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Neville
Southall
Former
Player Profile
Neville Southall (born September 16, 1958 in Llandudno, Wales) is
a former professional footballer, playing the position of
goalkeeper. Southall's career spanned much of the 1980s and
1990s.
At his peak, Southall was regarded as the finest goalkeeper in
the world and many have regarded him as the best. Most famously
he played for Everton where he made a club record 578 league
appearances (over 750 in all competitions) and won two Football
League championships.
He also played internationally for Wales, winning 92 caps:
another record. Unfortunately for Southall, his career coincided
with English clubs being banned from European competitions
following the Heysel Stadium disaster, and the Welsh team never
qualified for a major tournament during his career.
He had something of a love affair with Everton, enjoying early
success in the 80s, whilst he was perhaps the figurehead of
Everton's gloom in the 90s. Indeed, during the opening match of
the 1990/91 season, he famously sat down during a "sulking
session" against a goalpost at half-time whilst his
teammates were still in the changing rooms during a surprise 2-3
home defeat to newly promoted Leeds United (it may be worth
mentioning that Everton did pull back from three goals down but
Everton were trailing by those three goals at half-time). A
lasting image which epitomised the era.
This was a turbulent time for Southall as he handed in several
transfer requests throughout the season and did so further on in
his Everton career. However he remained a constant fixture for
the blues and his loyalty was rewarded in 1995 when he turned in
a 'man of the match' performance to thwart Manchester United in
the FA Cup final and claim his first silverware for 8 years.
He retired in 2002 at the age of 43. He also played for Winsford
United, Bury, Bradford City, Stoke City, Rhyl, Southend United,
York City, Shrewsbury Town, Huddersfield Town and Torquay United.
His Nicknames were "Baggy Nev" and Big Nev". He
was voted Footballer of The Year in 1985, extremely rare for a
goalkeeper, and awarded the M.B.E in 1997.
After his football career, Neville Southall had coaching
experience with the Welsh national squad, Dagenham and Redbridge,
Dover, Canvey Island and Molesey before finally going into
management at Hastings United in 2004.
He was sacked as Hastings' manager in 2005 with the Hastings'
chairman saying that "there have recently been an increasing
number of issues on which Neville and I have disagreed and it had
got to the point where our working relationship had broken down,
beyond the point of repair, as far as I was concerned".
In November 2005, Paul Merson remarkably revealed that he had
approached Southall and ex-England goalkeeper David Seaman to
perform in an FA Cup game at Merthyr Tydfil as their two first
choice goalkeepers, Joe Murphy and Andy Oakes, were unavailable.
However, Southall turned this offer down, claiming he was too old
to do himself justice.
Everton have never approached Neville regarding a coaching role
to the dismay of both Neville and the Everton fans.
In May 2006, "Big Nev" is set to go out to Borneo to
take part in the PFA Borneo Cup in aid of Children Today.
