Ian Walker

Tottenham Hotspur

After starting out with the team in the late 1980s as a trainee and having two loan spells away, at Ipswich Town and Oxford United Walker played in the winning 1989–90 FA Youth Cup Tottenham team overcoming Middlesbrough. During the early 1990s Walker was mainly used as the reserve keeper, making the odd cup appearance along the way, but after a serious injury to then Spurs keeper Erik Thorstvedt Walker took his chance and soon became the number 1 at Spurs, cementing his place in the side and getting his chance in the team during the first season of the Premiership making a total of 17 appearances in the league. 1992–93 season. Walker went on and made a total of 312 appearances for Tottenham Hotspur and played a big part during the 1999 season in helping Spurs win the 1999 Football League Cup Final after beating Leicester City 1–0 at Wembley Stadium. During the latter stages of Walkers career at Spurs he fell out of favour with the management and lost his place to the newly signed Neil Sullivan it was shortly after this, that the England international handed in a transfer request in September 2000. He played his final game for Spurs against West Ham United on 31 January 2001.

Leicester City

Walker signed a four-year contract with Leicester City in July 2001 for a fee of £2.5 million, rising to £3 million depending on appearances. His first season at the club ended in relegation to the First Division, which he felt may have ruined his…

Walker was capped by the England national team four times, making his debut in 1996 against Hungary. His most infamous game was against Italy in a qualification match for the 1998 World Cup where he is widely believed to have been at fault to a Gianfranco Zola strike. England lost this game to Italy 1–0 at Wembley Stadium. He backed up David James at Euro 2004 but was overtaken by others in the pecking order. Despite Walker's club Leicester suffering relegation from the Premier League, he played his first England match in seven years as a 61st-minute substitute for Paul Robinson in a 6–1 win over Iceland on 5 June 2004, which was also his last international.

On 14 March 2011, Walker was appointed as manager of Bishop's Stortford who were playing in the Conference South. In April 2012, Walker joined his former Bolton teammate Nicolas Anelka at Chinese Super League side Shanghai Shenhua and became their goalkeeping coach. On 2 January 2014, Walker became the goalkeeping coach of Shanghai East Asia, another Super League team in Shanghai. On 15 May 2014, Walker signed a new contract with Shanghai East Asia, keeping him at the club until the end of 2017 season. Walker continues to coach the first team goalkeepers at Shanghai SIPG. Walker has produced two national team goalkeepers for China, Wang Dalei from Shanghai Shenhua in 2012–13 and Yan Junling from Shanghai SIPG in 2014–15. In the 2018 season Walker was the goalkeeper coach when Shanghai SIPG won their first ever league title.

Walker is the son of Mike Walker who was also a goalkeeper and managed Norwich City and Everton and his wife Jacqueline. Walker attended Great Cornard Upper School. He and his former Page Three wife Suzi lived in a mock-Tudor mansion in Cobham, Surrey, as featured on MTV Cribs. After the birth of her daughter Sophie in 1998, Suzi suffered post natal eclampsia, and is an ongoing sufferer of myalgic encephalomyelitis. He became a father just months after the death of his mother Jackie in 1997 after a long battle against cancer.