David Watson (footballer, born 1973)
 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | 10 November 1973 | ||
| Place of birth | Barnsley, England | ||
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) | ||
| Playing position | Goalkeeper | ||
| Club information | |||
Current team | Southampton (Goalkeeping Coach) | ||
| Youth career | |||
| – | Barnsley | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1992–2001 | Barnsley | 178 | (0) |
| National team | |||
| 1993–1995 | England U21 | 5 | (0) |
|
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. | |||
David Watson (born 10 November 1973) is an English former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Barnsley and the England under-21 team. He currently works as a goalkeeping coach for both Southampton and England.
Playing career
Watson was born in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. He began his football career in the youth system of his home-town club and went on to make more than 200 appearances for their first team in all competitions, including 178 in league matches. He helped the club to runners-up spot in Division One in the 1996–97 season to gain promotion to the Premier League and was first choice goalkeeper in their one season in the top flight. He suffered a knee injury in a game against Norwich City in September 1998; he spent more than two years in an abortive attempt to regain fitness but played no more first-team football and retired in 2001 at the age of 28.[1]
While at Barnsley Watson represented England in the 1993 FIFA World Youth Championship,[2] where they finished in third place and won the FIFA fair play award.[3] He also won five caps for England at under-21 level.[4]
Coaching career
He went on to work as goalkeeping coach with Northampton Town, Oldham Athletic,[1] Huddersfield Town,[5] Northampton Town again, the England under-19 team[6] and Nottingham Forest[7] before replacing Nigel Spink as goalkeeping coach of Birmingham City in January 2008.[8] While in this position, Watson built a reputation as an excellent coach, praised for enhancing the careers of England goalkeepers Joe Hart, Ben Foster and Jack Butland,[9] experience that encouraged new manager Roy Hodgson to invite him to work alongside Ray Clemence with the England team at Euro 2012.[10] On 6 July 2012, it was confirmed that Watson had joined Norwich City to become their goalkeeping coach, continuing his relationship with Chris Hughton whom he previously worked under at Birmingham City.[11] On 1 July 2014, it was announced that he would join Southampton as goalkeeping coach as part of the coaching staff for new manager Ronald Koeman.[12]
Honours
- Division One (level 2) runners-up 1996–97.
- FIFA World Youth Championship third place 1993
References
- 1 2 "Watson joins Oldham". BBC Sport. 9 January 2002. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
- ↑ "FIFA U-20 World Cup: Australia 1993: England". FIFA. Retrieved 2012-05-11.
- ↑ "FIFA World Youth Championship Australia 1993". FIFA. Retrieved 2012-05-11.
- ↑ Courtney, Barrie (10 January 2004). "England – U-21 International Results 1986–1995 – Details". RSSSF. Retrieved 2012-05-11.
- ↑ "Wadsworth appoints Wilkes". BBC Sport. 9 July 2002. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
- ↑ "Cobblers coach given England role". BBC Sport. 8 November 2005. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
- ↑ "Forest name new goalkeeping coach". BBC Sport. 12 June 2006. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
- ↑ "Watson is Blues' new keeper coach". BBC Sport. 10 January 2008. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
- ↑ Winter, Henry (10 September 2010). "England's goalkeepers in safe hands with Birmingham coach Dave Watson". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2011-03-29.
- ↑ "Dave Watson to link up with England". Soccernet. ESPN. 10 May 2012. Retrieved 2012-05-11.
- ↑ "Dave Watson leaves Birmingham City to join Chris Hughton at Norwich". Colin Tattum. Birmingham Mail. 6 July 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-06.
- ↑ "Saints announce new coaches". Sky Sports. 2014-07-01. Retrieved 2014-07-01.
External links
David Watson career statistics at Soccerbase
