Aaron Adam Flahavan (15 December 1975 – 5 August 2001) was an English

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

who played for

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

Life and career

Flahavan played for the

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

youth team, before turning professional with Portsmouth at age 18 in 1994. He had to wait until 1996 before making his first-team debut as he was understudy to long-serving Alan Knight. Towards the end of the 1990s, Flahavan gradually began receiving increased playing time, and became the team's first-choice goalkeeper by the time Knight retired in 2000. Overall, he played 105 first-team matches for Portsmouth, 93 of them in Division One, and was part of the team which reached the quarter-finals of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

in the 1996-97 season and just missed out on the Division One playoffs. Flahavan twice had blackouts during matches; the first was attributed to a virus, and the second to a drop in his

blood pressure Blood pressure (BP) is the pressure of circulating blood against the walls of blood vessels. Most of this pressure results from the heart pumping blood through the circulatory system. When used without qualification, the term "blood pressure" r ...

Death

Flahavan died in a car accident near

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

in August 2001. An inquest heard that Flahavan died as a result of a fractured skull, and his

blood alcohol Blood alcohol content (BAC), also called blood alcohol concentration or blood alcohol level, is a measurement of alcohol intoxication used for legal or medical purposes; it is expressed as mass of alcohol per volume or mass of blood. For example ...

level was nearly three times over the legal limit when he lost control of his BMW sports car. Following his death, Portsmouth and Southampton retired his number 1 jersey for the 2001–02 season as a mark of respect.

Family

Flahavan's younger brother,

Darryl Darryl is an English name, a variant spelling of Darell. Male variations of this name include: Darlin, Daryl, Darrell, Darryl, Daryll, Darryll, Darrell, Darrel. Female and unisex variations of this name include: Daryl, Darian, Dareen, Darell ...

, also played as a goalkeeper, and had a spell at Aaron's former club Portsmouth between 2010 and 2011. Darryl has a son named Aaron in memory of his brother.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Flahavan, Aaron 1975 births 2001 deaths Footballers from Southampton English footballers Association football goalkeepers Portsmouth F.C. players Southampton F.C. players English Football League players Road incident deaths in England People with narcolepsy