It’s difficult to imagine football without goalkeepers, but in football’s formative years the position didn’t exist. In the mid-19th century, before association football had been codified, there were numerous variations and sets of rules, but none of them accounted for a goalkeeper.

The influential Cambridge rules, set out in 1848, stated that, “hands may be used only to stop a ball and place it on the ground before the feet.” Any player could handle the ball, and therefore any player could keep goal, but there was no formal goalkeeping position.

In 1863 the original Football Association rules were drawn up, but still made no mention of the goalkeeper. The separate Sheffield rules did, however, stating: “The goalkeeper is that player in the defending side who is for the time being nearest his own goal.” It was still perfectly acceptable for any member of the team to handle the ball anywhere on the pitch, but teams began to assign specific players to act as goalkeeper…

Read the full story in issue 5 of Goalkeeper Magazine.

Football Goalkeeper Magazine

Fictional footballers are usually goalscoring centre forwards, but surely no position lends itself to the drama of fiction better than the heroic role of the goalkeeper. Goalkeeper Magazine presents ten of the best goalkeepers from books, comics, films and TV shows:

Ronnie Blake (Goalkeepers Are Different): Esteemed sportswriter Brian Glanville’s Goalkeepers Are Different was published in 1972 by Puffin and aimed at younger readers, but it’s a must-read for goalkeepers of all ages. The book tracks the progress of young keeper Ronnie Blake as he establishes himself between the sticks at fictional first division side Borough, competing against the best teams and players of the era. It feels like an authentic glimpse into the life of a goalkeeper in the early 70s, set in an evocative world of studs, mud and sideburns, and regarded by many as the best football book ever written…

Read the full story in issue four of Goalkeeper Magazine.

Football Goalkeeper Magazine