Ben Alnwick

Sunderland

Alnwick was born in the small Northumberland town of Prudhoe. He spent his boyhood years playing for the Prudhoe youth side. He started his professional career at Sunderland, and came to prominence at the climax of their 2004–05 Football League Championship-winning season, replacing the injured Thomas Myhre for Sunderland's last three games. His performances against Leicester City and West Ham United, the games that won Sunderland promotion to the Premier League and Championship win respectively, were impressive. In November 2005, he spent a stint as the number one goalkeeper at Sunderland, replacing Kelvin Davis. Despite impressing, particularly in Sunderland's 3–2 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur where he made a penalty save from Robbie Keane, Alnwick was dropped in favour of Kelvin Davis. After the departure of Davis to Southampton, Alnwick was given the number 1 shirt for the 2006–07 season. After a disappointing start to the season 2006–07 season, Alnwick was relegated to the substitutes bench in favour of Darren Ward by new boss Roy Keane.

Tottenham Hotspur

Just two days after the January 2007 transfer window had opened, Alnwick joined Tottenham Hotspur for a fee of £900,000 in a deal that could rise to £1.3 million and saw Márton Fülöp going the other way for £500,000.

Loan moves

In September 2007 he was loaned to League One side Luton Town on a three-month loan deal. He was recalled from Luton in October, due to an injury to Paul…

Alnwick received his first call-up to the England under-21 squad ahead of 15 August 2006 match against Moldova. Still awaiting his debut, Alnwick was named in Stuart Pearce's first squad as England under-21 coach, alongside another uncapped goalkeeper, Joe Hart. He was not chosen to start the match, on 6 February 2007, against Spain. Alnwick was named in the first England U21 squad to play at the new Wembley against Italy U21s on 24 March 2007, but he remained an unused sub. He was also named in England's squad for the U21 European Championships in the Netherlands. He debuted a year after his first call-up, in a friendly against Romania at Ashton Gate. He came on for the second half as a substitute for Joe Hart, and kept a clean sheet.

His younger brother Jak, a goalkeeper for Huddersfield Town, was at the Prudhoe local youth clubs and the Sunderland youth academy but joined North East rivals Newcastle United as a first year scholar in 2008. Jak won Newcastle's "Wor Jackie" award (named after Jackie Milburn) for best under-18 player in 2011. The pair played against each other in a 1–1 draw between Port Vale and Peterborough United on 17 October 2015. Alnwick has been in an on-off relationship with his childhood sweetheart since 2007.

Tottenham Hotspur

Football League Cup runner-up: 2008–09 Bolton Wanderers

EFL League One runner-up: 2016–17