Eric Steele (born 14 May 1954) is an English former footballer turned coach, who is currently employed as a goalkeeping coach by the

Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world an ...

, working with England's junior teams.

Career

Steele began his playing career as a goalkeeper at

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

in 1972, where he was part of the squad that won the

Anglo-Italian Cup The Anglo-Italian Cup ( it, Coppa Anglo-Italiana, also known as the Anglo-Italian Inter-League Clubs Competition and from 1976 to 1986 as the Alitalia Challenge Cup, Talbot Challenge Cup or Gigi Peronace Memorial) is a defunct European football c ...

and won caps at England under-18 level. He then joined Peterborough United, and established himself as first-choice 'keeper, setting a record for most consecutive league appearances (124). That record would later be beaten by another Peterborough player, George Boyd (144). He does however, continue to hold the most consecutive appearances in all competitions for the Posh (148). He later joined Brighton & Hove Albion, Watford, and Derby County, winning five promotions in 12 years with those clubs. In 1988, he retired to run a pub, before establishing Eric Steele Coaching Services, which provided goalkeeping coaching to

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

, Leeds United, Derby County, and

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 ...

, as well as working overseas in Australia, Switzerland, Norway, Germany and the USA. Steele was at Huddersfield Town as goalkeeping coach and left at the end of the 1997/98 season when he joined Derby County when they came calling again in 1998, and he spent four years coaching there before being appointed goalkeeping coach at

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

in 2001. Steele left his post at Aston Villa in 2006. In 2006 Eric visited Australia, where he worked with junior and senior goalkeepers in Victoria and Perth. He worked with well-known coaches and helped improve Australian goalkeepers. In 2007, he became the new

goalkeeping coach, following the departure of Tim Flowers to Coventry City as assistant to Iain Dowie. Steele left his job at City on 27 June 2008 after being part of the backroom team under managers

Stuart Pearce Stuart Pearce (born 24 April 1962) is an English professional football manager and former player, who was most recently a first-team coach for Premier League club West Ham United. He was nicknamed "Psycho" for his unforgiving style of play. ...

and

Sven-Göran Eriksson Sven-Göran Eriksson (; born 5 February 1948) is a Swedish football manager and former player. After an unassuming playing career as a right-back, Eriksson went on to experience major success in club management between 1977 and 2001, winning 18 ...

. Mark Hughes, who had left Blackburn Rovers to take charge of Manchester City, brought with him

Kevin Hitchcock Kevin Hitchcock (born 5 October 1962) is an English football coach and former professional association football, footballer who is goalkeeping coach of MLS side New England Revolution. As a player, he was a Goalkeeper (association football), go ...

, replacing Steele as goalkeeping coach. Paul Ince soon appointed him as goalkeeping coach at Blackburn Rovers. However, just weeks after joining Blackburn, Steele attracted the attention of

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

, who had been in search of a new goalkeeping coach since Tony Coton had been forced to retire through injury. In preparation for Steele's departure, Blackburn signed

Bobby Mimms Robert Andrew Mimms (born 12 October 1963) is an English football coach and former player who played as a goalkeeper. Mimms' career lasted twenty years, and is best known for his tenure with Blackburn Rovers, where he was a member of the Premie ...

from Wolverhampton Wanderers as their new goalkeeping coach. Manchester United confirmed the signing of Steele on 4 August. Steele left United after

David Moyes David William Moyes ( ; born 25 April 1963) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player. He is currently the manager of Premier League club West Ham United. He was previously the manager of Preston North End, Everton, Manches ...

took over as manager in 2013. On 30 September 2013, Steele returned to Derby County when he was appointed goalkeeping coach by the Championship club's newly installed manager, Steve McClaren, the former England team boss. In July 2015, Steele was engaged by the Football Association to coach goalkeepers across their junior teams.

References