Peter Mellor (born 20 November 1947) is an American 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 ...

whose playing career 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 ...

spanned three decades. He played 17 years in the top three tiers of English professional football with

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

Hereford United Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'The ...

and

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 ...

. He is now a coach in the United States.

Early and personal life

Mellor was born in Prestbury, Cheshire, and was raised in

Manchester 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 t ...

, England.James Edward (August 9, 2005)
"Mellor happy to be coaching for RSL,"
''

Deseret News The ''Deseret News'' () is the oldest continuously operating publication in the American west. Its multi-platform products feature journalism and commentary across the fields of politics, culture, family life, faith, sports, and entertainment. Th ...

''. In 1992 he moved to

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and ...

."Peter Mellor,"
''Soccer Banter'', May 11, 2011. He and his wife Valerie have been married for over four decades, are both US citizens, and have two children. They have lived in Longboat Key, Florida, and

Fort Myers, Florida Fort Myers (or Ft. Myers) is a city in southwestern Florida and the county seat and commercial center of Lee County, Florida, United States. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 92,245 in 20 ...

.Richard Dymond (26 July 2015)
"Future Manatee soccer stars try their game on sand at Coquina Beach,"
'' Bradenton Herald''.Kevin Johnson (August 17, 2009)
"Soccer thrives on the beach,"
''

Naples News The ''Naples Daily News'' is the main daily newspaper of Naples, Florida, and Collier County. It is owned by Gannett and has a circulation of more than 40,000. It was previously owned by Milwaukee-based Journal Media Group, which was formed by ...

''.

Playing career

Mellor's playing career spanned three decades; he played more than 800 league and cup matches over 17 years in the top three tiers of English professional football with Burnley, Fulham, Hereford United, and Portsmouth. He served as the English U-23 National Team goalkeeper from 1969 to 1970."Distinguished US National Team, MLS Coach Peter Mellor Joins USL,"
OurSports Central. Mellor won an England Youth cap whilst with his first club

Witton Albion Witton may refer to one of several places in England: *Witton, historic name of an area of Northwich, Cheshire **Witton Albion F.C. *Witton Gilbert, County Durham *Witton-le-Wear, County Durham *Witton, an area of Blackburn, Lancashire * Witton, B ...

in the

Cheshire County League The Cheshire County League was a football league founded in the north west of England in 1919, drawing its teams largely from Cheshire, surrounding English counties and North Wales. Initially the league was dominated by the reserve teams of Footba ...

. Tall, fair haired and ever-smiling Mellor was soon spotted by

(the Clarets) in 1969, and quickly became their regular keeper, playing for them from 1969 to 1972.Tony Scholes (2 June 2013)
"Peter Mellor,"
Clarets Mad.
footballdatabase.eu. The arrival of

Alan Stevenson Alan Stevenson FRSE LLD MInstCE (28 April 1807 – 23 December 1865) was a Scottish civil engineer, known for designing and building lighthouses in and around Scotland. Life Alan Stevenson was born in Edinburgh on 28 April 1807, the eldest ...

from Chesterfield in January 1971 saw him going in the opposite direction for a loan period at

Saltergate Saltergate, officially the Recreation Ground, was the historic home of Chesterfield Football Club, and was in use from 1871 until the club's relocation in July 2010, a 139-year history that made it one of the oldest football grounds in Englan ...

. From there a month later he was sent to

(the Cottagers, who play at

Craven Cottage Craven Cottage is a football ground in Fulham, West London, England, which has been the home of Fulham F.C. since 1896.According to the club'official website The ground's capacity is 22,384; the record attendance is 49,335, for a game against M ...

), which paid £25,000 to the Clarets."Memory Lane,"
Fulham Football Club, September 23, 2012. At Fulham, teammate Alan Mullery noted that he thought Mellor had literally broken every finger on both hands. Mellor was to make over 220 appearances for Fulham in all competitions over six seasons from 1972 to 1977, including perhaps most memorably an appearance in the

1975 FA Cup Final The 1975 FA Cup Final was the 94th final of the FA Cup. It took place on 3 May 1975 at Wembley Stadium and was contested by London clubs West Ham United and Fulham. The Fulham team contained two former England captains in former West Ham captai ...

, during which he was unfortunate enough to be deemed at fault for West Ham's two goals, both scored by Alan Taylor. Mellor moved to

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a population ...

(the Bulls) in September 1977 for the 1977–78 season, but in July of the following year moved to his final league club

(Pompey), playing for them until 1982. Mellor quickly became a hugely popular cult figure at

Fratton Park Fratton Park is a football ground in Portsmouth, England, which is the home of Portsmouth F.C. Fratton Park remains as the only home football ground in Portsmouth FC's entire history. The early Fratton Park was designed by local architect A ...

, keeping the emerging young Alan Knight out of the team long after he was ready, as Knight made only eight appearances over the course of three years, until the 1981–82 season. From 1981 to 1983 he played for the Edmonton Drillers in the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League may refer to: *North American Soccer League (1968–1984), a former Division I league *North American Soccer League (2011–2017) The North American Soccer League (NASL) was a professional men's soccer league b ...

.Neil Allen (25 November 2015)
">"Peter Mellor: The Big Interview,"
''The News''. Mellor ended his playing career in Canada, retiring in January 1983."US Coaching career,"
humankinetics.com."Foreword to U.S coaching manual,"
nlb.gov.

Coaching career

Mellor later lived and coached in the United States. He became a staff coach with the

United States Soccer Federation The United States Soccer Federation (USSF), commonly referred to as U.S. Soccer, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and the official governing body of the sport of soccer in the United States. Headquartered in Chicago, the federation is ...

from 1992 onward, training the goalies. He designed and wrote the curriculum for the first US Soccer National Goalkeeping License for coaches. Among the players he has identified or coached are Kasey Keller, Marcus Hahnemann,

Brad Friedel Bradley Howard Friedel (born May 18, 1971) is an American professional soccer coach and former player who played as a goalkeeper. Friedel played 84 games for the United States national team between 1992 and 2005, and represented his country at ...

Landon Donovan Landon Timothy Donovan (born March 4, 1982) is an American former professional soccer player. Donovan is also the co-founder and vice-president of soccer operations for USL Championship side San Diego Loyal SC, and serves as strategic advisor fo ...

DaMarcus Beasley DaMarcus Lamont Beasley (; born May 24, 1982) is an American former professional soccer player. A left-footed player, Beasley played both as a left winger and left wingback throughout his career. He retired from soccer after the 2019 MLS Season. ...

, Freddy Adu,

Oguchi Onyewu Oguchialu Chijioke Onyewu (born May 13, 1982) is an American former soccer player who is the secretary-general of R.E. Virton. He was previously the sporting director for Orlando City B. During his professional career, he played as a defender ...

, Michael Bradley,

Bobby Convey Robert Francis Convey (; born May 27, 1983) is an American former football player who last played for New York Red Bulls in Major League Soccer. In addition to several MLS clubs, Convey spent five years in England with Reading, whom he helped i ...

, Tim Howard, Nick Rimando, and Hope Solo. Mellor also served as national staff coach and goalkeeping instructor for the National Soccer Coaches Association of America for 15 years. He served as the goalkeeper coach for the

Tampa Bay Mutiny Tampa Bay Mutiny was a professional soccer team based in Tampa, Florida. They were a charter member of Major League Soccer (MLS) and played from 1996 to 2001. They played their home games at Tampa Stadium and then at Raymond James Stadium. The ...

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

(MLS), beginning in 1996. That year he also became one of the original coaches for the US U-17 Residency Program in

Bradenton, Florida Bradenton ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Manatee County, Florida, Manatee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the city's population is 55,698. History Late 18th and early 19th centuries ...

. In 1997, he became the

US Soccer Federation The United States Soccer Federation (USSF), commonly referred to as U.S. Soccer, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and the official governing body of the sport of soccer in the United States. Headquartered in Chicago, the federation is ...

's first full-time national goalkeeping coach. He was a goalkeeper coach at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

with Team USA, which came in fourth. In 2005 through 2007, Mellor served as the assistant coach for the expansion club

Real Salt Lake Real Salt Lake, often shortened to RSL, is an American professional soccer franchise based in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. The club competes as a member club of Major League Soccer (MLS) in the Western Conference. RSL began play in 20 ...

of MLS's Western Conference, managing the goalkeepers and reserve squad. In 2010, the

United Soccer Leagues United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two fi ...

retained Mellor as National Technical Director, assigned responsibility for managing the technical aspects of USL's player development programs, helping USL teams in the areas of scouting, development, and advancement of players, and setting up a coaches network in the US and Canada to identify top goalkeeping talent for USL teams.

Beach soccer

In the late 1980s Mellor came up with the idea for and founded Major Beach Soccer, soccer on the beach. His inspiration was

beach soccer Beach soccer, also known as beach football, sand football or beasal, is a variant of association football played on a beach or some form of sand. Whilst football has been played informally on beaches, the introduction of ''beach soccer'' was an a ...

, that he saw in Brazil. As of 2015, the governing body of soccer was considering making it an Olympic sport. The beach soccer field is much smaller than a maximum size soccer field, the goals are smaller, it includes five players on the field on each side at one time, and it has three 10-minute periods. By 2009, there were Major Beach Soccer tournaments being held in

Fort Myers Beach Fort Myers Beach is a town located on the North end of Estero Island in Lee County, Florida, United States. The town is on the Gulf of Mexico and is accessed from the mainland by a bridge over Estero Bay. The population was 5,582 at the 2020 c ...

, Clearwater Beach, and

Daytona Beach Daytona Beach, or simply Daytona, is a coastal resort-city in east-central Florida. Located on the eastern edge of Volusia County near the Atlantic coastline, its population was 72,647 at the 2020 census. Daytona Beach is approximately nort ...

. In 2016, Mellor was the Major Beach Soccer President, and 53 teams competed at the Major Beach Soccer National Championship."Nationals Gallery,"
December 11, 2016, majorbeachsoccer.com.

Notes

External links

* *Peter Mellor
"The Four Components that Make Up a Goalkeeper,"
illinoisyouthsoccer.org. *Peter Mellor
"10 + 1 Principals of Goalkeeping,"
illinoisyouthsoccer.org. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mellor, Peter 1947 births Living people Burnley F.C. players Chesterfield F.C. players Edmonton Drillers (1979–1982) players Fulham F.C. players Hereford United F.C. players Portsmouth F.C. players Witton Albion F.C. players England men's youth international footballers English expatriate men's footballers English expatriate sportspeople in Canada English men's footballers Expatriate men's soccer players in Canada Men's association football goalkeepers North American Soccer League (1968–1984) coaches North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players People from Prestbury, Cheshire Footballers from Cheshire Footballers from Manchester Sportspeople from Fort Myers, Florida Soccer players from Tampa, Florida English Football League players English football managers