David James (footballer)

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David Benjamin James (born 1 August 1970, Welwyn Garden City, England) is an English professional footballer who currently plays for Portsmouth in the Premier League. He has played as a goalkeeper for a number of English clubs, and most notably won the 1995 League Cup with Liverpool.

[edit] Club career

James signed as a trainee with Watford in 1989. There he won the FA Youth Cup, and made 98 first-team appearances before he was signed by Liverpool in 1992. After conceding 20 goals in 11 games, he was dropped by Liverpool boss Graeme Souness.

James found favour under Souness' successor Roy Evans, and became a regular in Liverpool's team of the 1990s. He rose to fame together with Steve McManaman and Robbie Fowler, all of whom were termed "Spice Boys" - a derogatory term that signified the Liverpool team of that decade as more focused on partying than winning games.

Despite winning the League Cup in 1995, Liverpool's side at the time had failed to oust rivals Manchester United as England's premier club, due to the team's poor defensive record coupled with James' occasional high-profile mistakes. In 1997, he publicly put down his spate of errors to an overindulgence of playing computer games that in turn affected his concentration. His reputation for making mistakes soon earned him the nickname Calamity James. This nickname is either a pun on Calamity Jane or a reference to a character in The Beano comic, also called Calamity James.

With the arrival of American goalkeeper Brad Friedel, his place at Liverpool became less assured, and in 1999 he was sold to Aston Villa, where his inconsistency continued; he proved to be the hero in saving penalties against Bolton Wanderers in a 2000 FA Cup semi-final, but then was at fault for Chelsea's winning goal in the ensuing final.

James moved to West Ham United in summer 2001, where his consistency improved, but he was unable to help the club avert relegation from the Premier League in 2003. In January 2004, he returned to the Premier League, signing for Manchester City. James helped the club stay up that season with two crucial penalty saves towards the end of the season. He was also given a new lease of life by Stuart Pearce, his manager at Man City, who played him as a striker for the last few minutes of a game in the 2004-05 season.

On 10 August 2006 he stated that he wanted to leave Manchester City as since James separated from his wife he felt detached from his children who lived in London. A move to Portsmouth would allow him to be closer to his children. He told City of his desire to quit the club he joined in a £2m deal in January 2004. Later the same day Manchester City confirmed they had accepted a bid of £1.2m from Portsmouth.

On 11 August 2006, James completed his move to Portsmouth, where he signed a two year deal. James kept a clean sheet in each of his first five appearances for the club (and six in his first eight games overall). At the half way stage of the season many pundits stated that James had been the best performing goalkeeper in the Premiership and manager Harry Redknapp called him "by far the best keeper I've worked with". His consistent performances have led to calls for him to be reinstated to the England squad.

In November 2006, James, long known for experimenting with his hairstyle^[1], earned the nickname "Superman", and was mildly ridiculed on the BBC's Match Of The Day programme, for wearing his hair in a style similar to that of the character Clark Kent, as played by Christopher Reeve in the first four Superman movies.

On the 17th of March 2007, David James equalled David Seaman's record of 141 clean sheets in the Premiership with Portsmouth in a 0-0 draw against Reading F.C. at the Madejski Stadium.

[edit] International career

After making one England under-21 appearance whilst at Watford, James made his full debut for England in a friendly against Mexico in 1997 as a Liverpool player. For several years, however, he had to play understudy to England's regular keeper, David Seaman. When Seaman was dropped after making a mistake against Macedonia in 2002, James became the new England No. 1. He retained his place in the England team even after West Ham's relegation to the First Division in 2003, and was the only player from outside a top flight league to win an England cap between 1999 (Michael Gray) and 2007 (David Nugent). He went on to play in all of England's matches in Euro 2004.

However, James has not started a competitive match for England since an error in a 2-2 draw against Austria in September 2004, his place being taken by Paul Robinson.

James came on as a half time substitute and conceded all four goals in the 4-1 drubbing England suffered at the hands of Denmark during a summer friendly on 17 August 2005 - their worst defeat in 25 years. James blamed his failure to prepare for the game for his performance and was widely criticised. James admitted after the match that he was once again too busy playing computer games instead of preparing for the match. However, James still remained part of the England squad, and was selected as the second-choice goalkeeper behind Robinson for the 2006 World Cup in Germany but didn't play in any of the matches.

Along with David Beckham and Sol Campbell, James was not included in Steve McClaren's first England squad for the friendly against Greece in August 2006.^[2]

[edit] Trivia

• He writes a fortnightly column for The Observer
• During the 2004 close season, James was a guest at the training camp of American football team, the Miami Dolphins, where he worked out with the team and studied their training and conditioning methods. This has led to speculation that he is keen on a coaching role after he retires.
• One of James's hobbies is art, and has painted nude portraits of his teammates.
• He was married to Welsh wife Tanya James and had four children, but later divorced, and she allegedly demanded £3 million. She also appeared in a tabloid newspaper discussing her financial hardship since the couple split and the breakdown of the marriage.
• James is credited with starting the boom of fashion-modeling footballers after Giorgio Armani included him on his catwalk in 1995.
• James once suffered a back injury while reaching for a television remote.
• He has explored the field of sport psychology to improve his skills as a goalkeeper.
• James has visited the southeastern African nation of Malawi to help raise AIDS awareness. He has since set up The David James Foundation in order to help farmers in Malawi develop better farming practices. He has also collaborated with Tony Blair to discuss the issue.
• He has modelled for clothing company H&M.
• In October 2006 he refused to do any more interviews for Sky Sports until 2 December, because that was the earliest an engineer could visit to fix his faulty home satellite system^[3]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• David James at the Internet Movie Database
• David James career stats at Soccerbase
• BBC profile
• Portsmouth FC Profile
• FootballDatabase provides David James' profile and stats
• Career details
• The David James Foundation
• David James profile - ESPN Soccernet
• David James visits NFL camp - nfluk.com (not dated)
• Why Anfield misfit James is back in fashion - ESPN Soccernet, 1st May 2000
• Keegan splashes on old spice - BBC Sport, 14th January 2004
• James the first - Scotland on Sunday, 8th February 2004

	England squad - 2006 FIFA World Cup Quarter-finalists
1 Robinson | 2 Neville | 3 A. Cole | 4 Gerrard | 5 Ferdinand | 6 Terry | 7 Beckham | 8 Lampard | 9 Rooney | 10 Owen | 11 J. Cole | 12 Campbell | 13 James | 14 Bridge | 15 Carragher | 16 Hargreaves | 17 Jenas | 18 Carrick | 19 Lennon | 20 Downing | 21 Crouch | 22 Carson | 23 Walcott | Coach: Eriksson

	England squad - 2002 FIFA World Cup Quarter-finalists
1 Seaman | 2 Mills | 3 A. Cole | 4 Sinclair | 5 Ferdinand | 6 Campbell | 7 Beckham | 8 Scholes | 9 Fowler | 10 Owen | 11 Heskey | 12 Brown | 13 Martyn | 14 Bridge | 15 Keown | 16 Southgate | 17 Sheringham | 18 Hargreaves | 19 J. Cole | 20 Vassell | 21 Butt | 22 James | 23 Dyer | Coach: Eriksson