David Neil Watson (born 10 November 1973) is 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 ...

coach and former player, who played as a

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 ...

for

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

and the England under-21 team. After injury forced his early retirement from playing, he took up coaching, working as goalkeeping coach for several clubs as well as spending four years in the same role with the England team. In 2014, he joined

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 ...

, where he has been a first team assistant coach since 2019.

Playing career

Watson was born in

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

. 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 team finish as runners-up spot in the 1996–97 First Division to gain promotion to the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

, and was first-choice

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. While a Barnsley player, Watson represented

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

at the

1993 FIFA World Youth Championship The 1993 FIFA World Youth Championship, known as the 1993 FIFA/Coca-Cola World Youth Championship for sponsorship purposes, was the 9th edition FIFA World Youth Championship. U20 Brazil defeated Ghana, 2–1 for its third title. It took place ac ...

. They finished in third place and won the FIFA Fair Play award. He also won five caps for England at under-21 level.

Coaching career

He went on to work as goalkeeping coach with Northampton Town, Oldham Athletic, Huddersfield Town, Northampton Town again, the England under-19 team, and

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

, before replacing Nigel Spink as goalkeeping coach of

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

in January 2008. While in this position, Watson built a reputation as an excellent coach, praised for enhancing the careers of England goalkeepers Joe Hart,

Ben Foster Ben Foster may refer to: *Ben Foster (actor) (born 1980), American actor *Ben Foster (footballer) (born 1983), English goalkeeper *Ben Foster (composer) (born 1977), British composer, orchestrator and conductor * Ben Foster (director) (born 1984), ...

and Jack Butland, experience that encouraged new manager

Roy Hodgson Roy Hodgson (born 9 August 1947) is a former English football manager and player. He managed 22 different teams in eight countries, beginning in Sweden with Halmstads BK in the 1976 season. He later guided the Switzerland national team to th ...

to invite him to work alongside Ray Clemence with the England team at

Euro 2012 The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th European Championship for men's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament, held between 8 June and 1 ...

. Watson remained as England's goalkeeping coach for four years, and was prepared to stay on after Hodgson and the rest of his staff left following the poor performance at

Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe ...

, but Hodgson's successor Sam Allardyce replaced him with

Martyn Margetson Martyn Walter Margetson (born 8 September 1971) is a Welsh football coach and former professional footballer who is a goalkeeping coach for the England national team and Swansea City. A youth player at Manchester City, where he went on to appea ...

. On 6 July 2012, Watson joined Norwich City as goalkeeping coach, continuing his relationship with Chris Hughton whom he previously worked under at Birmingham City. Two years later, he joined

as senior goalkeeping coach as part of new manager

Ronald Koeman Ronald Koeman (; born 21 March 1963) is a Dutch professional football manager and former player. He is the younger brother of his former international teammate Erwin Koeman and the son of former Dutch international Martin Koeman. Koeman was cap ...

's staff. He was named head of goalkeeping in 2016, and in 2019 was appointed as a first-team assistant coach under Ralph Hasenhüttl.

Honours

Barnsley * First Division (level 2) runners-up: 1996–97 England Under-20 *

FIFA World Youth Championship The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members’ men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 when ...

third place:

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, David Living people 1973 births Footballers from Barnsley English men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers England men's under-21 international footballers England men's youth international footballers Barnsley F.C. players English Football League players Premier League players Northampton Town F.C. non-playing staff Oldham Athletic A.F.C. non-playing staff Huddersfield Town A.F.C. non-playing staff Nottingham Forest F.C. non-playing staff Birmingham City F.C. non-playing staff Norwich City F.C. non-playing staff Southampton F.C. non-playing staff