Chris Kirkland

Coventry City

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. His father, Eddie, was a crane driver and spent many hours helping his son practise his goalkeeping skills. After an unsuccessful trial with Blackburn Rovers, he accepted a contract offer from Coventry City. He signed professional terms with the club in July 1998. Kirkland made his debut for Coventry in the League Cup in a 3–1 victory over Tranmere Rovers at Highfield Road on 22 September 1999. Manager Gordon Strachan began selecting him in Premier League matches ahead of Swedish international Magnus Hedman despite saying Kirkland was "big Bambi who couldn't kick the ball out of the penalty box". His performances were rewarded at the end of the 2000–01 season when he made his debut for the England under-21s, and was voted Coventry's Players' Player of the Year by his teammates. He was linked with moves to Arsenal and Liverpool, despite his relatively limited experience and was eventually bought by Liverpool for £6 million in August 2001. At the time he was the most expensive goalkeeper in British transfer history, at only 20 years old.

Liverpool

Kirkland made his debut for Liverpool in October 2001, but mostly served as understudy to first-choice goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek during the 2001–02 season. He was an unused substitute in the 2002 FA Community Shield at the Millennium Stadium,…

Kirkland won eight caps with the England national under-21 team and was regularly selected for the senior squad from 2003 onwards, but did not make an appearance until he came on as a substitute for the second half of a friendly against Greece in August 2006. When Kirkland was eleven years old, his father and some family friends had placed bets of £100 each at 100/1 odds that he would play for England before the age of 30; Kirkland's appearance netted the group £10,000 each.

Kirkland was identified at an early age as a goalkeeper with an "uncommon mixture of height, agility and bravery".

Kirkland began coaching the goalkeepers at League One club Port Vale in January 2017 as a favour to his friend and former teammate Michael Brown. He also set up the Chris Kirkland Goalkeeper Academy. In July 2018, Kirkland returned to Liverpool as a goalkeeping coach for the women's team. He was appointed caretaker manager of the team on 14 September upon the resignation of Neil Redfearn. Following Vicky Jepson's appointment as permanent manager on 26 October, he returned to his previous role as goalkeeping coach. He took on the additional duty as assistant manager. He quit the role in March 2019 to focus on the growing demands of running his goalkeeping academy. He was appointed as head goalkeeping coach at Colne in June 2020.