games when he is unoccupied 99% of the time and still can make that crucial save.

Maybe I like some players more in the game, but there is no one I admire more than Petr Cech. And if he keeps this game up, he will give Drogba and Essien a run for their money as player of the year. And he has not even reached his so called best age. After that injury!