Anthony Parks (born 28 January 1963) is an English football coach and 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 ...

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 ...

. In a career spanning over 20 years, he was on the books of 15 different clubs, making more than 250 league appearances and won the

1983–84 UEFA Cup The 1983–84 UEFA Cup was the 13th season of the UEFA Cup, the third-tier club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). It was won by English club Tottenham Hotspur, who beat Belgian side Anderlecht ...

with

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

. After retiring as a player he had two spells as joint caretaker manager of Halifax Town.

Career

Parks was born in Hackney, London, and began his football career with

. Though never a first-team regular, he was on the winning side in the 1984 UEFA Cup Final, in which he saved the final

penalty Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) A p ...

from Anderlecht's Arnór Guðjohnsen in the

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

. While still at Tottenham he had loan spells at fellow First Division club

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and t ...

and third-tier Gillingham. Following his departure from Spurs in 1988 he signed for Third Division side Brentford, for whom he played 71 league games. In the

1990–91 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

season he was loaned to

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...

in the First Division and subsequently joined third-tier side Fulham. Spells at

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

and Stoke City followed before he started a four-season spell at Scottish side Falkirk. After leaving them in 1996, his career concluded with spells at Blackpool,

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, Lancashire, Preston, at the confluence of the River C ...

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 ...

, Barrow,

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, su ...

and

Halifax Town FC Halifax Town is a professional association football club based in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. They currently compete in and play at the Shay. They replaced Halifax Town A.F.C., which went into administration in the 2007–08 season. ...

. After his playing career ended, Parks went on to work as a goalkeeping coach. He held roles at several clubs and also worked with the England youth teams for

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 a ...

. In November 2008, he returned to Tottenham, succeeding Hans Leitert as goalkeeping coach. In June 2016, Parks was released from his position of goalkeeping coach by Aston Villa. Prior to the 2018–19 season, Parks was employed as Head of Academy Goalkeeping at

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, and ...

. However, he left the club in September 2018 to set up "Tony Parks Goalkeeping" offering private coaching and Coach Education.

Career statistics

Honours

Club

Tottenham Hotspur; *

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

: 1983–84 Falkirk * Scottish Challenge Cup: 1993–94

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Parks, Tony 1963 births Living people Footballers from Hackney Central English footballers Association football goalkeepers Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Oxford United F.C. players Gillingham F.C. players Brentford F.C. players Queens Park Rangers F.C. players Fulham F.C. players West Ham United F.C. players Stoke City F.C. players Falkirk F.C. players Blackpool F.C. players Burnley F.C. players Doncaster Rovers F.C. players Barrow A.F.C. players Scarborough F.C. players Halifax Town A.F.C. players English Football League players Scottish Premier League players Scottish Football League players English football managers Halifax Town A.F.C. managers Tottenham Hotspur F.C. non-playing staff Norwich City F.C. non-playing staff Aston Villa F.C. non-playing staff Watford F.C. non-playing staff UEFA Cup winning players Association football goalkeeping coaches