Keeper Skool Interviews Ian Walker

Ian Walker’s career has spanned many years at the top flight of international football. Predominantly, his tenure in the Premier League, with teams such as Tottenham Hotspur and Leicester City had spanned some 468 professional games. At an international level, Ian was capped for England 4 times. After completing a three year tenure at Bolton Wanderers, Ian decided to move onto a managerial career with Bishop Stortford in the Conference North.

Today, Ian is the goalkeeping coach at Chinese Super League powerhouse Shanghai Shenhua, where he joined former Bolton Wanderers team mate Nicolas Anelka, helping to develop the first team goalkeepers.

In this exclusive interview, we walk through Ian’s career and discuss his views of goalkeeping development in the massive footballing growth market of Asia.

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Keeper Skool Interviews Roger Spry

In a career spanning over 30 years, Roger Spry has been responsible for the physical and technical development of some of the very best footballers to grace the world stage. Whilst many of our readers may have never heard of Roger Spry, his training methodologies have been ingrained into the largest football clubs in the world, and have allowed for leading managers to take their football teams to the upper echelons of the game and beyond.

Roger’s fitness training philosophies have been embraced by the likes of Scotland and Kuwait National Teams, clubs such as Sporting Lisbon, Vitoria Setubal (Portugal), Aston Villa, Sheffield Wednesday, Arsenal, Manchester City, Vissell Kobe (Japan), FC Porto, AEK Athens and Panathinaikos to name a very few of his global clientele.World renowned managers such as Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger, Carlos Quieroz, Sir Bobby Robson, Mario Zagallo and Carlos Alberto Parreria have all embraced the elite training methodologies that have been developed by Roger. Currently, Roger is the CEO of Maximum Performance Limited, Consultant Coach Educator at U.E.F.A. and is the Head of Performance for the Austrian Football Association. Read more

Co-Hosts advance after stunning Senegal

Equatorial Guinea qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals after stunning highly-fancied Senegal 2-1in Bata.

The National Lightning left it extremely late to clinch victory, with their winner coming in the 94th minute of the match, which sent the 40,000 crowd in the Estadio de Bata into delirious celebration.

The victory was somewhat of a shock, especially since Senegal had been tipped by many to go far in the tournament.

The defeat was the second of the tournament for the Senegalese and they now exit the competition they expected to go far in, with their coach Amara Traore expecting to make the semi-finals at least.

The Teranga Lions had thought they had kept themselves in the tournament after equalising in the 89th minute, through Moussa Sow.

The host nation were not to be denied though with Kily firing in an unstoppable 25-yard shot four minutes into added time. There was still time after that for Equatorial Guinea centre back to be sent off, capping an extraordinary end to the game.

Randy had opened the scoring for the Lightning in the 62nd minute, firing home at the back post, after Kily had sent over a inviting cross.

The co-hosts will fancy their chances against anyone in the last eight after beating a Senegal side with a highly fated front-line of Demba Ba, Pappis Demba Cisse and Mamadou Niang.

The West African’s exit from the tournament is good news for Newcastle though as it means that Ba and recent signing Cisse will be returning to the club earlier than expected, though that will be of no concern to the Senegalese supporters, whose wait for African Nations Cup glory goes on.

Written by Mike Jones, a big fan of placing a football bet at the weekends!

Keeper Skool Interviews Tony Waiters

Tony Waiters career spans the spectrum of over arching success, not only as an exceptional goalkeeper, though also as a coach with tenure at the highest echelon of football globally, and as an football educator whose depth of knowledge has taken many players and teams to the next level.

Playing a vital role as goalkeeper for Blackpool for close to a decade, Tony Waiters appeared in over 250 appearances for the ‘Seasiders’ throughout the 60′s. With 5 international caps for England, Tony was in line to replace legendary goalkeeper Gordon Banks in the 1966 World Cup, which ultimately did not eventuate. The following year Tony retired from football and begun his journey into coaching.

With roles at Liverpool FC’s Academy, the FA and finally at Burnley FC, where he returned to playing for over 40 games with ‘The Clarets’ before definitively hanging up the gloves and returning to full time coaching.

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Keeper Skool Goalkeeper Camp Tour – US & UK

It’s been a very long time coming, though a week or so ago (and after some serious year long planning), I’ve decided to open the door to an official Keeper Skool Goalkeeper Camp Tour in the US and the UK. Below are some registration links and information around what we are planning to do, and of course scouts and goalkeeping celebrities (not naming names just yet, of course) that we are planning to be a part of this mammoth task ahead of us. Read more

Goalkeeper training at Pro Football Trials event in Sydney

On a rain soaked Sunday (3rd October 2010), I had the privelege of training 10 phenomenal young goalkeepers of varying ages, from all around Australia. It  was great to work alongside Aussie football trainer Nathan Gray, and gain expert advice from leading youth scouts Phil Thompson and Karl Kirkwood of Blackburn FC and Everton FC . Read more

Keeper Skool Interviews Paul Blodgett

Paul Blodgett is considered by his peers a master goalkeeper coach. Spanning well over 20 years of goalkeeping education, Paul has set a standard of the highest quality goalkeeper development amongst goalkeeper coaches in the USA. From his time at Agawam High School, Nasson College and Rutgers University developing footballers alongside Bob Reasso. Read more

Keeper Skool Interviews Lambert Jager

Dutch goalkeeping coach Lambert Jager has been responsible for the development of some the most talented goalkeepers in Holland and abroad. Currently, goalkeeper coach at Nanchang Bayi Football Club (China), Lambert has trained the goalkeepers at leading Dutch clubs such as Vitesse (Dutch Premiership), Cambuur Leeuwarden (First Division), FC Zwolle (Dutch Premiership), De Graafschap (Dutch Premiership) and AGOVV Apeldoorn in the Dutch Eerste Divisie (division under the Dutch Premier League). Read more

Keeper Skool Interviews Clayton Ince

Hailing from Trinidad and Tobago, Clayton Ince has proved to be a commanding presence in goal for English League 1 team Walsall. Apart from his solid goalkeeping performances in English League Football, Ince has also proved to have some staying power between the sticks for The Soca Warriors, gaining 79 caps to date for his country. Read more

Keeper Skool Interviews Billy Stewart

Billy Stewart is not a name you may recognize instantly, though this former professional goalkeeper is responsible today for the development of some of the very best young goalkeepers in England, and foreign goalkeepers playing in the Premier League to boot. Billy hails from Liverpool, England, and had started his career with The Reds as an apprentice, becoming a professional player. Though, never getting the chance to showcase his ability with Liverpool FC, he moved onto clubs such as Wigan, Chester City and Southport. Over 9 years at Chester City, Billy played over 272 professional games under managers such as the great Harry McNally, traveling to Wembley Stadium on two occasions with both Chester City and Southport. Read more

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