Paul Gibson (born 1 November 1976) 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

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 ...

, most notably for

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 ...

. Gibson was part of the 1995

FA Youth Cup The Football Association Youth Challenge Cup is an English football competition run by The Football Association for under-18 sides. Only those players between the age of 15 and 18 on 31 August of the current season are eligible to take part. It ...

winning side, and became a professional shortly afterwards. He spent four years at

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...

after this, but never managed to play a first team game, however was an unused substitute on several occasions. He did manage to come on as a substitute for

Raimond Van Der Gouw Raimundus Johannes Hendrikus van der Gouw (, born 24 March 1963) is a Dutch former professional footballer, who played as a goalkeeper. After a successful career with Vitesse in his native Netherlands, and well into his 30s, he moved to Manche ...

in the

Brian McClair Brian John McClair (born 8 December 1963) is a Scottish football coach and former professional footballer. As a player, he was a forward from 1980 to 1998, notable for his near 11-year spell at Manchester United where he won 14 trophies includi ...

testimonial against

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

in April 1997. He left the club in 1999. During his time at United, he had loan spells at Halifax Town, Mansfield Town and Hull City. On his departure from

, he signed for Notts County in Division Two, making 40 appearances in two seasons before dropping out of the

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 ...

to sign for Nationwide Conference side Northwich Victoria. During his time at Notts County, he had a loan spell at Rochdale. He was at Northwich Victoria for over a year and played 54 games in the Nationwide Conference before leaving halfway through the 2002–03 season.

References

* 1976 births Living people English footballers Association football goalkeepers Manchester United F.C. players Halifax Town A.F.C. players Mansfield Town F.C. players Hull City A.F.C. players Notts County F.C. players Rochdale A.F.C. players Northwich Victoria F.C. players {{England-footy-goalkeeper-stub