Steven Ogrizovic (born 12 September 1957) 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, former professional footballer and cricketer. As a player, he was 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 ...

from 1977 until 2000, the last 16 years of which were at

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English footbal ...

. Nicknamed "Oggy", he holds the record at Coventry City for the most appearances as a player (601 in all competitions, 507 in the league) and he played in the winning

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 ...

team of 1987. He also played for

Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom * Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

and

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...

. Since retiring he remained with the Sky Blues for the next 20 years in a host of different positions including reserve team manager and goalkeeping coach. In both 2002 and 2004 he had spells as caretaker manager of the first team. Between 1983 and 1984, Ogrizovic played cricket for

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

as a Right-arm medium-fast bowler. He completed four games for the club, taking five wickets.Steve Ogrizovic
CricInfo. Retrieved 2018-04-18.

Playing career

He started his professional career at

before moving to

. His time at Liverpool was frustrating as he was unable to displace

Ray Clemence Raymond Neal Clemence, (5 August 1948 – 15 November 2020) was an England international football goalkeeper and part of the Liverpool team of the 1970s. He is one of only 31 players to have made over 1,000 career appearances, and holds the r ...

. He made his debut on 8 March 1978 in a 4–2 defeat at

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group. Founded in 1884 ...

. He managed a few more team appearances before moving to

. In 1984 he joined Coventry for £72,500. He was also selected to play for 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 ...

vs The Rest of the World at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

in 1987. He was still Coventry's first choice goalkeeper in the 1997–98 season, when at the age of 40 he was the oldest player to play a

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 ...

game that season. In order to gain his final playing contract Ogrizovic had to give up smoking as one of the conditions. He was the club's second choice goalkeeper for the next two seasons following the arrival of

Magnus Hedman Magnus Carl Hedman (; born 19 March 1973) is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Beginning his career with AIK in 1990, he went on play in the English Premier League, Scottish Premier League, and Italian Serie A b ...

, and finally retired at the end of the 1999–2000 season. In 16 seasons at Coventry, he collected an FA Cup winner's medal, but never played in European competition, as Coventry were unable to compete in the Cup Winner's Cup due to the ban on English teams in European competitions following the

Heysel disaster The Heysel Stadium disaster ( it, Strage dell'Heysel ; german: link=no, Katastrophe von Heysel ; french: Drame du Heysel ; nl, Heizeldrama ) was a crowd disaster that occurred on 29 May 1985 when mostly Juventus fans escaping from a breach by L ...

, and the highest position Coventry attained in this period was seventh in the 1988–89 First Division. On no fewer than seven occasions in Ogrizovic's time at the club, they came close to relegation from the top flight. They were finally relegated from the

one season after his retirement. During his time at Coventry, Ogrizovic scored in a 2–2 draw at

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...

in the First Division on 25 October 1986. He is also one of four players to have played top-flight football in four different decades, along with

Peter Shilton Peter Leslie Shilton (born 18 September 1949) is an English former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. His 30-year career included spells at 11 clubs and he has the distinction of playing over 1,000 league games, including in ...

John Lukic Jovan "John" Lukic ( Serbian: Јован "Џон" Лукић, ''Jovan "Džon" Lukić''; born 11 December 1960) is an English football coach and former professional footballer. He played as a goalkeeper from 1978 to 2001 and spent his entire pro ...

and Sir

Stanley Matthews Sir Stanley Matthews, CBE (1 February 1915 – 23 February 2000) was an English footballer who played as an outside right. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of the British game, he is the only player to have been knighted while stil ...

and holds the club record of 209 consecutive League appearances for a Coventry City player, from August 1984 to September 1989. Overall, he made 604 professional league appearances in a playing career spanning 23 years from 1977 to 2000. His final appearance for Coventry came on 6 May 2000 against Sheffield Wednesday. The keeper had not been first choice for much of that season, alternating the number 1 position with Magnus Hedman, but was awarded the jersey for the club's final home game in recognition of his outstanding service to the club.

International career

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Ogrizovic was generally considered to be the best goalkeeper never to have won a full

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 ...

cap. However, he did come on as a second-half substitute for Peter Shilton, in the English Football League XI vs Rest of the World XI in 1987. This match was to start the English football league celebrations, and was hosted at Wembley stadium. Ogrizovic played for 45 minutes. Although frequently considered for selection during this period by a number of England managers including

Bobby Robson Sir Robert William Robson (18 February 1933 – 31 July 2009) was an English footballer and football manager. His career included periods playing for and later managing the England national team and being a UEFA Cup-winning manager at Ipswich ...

and

Graham Taylor Graham Taylor (15 September 1944 – 12 January 2017) was an English football player, manager, pundit and chairman of Watford Football Club. He was the manager of the England national football team from 1990 to 1993, and also managed Lincoln C ...

, he was never selected for the full squad. He was once considered to be selected for the Yugoslavian national side (due to his Yugoslavian parentage), in the late eighties, but he declined the offer.

Coaching career

During

Iain Dowie Iain Dowie (born 9 January 1965) is a football manager, former professional footballer and sports television pundit. He played as a striker from 1983 until 2001, notably in the Premier League for Southampton, Crystal Palace and West Ham Unit ...

's spell as manager, Ogrizovic was the manager of the Coventry City Reserve Team and he continued to hold this under Chris Coleman. He was also caretaker manager in conjunction with Brian Borrows at the end of the 2001–02 season, between

Roland Nilsson Nils Lennart Roland Nilsson (born 27 November 1963) is a Swedish professional football manager and former player. He was most recently the head coach of Allsvenskan club IFK Göteborg. As a player, Nilsson played 116 games for Sweden, making ...

's departure and

Gary McAllister Gary McAllister MBE (born 25 December 1964) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player. McAllister played primarily as a midfielder in a career spanning over nineteen years. He started his career at local side Motherwell b ...

's appointment. He was Coventry City's Goalkeeping coach from 2008 to 2019.Baker, George & Turner, Andy (12 September 2017)
Coventry City legend Steve Ogrizovic celebrates his 60th birthday
''Coventry Telegraph''. Retrieved 2018-04-18. Vanessa Coaches was his goalkeeping coach at Coventry in his last stint as caretaker

Personal life

Ogrizovic is the son of Nikola Ogrizović ( sr-Cyrl, Никола Огризовић), a Yugoslav (

Serb The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language. The majority of Serbs live in their na ...

) prisoner of war in Italy during World War II, who sought refuge in the United Kingdom after being liberated by British troops. Ogrizovic served both as a Police Cadet and as a Police Officer at Mansfield Police Station in Nottinghamshire prior to signing as a professional footballer.Members News: Oggy's Son's Charity Quest To Fill In Their European Family History
Covery City Former Players Association. Retrieved 2018-04-18. In 2003 Ogrizovic was the subject of a hoax that said that he had been kidnapped in

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

and an online petition was set up to campaign to get him released. This was proved to be false when the

Coventry Evening Telegraph The ''Coventry Telegraph'' is a local English tabloid newspaper. It was founded as ''The Midland Daily Telegraph'' in 1891 by William Isaac Iliffe, and was Coventry's first daily newspaper. Sold for half a penny, it was a four-page broadsheet ne ...

interviewed him at Coventry City's training ground at

Ryton-on-Dunsmore Ryton-on-Dunsmore is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Rugby, Warwickshire, situated 5.5 miles (8.8 km) southeast of Coventry and 7.5 miles (12.1 km) west of Rugby, England. The 2001 Census recorded a population of 1,672 in the paris ...

. Politically, Ogrizovic campaigned for his local

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

candidate in the 1987 UK General Election.

Cricket career

Ogrizovic was also a

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er, reaching

Minor Counties The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

level as a medium-fast bowler. He played three

List A List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

matches for

Shropshire County Cricket Club Shropshire County Cricket Club is one of twenty minor county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Shropshire. The team is a member of the Minor Counties Championship Western ...

in the

NatWest Trophy The Friends Provident Trophy was a one-day cricket competition in the United Kingdom. It was one of the four tournaments in which the eighteen first-class cricket, first-class counties competed each season. They were joined by teams from Scott ...

, and a further game for

in the

Benson & Hedges Cup The Benson & Hedges Cup was a one-day cricket competition for first-class counties in England and Wales that was held from 1972 to 2002, one of cricket's longest sponsorship deals. It was the third major one-day competition established in Englan ...

. Amongst the players who he got out at this level were Chris Broad,

Martyn Moxon Martyn Douglas Moxon (born 4 May 1960) is a former English cricketer, who played in ten Test matches and eight One Day Internationals for England and for Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 1980 and 1997. In May 2007, Moxon was confirmed as Di ...

and

Alvin Kallicharran Alvin Isaac Kallicharran (born 21 March 1949) is a former Indo-Guyanese cricketer of Tamil origin who played Test cricket for the West Indies between 1972 and 1981 as a left-handed batsman and right-arm off spinner. Kallicharran was born i ...

, all international cricketers

Honours

As a player

Liverpool *

European Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions; the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's official name was originall ...

: 1978 (Runner up) *

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

: 1978, 1981 * Charity Shield: 1979, 1980 Coventry City *

: 1987

As an individual

* Coventry City Hall of Fame

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ogrizovic, Steve 1957 births Living people Footballers from Mansfield Association football goalkeepers English footballers English cricketers English people of Serbian descent Chesterfield F.C. players Liverpool F.C. players Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Coventry City F.C. players English Football League players Premier League players Shropshire cricketers Minor Counties cricketers Coventry City F.C. managers Coventry City F.C. non-playing staff English football managers UEFA Champions League winning players Association football goalkeeping coaches FA Cup Final players Cricketers from Nottinghamshire