Andy Goram

Early career

Goram began his career at West Bromwich Albion but was released as a teenager. He then joined Oldham Athletic in 1981 and spent nearly seven years with the club, making 195 Football League appearances. His performances saw him voted into the PFA Team of the Year for the English Second Division in 1986–87.

Hibernian

In 1987, he returned to Scotland, joining Hibernian for a fee of £325,000. His father had also briefly been a goalkeeper with the Edinburgh club. He made his debut for Hibs on 10 October 1987, keeping a clean sheet in a 4–0 win over Dunfermline Athletic. He served as club captain for the majority of his stay in the capital, and in 1988 achieved the unusual feat of scoring a goal in a Premier Division match, against Morton, with a long kick. He also scored again in a penalty shoot-out after a goalless draw against Clydebank in a League Cup tie in August 1989, Hibs winning 5–3. A save he made in a European tie against RFC Liège was described by Lou Macari as having "defied logic". Goram twisted in mid air to touch a header from Angelo Nijskens away for a corner kick. In a BBC podcast, "Remembering Andy Goram", he said of his time at Hibs, "Everybody associates me with Rangers because of my time there, but I had four fantastic years with Hibs. My Dad played for Hibs and I've a great affinity for them."

Rangers

In the summer of 1991, Goram signed for Rangers in a £1 million transfer deal. He made his debut in a 6–0 win over St…

Goram's first involvement in international football was in 1983, when Howard Wilkinson named him in an England under-21 squad; however, despite his club form at Oldham, Wilkinson had doubts about his relative lack of height and instead played Alan Knight in goal. As such, Goram remained eligible to play for Scotland. In October 1985, Scotland caretaker manager Alex Ferguson named Goram in his squad for a friendly match against East Germany at Hampden Park. He made his debut in that game on 16 October 1985, coming on in the second half as a substitute for Jim Leighton. In the run-up to the 1986 FIFA World Cup, Goram played the full 90 minutes in friendly matches against Romania and the Netherlands, keeping clean sheets in both games. He travelled to Mexico in the summer of 1986 as a member of Scotland's World Cup squad, although he was third choice behind Leighton and Alan Rough and did not play in any of Scotland's three games. Leighton remained first-choice goalkeeper for Scotland in their qualifying campaigns for Euro 1988 and the 1990 FIFA World Cup, with Goram as his understudy. Goram played one competitive game during this time: a 1–1 home draw against Yugoslavia in October 1988 during the qualifiers for the 1990 World Cup. He did play in several friendly matches, and was in the Scotland squad that took part in the 1990 World Cup in Italy, although once again he did not actually play in games there. After the 1990 World Cup, Goram established himself as Scotland's…

Goram also worked as a goalkeeping coach with various clubs after retiring from playing. He took on part-time coaching duties when he returned to Motherwell in 2002. He later coached at Dundee in 2005, Airdrie United in March 2006 and then Clyde in February 2008. He left Clyde in September 2008. In January 2012, Goram helped Hamilton Academical with their goalkeeping coach crisis. In January 2014, he took up the role of goalkeeping coach in the coaching staff at Ayr United, joining up again with godson David Hutton, as he did at Clyde and Hamilton. In October 2014, he became goalkeeping coach at Lowland League side BSC Glasgow. He returned to professional football in January 2015, when he was appointed goalkeeping coach at Dunfermline Athletic, until May 2015 when he left the position. He later had a spell at Airdrieonians as goalkeeping coach from May 2016 until October 2016, leaving the club following a spate of managerial and coaching changes. His last club was West of Scotland Football League club Cambuslang Rangers.

Goram was born on 13 April 1964 and raised in England, although he was brought up self-identifying as Scottish. He was the son of Edinburgh-born Lewis Goram, who had played professionally in goal in the 1940s and 1950s for Leith Athletic, Hibernian, Third Lanark and Bury. Goram was accused in the late 1990s of having sympathies with Ulster loyalists during his regular visits to Belfast. His ex-wife Tracey accused him of collecting loyalist memorabilia and associating with the Ulster Volunteer Force. He denied the accusations, said that he supported the Northern Ireland peace process and threatened to sue his accusers. He was accused of associations with the loyalist Billy Wright and of wearing a black armband whilst playing against Celtic four days after Wright's murder; he said that the armband was in memory of an aunt who died four months earlier. In September 2007, Goram was assaulted at a fundraising dinner by a man who accused him of sectarianism; he condemned sectarianism and said he was "sick of being called a bigot for no reason". On 30 May 2022, it was announced that Goram had been diagnosed with terminal oesophageal cancer and had been told he had six months to live. He died on 2 July 2022, aged 58, at a hospice in Airdrie. On 29 August 2022, the league game between Hibs and Rangers at Easter Road was preceded by a minute's applause for Goram and his picture was shown on big screens.