Bruce Grobbelaar

Early years

In his teenage years, Grobbelaar was a talented cricketer and was offered a baseball scholarship in the United States, but a career in football was his main ambition. He attended David Livingstone Primary School in Harare before moving onto Hamilton High School in Bulawayo. His footballing career started with a Bulawayo-based team, Highlanders, in Rhodesia's second biggest city. In his late teens he was signed up by Durban City in South Africa, but left claiming to have been sidelined owing to his colour in a predominantly black team — the team had played in an all-white league until the previous year. Immediately after leaving Highlands Park, he was conscripted into National Service, spending eleven months on active service in the Rhodesia Regiment during the Rhodesian Bush War.

Vancouver Whitecaps

In 1979, Grobbelaar was signed by the Vancouver Whitecaps of the NASL after he had attended their scouting camp in South Africa. At the Vancouver Whitecaps, Grobbelaar played under the management of former England and Blackpool goalkeeper, Tony Waiters, making his debut on 4 August 1979 against the Los Angeles Aztecs away. The Whitecaps lost 2–0, Johan Cruyff scoring one of the Aztecs' goals. Grobbelaar spent the rest of the season as second choice to former Wolverhampton Wanderers keeper Phil Parkes. During 1979, he visited England to see family friends, and a chance phone call from Ron Atkinson, brought him an impromptu trial with West Bromwich…

Grobbelaar was born in Durban, South Africa to ethnic Afrikaner parents. When he was two months old, he emigrated to Rhodesia with his mother and sister to join his father, who had got a job on the railways there. Grobbelaar grew up and learnt his football in Rhodesia. He made his international debut for Rhodesia as a 19-year-old in a friendly versus South Africa in 1977. Grobbelaar played for Zimbabwe in both of their 1982 World Cup qualifying matches versus Cameroon. He also appeared for his country in a qualifying match for the 1986 World Cup versus Egypt. In 1992, he returned to the national team after an absence of several years. With a team including Grobbelaar and Adam and Peter Ndlovu, Zimbabwe came just a victory short of qualification for the 1994 World Cup under the guidance of manager Reinhard Fabisch. Grobbelaar earned 32 caps for Zimbabwe between 1980 and 1998. On 7 June 2018, Grobbelaar played a one-off game for Matabeleland in the ConIFA World Cup against the Chagos Islands, playing 30 minutes.

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From 1983 to 2008 Grobbelaar was married to Deborah. They have two daughters. He then married Karen Phillips. They have a daughter. He is now married to Janne Hamre Karlsen.