Welcome to Goalkeepers United!

My name is James and I’m the creator of Goalkeepers United, your one-stop site for all your goalkeeping advice, product reviews, competitions and a place to help you become a better goalkeeper.

Many years ago I was an amateur goalkeeper. I loved the position and was developing into a pretty good keeper, playing both Saturday and Sunday morning football.

But then …

In 1992 the back-pass rule was introduced to “discourage time-wasting and unduly defensive play” after the 1990 World Cup was described as exceedingly dull. It was a tournament rife with back-passing and goalkeepers holding up the ball. The incident cited as causing the rule change was in the Republic of Ireland vs Egypt game, where Ireland goalkeeper Packie Bonner dribbled the ball around his area and continually picked it back up, for a total of 6 minutes!
So, in the first game of the 1992 season, I receive a back-pass. It was under-hit by my defender. Usually, this would be no problem, I’d sprint out and dive onto the ball. Claiming the ball in my hands and taking out the forward who was bearing down on it. This season however I knew I had to kick it. I raced forward and swung my foot through the ball at the exact same time the striker went in studs up, breaking my leg in the process. That was it for me as a goalkeeper unfortunately. Maybe I lost some confidence when I returned, or maybe I just wasn’t 100% into the position anymore. Either way I didn’t play in goal for a team again for a long time.

Fast forward a few (many) years …

And now I have a ten-year-old lad who wants to be a goalie. He’s got himself a team and trains twice a week. I take him out into the garden and to the local pitches to take shots at him and help his progress. Getting between the sticks again has been a real buzz. I’ve fallen in love with catching, blocking, diving, punching, finger-tipping over the crossbar all over again.

My son is of the TikTok generation so we started filming his saves, slowing them down, adding music/sound effects and uploading them. Which has now progressed to this site.

Along the way, we’ve discovered there are so many goalkeeping products (far more than when I was starting out), techniques, training methods etc. that we wanted to share a bit of our journey. Our goal for the site is to share what we’ve learnt as my lad progresses as a keeper, but also what I’ve learned over many years being a keeper.

Hopefully some of what we share will inspire you or your child as well as help you make a more informed buying decisions when it comes to goalkeeping equipment.

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