Donald Ralph Goodman (born 9 May 1966) is an English former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a striker. His professional career spanned for nearly 20 years, during which he played nearly 600

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

games and scored 162 goals.

Career

Born in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

, Goodman played for

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. Th ...

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pla ...

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

Sanfrecce Hiroshima Sanfrecce Hiroshima ( ja, サンフレッチェ広島, translit=''Sanfuretche Hiroshima'') is a Japanese professional football club based in Asaminami-ku, Hiroshima. The club plays in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the coun ...

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 ...

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands County, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east ...

Exeter City Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third tier of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club play their home games at ...

and Stafford Rangers. He trialled with Bradford City as a teenager, whilst playing non-league football with Collingham and working as an electrician with Leeds City Council. Bradford City offered him an apprenticeship, which he turned down in favour of a non-contract deal. He made his senior debut in May 1984, aged 17, and was still working as an electrician. He turned professional with the club that summer, but was allowed a day off every week for college. At the age of 18, in November 1984 he scored a hat-trick for Bradford City within 7 minutes of coming on as a substitute in an

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 ...

game against

Tow Law Town Tow Law Town Association Football Club is an English non-league football club from Tow Law, County Durham, currently playing in the Northern League Division One, in the ninth level of the English football league system. The team, nicknamed " ...

. On 11 May 1985, his girlfriend died in the Valley Parade fire disaster. He was playing for Bradford in that match, as the team won promotion as Third Division champions. He was Sunderland's record signing in December 1991 when he was signed from West Bromwich Albion, the last signing of manager Denis Smith, who was sacked later that month. Goodman was cup-tied for Sunderland's run to the 1992 FA Cup Final. Goodman joined Walsall in March 2001. At the end of that season Walsall were promoted via the play-offs and Goodman scored one of the goals in the final as they beat

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

. As of April 2020 he was working as a football commentator for

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Goodman, Don 1966 births Living people Footballers from Leeds Association football forwards English footballers English expatriate footballers Collingham F.C. (West Yorkshire) players Bradford City A.F.C. players West Bromwich Albion F.C. players Sunderland A.F.C. players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Sanfrecce Hiroshima players J1 League players Expatriate footballers in Japan Barnsley F.C. players Motherwell F.C. players Walsall F.C. players Exeter City F.C. players Doncaster Rovers F.C. players Stafford Rangers F.C. players English Football League players Scottish Premier League players British association football commentators English expatriate sportspeople in Japan