David James (footballer, born 1970)

David James

Personal information
Full name	David Benjamin James
Height	6 ft 4.5 in (1.94 m)
Position(s)	Goalkeeper
Team information
Current team	Portsmouth
Number	1
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 24 December, 2006

David Benjamin James (born 1 August 1970, Welwyn Garden City, England) is a 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.

Club career

James signed as a trainee with Watford in 1989 and helped the club to win the FA Youth Cup. He made his league debut on the 25th August 1990 in a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Millwall at Vicarage Road, he went on to make 98 first-team appearances before he was signed for £1m by Liverpool on the 6th July 1992.

Jamo (pronounced Jay-mo), as he is known by his team-mates made his Reds debut on the 16th August '92 in the 1-0 Premier League defeat to Nottingham Forest at the City Ground. Things got worse for the youngster and after conceding 20 goals in 11 games, he was dropped by Liverpool boss Graeme Souness.

James gained a recall and kept his first clean sheet for the Merseysiders on the 31st January 1993 as the Reds beat Arsenal 1-0 in a Premier Division fixture at Highbury, the clean sheet was made that much sweeter as Jamo saved a penalty from the Gunners Paul Merson, the Reds goal, ironically, came from the spot with John Barnes showing how it should be done. When Souness was replaced at the helm of the Anfield club Jamo found favour under Souness' successor Roy Evans, and became the regular No.1 in the Liverpool team of the 1990s and rose to fame together with Steve McManaman and Robbie Fowler, all of whom were termed the "Spice Boys" - a derogatory term used by those that alleged the Liverpool team of that decade were more focused on partying than winning games.

Despite winning the League Cup in 1995 when Liverpool beat Bolton Wanderers 2-1 at Wembley, 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 within the media of Calamity James. This nickname is a pun on Calamity Jane.

With the arrival of American goalkeeper Brad Friedel, his place at Liverpool became less assured, and on the 23rd June 1999, after 277 games for Liverpool, he was sold to Midlands side Aston Villa for £1.8m. James' Villa debut came on the 7th August '99 as James kept a clean sheet in the 1-0 league win over Newcastle United at St James' Park. Unfortunately for David, his inconsistency continued; although he did prove to be the hero in saving penalties against Bolton Wanderers in the 2000 FA Cup semi-final, but then was at fault for Chelsea's winning goal in the ensuing final, the last to be staged at the old Wembley.

After just 2 years which saw him make 85 appearances James moved to West Ham United for £3.5M on the 11th July 2001. James made his debut for the Hammers on the 24th November '01 in the 1-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur at Upton Park. Whilst at West Ham his consistency improved, but he was unable to help the club avert relegation from the Premier League in 2003.

After 102 appearances for the Londoners James was on the move again, on the 14th January 2004, he returned to the Premier League, signing for Manchester City £2m. He made his debut for City 3 days later on the 17th in the 1-1 league draw with Blackburn Rovers at the City of Manchester Stadium. 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 needed to leave Manchester City to be closer to his children, James had separated from his wife and 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 11th August 2006, James completed his move to Portsmouth, where he signed a two year deal. He made his debut 8 days later on the 19th in the 3-0 win over Blackburn at Fratton Park. James went on to keep clean sheets 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 06/07 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, 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 of Clark Kent, as played by Christopher Reeve in the first four Superman movies.

On 22 April 2007, James kept his 142nd Premiership clean sheet, with Portsmouth in a 0-0 draw against his former club Aston Villa, breaking the record of 141 previously held by David Seaman. James has also made the most league appearances of any goalkeeper since the formation of the Premiership (470 as of 08-04-07) over 15 seasons (Nigel Martyn with 372 is the next highest) and conceded the highest number of goals . If he continues to play full time next season, he will be the third player (after Gary Speed and Ryan Giggs) to cross the 500 Premiership Game threshold.

On 11th May 2007, James signed a one-year extension on his contract, which will keep him at Fratton Park until 2009.

International career

After making one England under-21 appearance whilst at Watford, James made his full debut for Glenn Hoddle's England in a friendly against Mexico on the 29th March 1997 as a Liverpool player, a game in which he kept his first international clean sheet as England beat the Mexicans 2-0 with goals from Teddy Sheringham and Jamo's clubmate Robbie Fowler. 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 World Cup qualifing draw against Austria in September 2004, his place being taken by Tottenham's 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. 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.

Trivia

• He writes a fortnightly column for The Observer
• During the 2003 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.
• 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.
• 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
• He holds the record for the most clean sheets in the Premiership, with 142.
• His children went to Bromsgrove School.
• He went to the Sir Frederic Osbourn School in Welwyn Garden City - the same school as Nick Faldo and Lisa Snowden

External links

• Official past players at Liverpoolfc.tv
• Player profile at LFChistory.net
• David James appearances for England
• David James at IMDb
• David James at Soccerbase
• David James index at Sportingheroes.net
• 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
• Article from Intermix