Chris Kirkland

At 43 years old, Chris Kirkland has this physical status:

Christopher Edmund Kirkland (born 2 May 1981) is an English football coach and former professional goalkeeper.

He made 321 league and cup appearances in an 18-year professional career, from 1998 to 2016, including one cap for the England national team in 2006. Kirkland began his career at Coventry City, where he was regarded as one of the country's most promising young goalkeepers.

In August 2001, he was signed by Premier League club Liverpool for £6 million.

However, his time at the club was marred by recurring injuries, which nearly forced him to leave football completely.

After a fruitful loan period, he'd return to Wigan Athletic in July 2006, and he had further loan spells with Leicester City and Doncaster Rovers before being signed by Sheffield Wednesday in May 2012.

He joined Preston North End in August 2015 and spent a short time with Bury before retiring in August 2016. Kirkland took up coaching with Port Vale in January 2017, a year after resigning from football.

He joined the Liverpool Women's coaching staff the following year and was briefly the boss for a month and a half.

Personal life

Lucy, He and his wife Leeona's daughter, was born on November 14, 2006, which caused him to miss an international friendly match against the Netherlands the next day. Kirkland joined forces with fellow professionals Kevin Davies and Brett Emerton in April 2008 to help launch the Get Started program, a national initiative aimed at combating re-offending. He paid a visit to Hindley Youth Offenders' Institution in support of the program, which is delivered by The Prince's Trust in collaboration with the Premier League, the PFA, and the Football Foundation.

Kirkland opened up about his painkiller use in July 2022 and revealed that he had previously considered suicide.

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Club career

Kirkland was born in Barwell, Leicestershire, where he grew up with his parents, Marie and Eddie, and attended Heathfield School and then Henley College Coventry. Eddie, Eddie's father, was a crane pilot and spent many hours assisting his son in learning his goalkeeping skills. He accepted a contract with Coventry City following an unsuccessful trial with Blackburn Rovers. In July 1998, he signed professional terms with the club.

In a 3–1 victory over Tranmere Rovers at Highfield Road on September 22, 1999, Kirkland made his debut for Coventry in the League Cup. Despite saying that Kirkland was "big Bambi" who couldn't kick the ball out of the penalty box, manager Gordon Strachan started selecting him in Premier League matches ahead of Swedish international Magnus Hedman's debut. He was voted Coventry's Player of the Year by his coworkers at the end of the 2000–01 season, and his teammates named him Player of the Year. Despite his limited education, he was linked to moves to Arsenal and Liverpool and was then sold to Liverpool for £6 million in August 2001. At the time, he was the most expensive goalkeeper in British transfer history, but he was only 20 years old.

Kirkland made his Liverpool debut in October 2001 but mainly served as understudy to first-choice goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek during the 2001–2002 season. In the 2002 FA Community Shield, where Liverpool lost 1–0 by Arsenal, he was an unused replacement. During the 2002–03 season, Dudek's costly mistakes in a league match against Manchester United culminated in manager Gérard Houllier's hand over the first team slot to Kirkland. He played 14 straight games, during which he had six clean sheets, but he suffered an ankle injury in January 2003, which ruled him out for the remainder of the season. In September 2003, he was out of action after tearing his groin while under-21 in England. In December 2003, he fractured a finger and was barred from action for four months after undergoing surgery to repair it.

Kirkland was fired as the first-choice Liverpool keeper at the start of the 2004–05 season, and he played 14 games before being forced to miss out in December due to a long-running back injury. He had attended four Champions League games but was unable to be selected in the squad for the 2005 final due to injury; Scott Carson, who took his place on the bench in Istanbul, later offered his Champions League champions gold to Kirkland, who refused to accept it.

Kirkland decided to go on a season-long loan to Bryan Robson's West Bromwich Albion in order to jump-start his career. On his Albion debut, he kept a clean sheet on his debut, while the team drew 0–0 away at Manchester City. After suffering an injury to Kirkland in the first half of the 2005–06 season, Polish goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak was brought back to the team, and Kuszczak and the Hawthorns continued their strong play, ensuring that he remained first-choice goalkeeper at The Hawthorns for the remainder of the season. Kirkland spent time out of action with a cracked finger, and Liverpool boss Rafael Bentez told him that if he wanted to play regular first team football, he'd have to get away from Anfield.

Kirkland joined Wigan Athletic on a six-month loan term in July 2006. "He certainly has the potential," manager Paul Jewell said, but there is also the question of fitness. It's not just him because he's been unlucky with broken ribs, fingers, knee injury, and the back. On October 27, the two clubs and Kirkland made a compromise, and this transfer became permanent for a sum of £2.5 million. For the 2007–08 season, he received the Players' Player of the Year and Media Player of the Year awards. In a 5–3 victory over Blackburn Rovers at the DW Stadium, saving a Benni McCarthy penalty was a highlight of this season. He vowed to leave Wigan in May 2008 when he signed a new one, effectively committing him to the club until 2012.

Kirkland's Premier League match against Tottenham Hotspur took place on November 22, 2009. Steve Bruce, Kirkland's former boss, was linked to a move for Kirkland in January 2010, but "all talk about me bidding £5 million for Chris Kirkland is garbage," the manager said, "but I'm a big fan of him." "If you look at the consistency of his work – week in, week out – it is up there with the best in England," manager Roberto Marten said in March 2010.

Wigan were notably defeated in their first two games against Blackpool and Chelsea, but Ali Al-Habsi was brought to the starting lineup. Kirkland was on loan with Leicester City from November 25 to January. While undergoing a quick recovery, a back spasm suffered during training in early December could have ended his time at the club, but after making a quick recovery, the club repaid his loan. In a 3–0 loss to Ipswich Town on December 19, he made his debut. After appearing at three different locations at The Walkers Stadium, Kirkland returned to Wigan for recovery for his back pain. After a match against Bolton Wanderers on January 5th, 2011, Kirkland was suspended from the team due to Ali Al-Habsi's ineligibility to play against his parent club.

Kirkland had intended to join Cardiff City on emergency loan in February 2011, but the contract fell through due to a virus. After attracting new manager Dean Saunders' interest on October 12, Kirkland signed Championship Doncaster Rovers on loan until January. Kirkland was sent back to parent club Wigan after less than a week into his loan stint at the Keepmoat Stadium, despite another back spat.

Kirkland's manager Dave Jones said whoever played best out of Kirkland and Stephen Bywater during pre-season will win a first team spot. Kirkland made his debut in a 4–2 League Cup victory over Oldham Athletic on Wednesday, September 13. During the 1–1 draw against Leeds United, a fan of running onto the field was assaulted on October 19th by a fan who had run onto the pitch. After the assault, which was caught on television cameras and immediately after a Leeds goal, Kirkland required several minutes of care. Aaron Cawley, his killer, pleaded guilty to assault and was sentenced to 16 weeks in prison. Kirkland remained the first-choice goalkeeper for the majority of the 2012–13 and 2013–14 seasons, but after turning down manager Stuart Gray's offer of a new deal, he was relegated to second choice behind Keiren Westwood during the majority of the 2014–15 season and left Hillsborough in July 2015.

Kirkland joined Preston North End on a one-year deal on August 12, 2015. Jordan Pickford, the understudy, was signed as an understudy to on loan goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, and he remained on the bench after Pickford was recalled, though Sam Johnstone and Anders Lindegaard joined the club on loan. When Kirkland's deal with Deepdale came to an end at the end of the 2015–16 season, the manager Simon Grayson was fired.

In June 2016, Kirkland joined Bury as part of a One-year deal. However, before the 2016–17 season began in August, he left Gigg Lane for personal reasons. He revealed later that he had been fighting a four-year battle with depression.

International career

Kirkland earned eight caps with the England national under-21 squad from 2003 to date, but did not make it to the senior squad until he came on as a replacement for the second half of a friendly against Greece in August 2006. Kirkland was eleven years old when he and some family friends bet 100% that they would play for England before the age of 30; Kirkland's appearance earned the company £10,000 each.

Coaching career

Kirkland started coaching the goalkeepers at Port Vale in January 2017 as a favor to his friend and former teammate Michael Brown. He also founded the Chris Kirkland Goalkeeper Academy.

Kirkland returned to Liverpool in July 2018 as a goalkeeping coach for the women's team. Following Neil Redfearn's departure, he was named caretaker boss of the team on September 14th. Following Vicky Jepson's appointment as permanent manager on October 26, he returned to his old position as goalkeeping coach and assumed additional responsibilities as assistant manager. In March 2019, he resigned from his role to concentrate on the increasing demands of operating his own goalkeeping academy. In June 2020, he was hired as the head goalkeeping coach at Colne.

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