Fraser Forster

Fraser Forster
Fraser Forster (2017)
Personnel
Surname	Fraser Gerard Forster
birthday	March 17, 1988
place of birth	Hexham ,  England
size	201 cm
position	goalkeeper
Juniors
Years	station
2005-2006	Newcastle United
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
2006–2012	Newcastle United	0 (0)
2008	→  Stockport County  (loan)	6 (0)
2009	→  Bristol Rovers  (loan)	4 (0)
2009-2010	→  Norwich City  (loan)	38 (0)
2010–2012	→  Celtic Glasgow  (loan)	69 (0)
2012-2014	Celtic Glasgow	71 (0)
2014–	Southampton FC	107 (0)
2019-2020	→ Celtic Glasgow (loan)	28 (0)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
2013-2016	England	6 (0)
1 Only league games are given. As of July 30, 2020

Fraser Gerard Forster (born March 17, 1988 in Hexham ) is an English football goalkeeper . At a little more than 2 meters tall, the professional career began slowly as a substitute keeper at Newcastle United . In his loan engagements, he finally made his sporting breakthrough in the team of the Scottish club Celtic Glasgow from 2010. There he won three Scottish championships in a row ( 2012 , 2013 , 2014 ) and twice the cup ( 2011 , 2013 ). To this end, he was appointed to the English senior team for the first time in 2012 and made his debut in an international match in November 2013. In August 2014 he moved back to the English Premier League for Southampton FC .

Player career

Newcastle United

Fraser Forster in the jersey of Newcastle United (2008)

Born in the city ​​of Hexham, around 40 kilometers west of Newcastle-upon-Tyne , Forster went to school at the independent Royal Grammar School in Newcastle. He developed sporting talent in both cricket and rugby, and he only discovered the position of goalkeeper in football at the age of 13. Football only played a subordinate role in his family, and the fact that Forster was not too big and the coaches wanted to sort him out as too small made matters worse. As a 15-year-old, however, a massive growth spurt followed and it wasn't long before he joined the renowned youth club Wallsend Boys Club . The talent scouts from Newcastle United took notice of his development there and after moving to the Magpies' junior academy in 2005 Forster quickly gave up his academic plans to start a professional career in English football.

The development was initially timid, because the Shay Given , Steve Harper and Tim Krul , who were in the ranking before him , prevented him from proving himself in the first team. Forster had to be patient and to gain match practice Newcastle loaned him on October 2, 2008 to the third division club Stockport County . There he had to represent Owain Fôn Williams , who was active for the Welsh U-21 selection , and when he returned, he kept his place in the team. He played a total of seven competitive games for the "Hatters". His debut in the Football League Trophy against Bury on November 7, 2008 ended with a 0-1 defeat. In the last three league appearances, however, he remained completely clean and helped the club to two wins.

Since Forster was unable to go beyond the reserve team or the substitute bench for the first team even after returning to Newcastle, the next loan deal followed in August 2009. Within a good three weeks he was in four league games for the next third division club Bristol Rovers between the posts and twice kept his box harmless. With his stature, he exuded great self-confidence and showed a talent for commanding and organizing the defense. Bristol coach Paul Trollope was so taken with the 21-year-old that he increasingly spoke out in favor of continued employment. This was followed by lengthy negotiations with the management of Newcastle United, who also intended to loan their young goalkeeper out, but ultimately the talks failed because Norwich City - another club from the third-tier Football League One - a competitor was ready to take a larger share from Forster's salary.

From the end of August 2009 to the end of the 2009/10 season, Forster was “Number 1” among the “canaries” from Norwich. He quickly gained a good reputation among fellow players, opponents and his own followers. On the way to the third division championship and the associated promotion to the Football League Championship , he showed numerous parades, many of them in important moments and decisive games. Especially in "one-on-one situations" he was often nervous and in his 38 league appearances he did not score 18 times. In the end, his teammates named him “Player of the Year” and he came second in the club's internal election.

Celtic Glasgow

After this success, Forster briefly returned to the "Magpies" and on August 24, 2010 switched to loan again - now it went to the Scottish first division club Celtic Glasgow . Norwich coach Paul Lambert had played a central role . Lambert, who had previously been active for Celtic himself, strongly recommended to Forster to seize the chance at this "big club", even though this thwarted his own plans to possibly continue to employ the goalkeeper. Under Celtic's coach Neil Lennon , Forster made his debut on August 29, 2010 in a 1-0 away win against FC Motherwell and, with the exception of two cup games, he now played all games up to the end of the 2010/11 season. He had also succeeded Artur Boruc , who moved to Italy in 2010 , and prevailed against rivals Łukasz Załuska and Dominic Cervi . Together with Zaluska he stayed in 23 league games without conceding a goal, which Celtic improved the record from the 2001/02 season. Forster's first title was with Celtic winning the Scottish FA Cup 2011 after he and his new colleagues had won the final 3-0 in another duel with Motherwell. In the final of the League Cup (1: 2 a.s.) and in the championship (one point behind), however, he had to be satisfied with second place behind long-term rivals Glasgow Rangers . Forster returned to Newcastle in mid-2011, played a few preparatory games there and was one of the substitutes for the first league game of the 2011/12 season against Arsenal . Shortly thereafter, Celtic secured his services for another year on loan. A little later, in turn, he was back in Glasgow in the play-off first leg of the Europa League against FC Sion (0-0). In total, he played 47 competitive games and in the end he won the first Scottish championship of his career. His status as a goalkeeper was now undisputed and one of the highlights was his penalty save against Eggert Jónsson , which secured a win against Heart of Midlothian . Celtic had previously not wanted to raise the transfer fee announced by Newcastle United, they now paid the estimated two million pounds for Forster's commitment at the end of June 2012.

After signing the four-year contract, Forster finally catapulted itself into the international focus. In particular, his performance against FC Barcelona on November 7, 2012 was widely praised - after the surprising 2-1 victory for Celtic, the Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo named him “La Gran Muralla” (the “Great Wall”). A parade against FC Dundee in February 2013 brought him the award of the best rescue act in the league season 2012/13, in which he won the second Scottish championship of his career. Also for the second time he won the Scottish FA Cup on May 26, 2013 with a 3-0 final win over Hibernian Edinburgh . The next milestones for Forster in the subsequent 2013/14 season, in addition to the first international match for England, were in the Champions League and in domestic competitions. When he met “Barça” again with Celtic on October 1, the game was lost 1-0, but Forster had shone again with a few defensive actions. In the 2-1 home win against Ajax Amsterdam shortly thereafter, he held a very difficult ball shot by Thulani Serero . In the British press and coach Lennon, speculation that predicted an imminent move to a prominent English club - on top of that - increased included Manchester United and Manchester City . At the beginning of February 2014, he broke Charlie Shaw's previous “age-old record” from the 1921/22 season with his eleventh straight league game without a goal . This was followed by two more "to zero games" before Forster conceded a goal again after 1,256 minutes in the game against FC Aberdeen (1: 2) ( Bobby Clark had held the previous record with 1,155 minutes). In the end, he won the third championship in a row and together with his teammates Virgil van Dijk and Kris Commons he was voted into the Premiership Team of the Year ( PFA Scotland Team of the Year ).

Southampton FC

After Forster had stood between the posts in the Champions League qualification against Legia Warsaw for Celtic at the beginning of the 2014/15 season , he moved back to Southampton FC in the English Premier League in August 2014 for an estimated transfer fee of ten million pounds , whereby 25% of the sum went to the predecessor club Newcastle United. In his new team, which moved surprisingly well in the top regions of the Premier League, he was part of an extremely stable defense. He conceded only 21 goals in 30 league games and kept a "clean slate" 14 times. In the 2-0 win against Burnley FC , however, on March 21, 2015, after a collision with Sam Vokes , he slipped away so badly that he seriously injured his patellar tendon . After knee surgery, an injury break of twelve months was estimated. Earlier than expected, he resumed training in November 2015 and on January 13, 2016, he recovered against Watford FC (2-0) on his comeback . He also remained clean in the subsequent five Premier League games before his series came to an end after 708 minutes in the game against Chelsea (1: 2) - due to his good performances, he was named Footballer of the Month in February 2016 honored. Forster finally managed to qualify for the Europa League with Southampton and in May 2016 he signed a new five-year contract until 2021. In August 2019 he was awarded to Celtic Glasgow for the 2019/20 season. With Celtic he won the championship and the league cup .

English national team

Beginning in October 2012 appointed England manager Roy Hodgson Forster first time in the squad of the senior national team for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against San Marino and Poland . This was followed by further nominations in November 2012 for the friendly against Sweden , in March 2013 for further competitive games against San Marino and Montegro and at the end of August 2013 against Moldova and Ukraine . On November 15, 2013 Forster made his debut for England in the 2-0 defeat in the friendly against Chile at Wembley Stadium . He was certified innocent when conceding goals and an overall good performance, with which he had thwarted further possible Chilean goals. After successfully qualifying for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil , Hodgson nominated him to the English squad on May 12, 2014 (together with goalkeeper Joe Hart and Ben Foster , who had already resigned from the national team between May 2011 and February 2013). In the tournament itself, however, he remained without his own commitment. Despite a serious injury in 2015, Forster remained in the focus of the "Three Lions" and the very good performances after his comeback in spring 2016 meant that he was also appointed to the English squad for the Euro 2016 in France . But he remained a substitute goalkeeper and was not used.

Title / Awards

• Scottish Championship (4): 2012 , 2013 , 2014 , 2020
• Scottish Cup (2): 2011 , 2013
• Scottish League Cup (1): 2020
• PFA Scotland Team of the Year (1): 2014
• England's Footballer of the Month (1): February 2016

Web links

Commons : Fraser Forster  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Fraser Forster in the soccerbase.com database
• Fraser Forster in the database of weltfussball.de

Individual evidence

1. ^ "Fraser Forster's Celtic adventure leads to England World Cup call" (The Guardian)
2. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2009-2010 . Mainstream Publishing, 2009, ISBN 978-1-84596-474-0 , pp. 151 .
3. ↑ "Keeper crisis at Bristol Rovers as Forster signs for Norwich City" ( Memento of the original from May 25, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Bristol Post) 
4. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2010–2011 . Mainstream Publishing, 2010, ISBN 978-1-84596-601-0 , pp. 155 .
5. ^ "Newcastle goalkeeper Fraser Forster on Celtic loan" (BBC Sport)
6. ↑ "Motherwell 0-1 Celtic" (BBC Sport)
7. ↑ "Motherwell 0-3 Celtic" (BBC Sport)
8. ↑ "Celtic 1-2 Rangers" (BBC Sport)
9. ^ "Hoops re-sign Forster" (Skysports)
10. ↑ "Forster's home ... Celts sign keeper on fixed contract" (Daily Mail)
11. ↑ "James Forrest and Beram Kayal earn Celtic vital victory over Ajax" (The Guardian)
12. ^ "Celtic boss Neil Lennon admits Fraser Forster could join Manchester United" (Metro)
13. ↑ "Aberdeen 2-1 Celtic" (BBC Sport)
14. ↑ "Hearts 0 Celtic 2: Double thumbs up for Celtic at Tynecastle as Fraser Forster sets new record and Leigh Griffiths strikes" (Daily Record)
15. ↑ "Celtic and Dundee United trios in SPFL Premiership team of year" (BBC Sport)
16. ^ "Fraser Forster: Celtic goalkeeper signs for Southampton for £ 10m" (BBC Sport)
17. ↑ "Knee operation: Forster is missing Saints for a year!" (Kicker.de)
18. ^ "Southampton 1-2 Chelsea" (BBC Sport)
19. ^ "Fraser Forster & James Ward-Prowse: Southampton pair sign new deals" (BBC Sport)
20. ↑ "England call up Ryan Shawcross and Aaron Lennon" (BBC Sport)
21. ↑ Hodgson: “Will position us differently” , kicker.de
22. ↑ "England 0-2 Chile" (BBC Sport)
23. ^ "World Cup 2014: England name Ross Barkley in squad" (BBC Sport)