Richard Anthony Lee (born 5 October 1982) is an English retired 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 ...

. He is best remembered for his spells in the

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 Fo ...

and Football League with

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 ...

and Brentford. He was capped by England at U18 and

U20 U20 or U-20 may refer to: Naval vessels * * , a sloop of the Royal Navy * , a submarine of the Austro-Hungarian Navy Other uses * Great truncated cuboctahedron * Meizu U20, a smartphone * Roland U-20, a synthesizer * Small nucleolar RNA SN ...

level.

Club career

Watford

2002–2004

Born in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, Lee joined the academy at

at the age of 11 from Bedgrove Dynamos and progressed through the ranks to become a

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

regular during the 2001–02 season, learning from player-

goalkeeping 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 ...

coach Kevin Hitchcock. Lee received his maiden first team call up for a First Division match versus Barnsley on 23 March 2002 and he remained an unused substitute during the 2–0 defeat. Incoming manager

Ray Lewington Raymond Lewington (born 7 September 1956) is an English retired footballer. He was most recently assistant manager of Watford. Born in London, he started his playing career in the city at Chelsea. He went on to play for Vancouver Whitecaps, W ...

promoted Lee to second-choice goalkeeper ahead of

Espen Baardsen Espen Baardsen (born 7 December 1977) is a former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Baardsen spent his entire professional career in the English Premier League. He began his career with Tottenham Hotspur, where he made his deb ...

for the 2002–03 season and he made his senior debut in a 1–0 defeat to Preston North End on 4 March 2003. He made three further appearances (keeping a clean sheet in each match) before the Hornets closed out a mid-table season. Lee began the 2003–04 season as second-choice behind

Alec Chamberlain Alec Francis Roy Chamberlain (born 20 June 1964) is an English former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He made 788 league appearances during his 25-year playing career, the final 11 years and 247 appearances of which were w ...

, but a broken arm and the form of loanee

Lenny Pidgeley Leonard James Pidgeley (born 7 February 1984) is an English former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Career Pidgeley was born in Twickenham, London. He initially signed up with Chelsea at the opening of the 2002–03 season, and was loan ...

saw Lee fail to make a single appearance during the season.

2004–2007

Lee went on to establish himself as Watford's first choice goalkeeper during the 2004–05

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

season, making 38 appearances and signing a new -year contract, before a ruptured biceps and a torn cartilage prematurely ended his season. He played in every match of the Hornets' run to the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

semi-finals, but he missed the two-legged tie against

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 populat ...

due to a broken cheekbone suffered in a defeat to

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed t ...

a month previously. Out of favour with Watford manager Aidy Boothroyd, Lee joined Premier League club

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

on loan until the end of the 2005–06 season on 25 August 2005. He was only called into the first team squad once, when he was unused substitute for a 4–1 victory over

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...

on 5 November 2005. In his absence, Watford were victorious in the 2006 Championship playoff Final and sealed a place in the

. Behind

Ben Foster Ben Foster may refer to: *Ben Foster (actor) (born 1980), American actor *Ben Foster (footballer) (born 1983), English goalkeeper *Ben Foster (composer) (born 1977), British composer, orchestrator and conductor * Ben Foster (director) (born 1984), ...

and Alec Chamberlain in the pecking order, Lee made just 14 appearances during the 2006–07 season and the Hornets were relegated straight back to the Championship. In January 2007, Lee signed a one-year extension to his contract, which would keep him at

Vicarage Road Vicarage Road is a stadium in Watford, England, and is the home stadium of championship club Watford. An all-seater stadium, its current capacity is 22,200. History It has been the home of Watford since 1922, when the club moved from Cas ...

until the end of the 2008–09 season.

2007–2010

Lee was undisputed first choice back in the Championship and made 41 appearances during the 2007–08 season, though Watford fell to

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving from Boothferry Park in 2002. The club's t ...

in the playoff semi-finals. In Jay DeMerit's absence, manager

Aidy Boothroyd Adrian Neil Boothroyd (born 8 February 1971) is an English former footballer who is currently the manager of Indian Super League club Jamshedpur. At club level, he was manager of Watford from 2005 to 2008. During his time with Watford, he was r ...

made Lee captain for a period. Save for a run of 11 matches from September through to November 2008, Lee spent the 2008–09 season battling with Mart Poom for the position of second-choice goalkeeper behind

Scott Loach Scott James Loach (born 27 May 1988) is an English professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Derby County. Loach previously played for Ipswich Town, Watford and Hartlepool United. He has also spent loan spells with non-League Staffo ...

. He signed a new one-year contract extension in May 2009, but spent the entire 2009–10 season behind Scott Loach in the pecking order and made just two League Cup appearances in August 2009. Lee turned down the offer of a new contract and departed Vicarage Road on 31 May 2010, after making 110 appearances in eight years as a first team player with Watford. In 2015, Lee stated that failure to be seen as a consistent first-choice at Watford was down to being "seen as a good back up. I backed up Alec Chamberlain and he won player of the season, I backed up Ben Foster and he won an

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, I backed up Scott Loach and he got an England cap. I guess because I never kicked up much of a fuss and I wanted those guys to do well, it didn't help my cause".

Brentford

2010–2012

On 31 May 2010, Lee signed for

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

club Brentford on a two-year contract. He had a "car crash" beginning to the

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

season, after being dropped by manager Andy Scott due to a poor performance during

pre-season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of Se ...

. He spent the early months of the season behind Simon Moore and loanees

Alex McCarthy Alex Simon McCarthy (born 3 December 1989) is an English professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper for club Southampton F.C., Southampton. A product of Reading's Reading F.C. Un ...

and

Ben Hamer Benjamin John Hamer (; born 20 November 1987) is an English professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Championship side Watford. Career Early career Hamer was born in Chard, Somerset, and is a Bristol City fan. His family moved to ...

in the pecking order and appeared only in cup matches. After starting his first league game of the season against Bournemouth on 2 November 2010, he cemented his place in the team. Brentford's League Cup and

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Le ...

runs were the highlights of his season, helping the Bees to win four

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 ...

s to send them to the fourth round of the League Cup and the final of the Football League Trophy. He missed the Football League Trophy Final at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 2002 to 2003. The stadium ...

and the rest of the season with a dislocated right shoulder suffered in March 2011. Lee made 33 appearances during the 2010–11 season and won the club's

Player of the Year Several sports leagues honour their best player with an award called Player of the Year (POY) . In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award. Association football In association football, this award is he ...

award. Under new manager

Uwe Rösler Uwe Rösler (; born 15 November 1968) is a German football manager and former professional footballer. As a player he was a centre forward, notably playing in the Premier League for Manchester City, where he was the leading goalscorer for thr ...

, Lee was first choice goalkeeper during the 2011–12 season and made 42 appearances, but his season ended early after further problems with his right shoulder. He signed a contract extension in October 2011, which would keep him at Griffin Park until the end of the

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

season.

2012–2015

Lee began the 2012–13 season out injured and due to the form of Simon Moore, he made just six appearances. He signed a new one-year contract extension in December 2012 and underwent a shoulder reconstruction operation in March 2013, which kept him out of first team action for six months. He made just five appearances during Brentford's promotion-winning 2013–14 season and spent much of the season as backup to new signing David Button, though he won a promotion medal by virtue of being an unused substitute on the final day of the season versus Stevenage. Lee signed a new one-year contract extension in February 2014, but after just one appearance during the first month of the 2014–15 season, he made the decision to retire at the end of the campaign. Lee's persistent shoulder injury could be traced back to the ruptured biceps he suffered in 2005 and he admitted in 2011 that playing through injuries had caused lasting damage. Lee spent the 2014–15 season as third-choice goalkeeper behind David Button and Jack Bonham and after falling to fourth-choice behind Development Squad goalkeeper Mark Smith, he joined Brentford's West London Championship

rivals A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant ...

Fulham on loan in late March 2015. The move provoked a

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

spat between the two clubs and Lee moved to tell a Brentford fan blog that he made the move in a search for first team football in the final months of his career. He failed to win a call into a Fulham squad before the end of the season. At the 2014–15 end-of-season awards dinner, Lee was presented with a long-service award for his five seasons at the club. He made 87 appearances during his time at Griffin Park.

Post-retirement

Hampton & Richmond Borough

On 27 November 2015, it was announced that Lee had come out of retirement to sign for Isthmian League Premier Division club Hampton & Richmond Borough. He stated that the move was purely on an emergency basis and manager Alan Dowson later commented that Lee had "not committed to training and is just looking after himself in his spare time".

Dunstable Town

In late November 2017, Lee came out of retirement to join Southern League Premier Division club Dunstable Town as one-match cover for loan goalkeeper Nick Hayes. Lee's single appearance ended in a 4–1 defeat to Bishop's Stortford.

International career

Lee was capped by England at U18 and

level and made two substitute appearances for the latter team. He was called up to the U21 squad, but did not make an appearance.

Coaching and mentoring career

Since June 2009, Lee has been a director of GK Icon, a goalkeeper training franchise. In 2012, Lee gained part one of his

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

'B' coaching license. Together with amateur footballer Rob Lovesey, in April 2011 Lee co-founded Sporting Connect, a football

social network A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for ...

. Through the network, Lee is involved in youth coaching. He also mentors and acts as an

agent Agent may refer to: Espionage, investigation, and law *, spies or intelligence officers * Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another ** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuranc ...

for goalkeepers through sports management company Refuel Performance Management, in which he is a partner with former Brentford teammate Scott Barron.

Personal life

Lee grew up in Aylesbury and is a Manchester United supporter. In January 2012, Lee published ''Graduation: Life Lessons of a Professional Footballer'', a book detailing his experiences with Brentford during the 2010–11 season. The same year, Lee enrolled on a two-year PFA degree in Professional Sports Writing and Broadcasting at

Staffordshire University , mottoeng = Dare to know , type = Public , endowment = £70 million (2015) , administrative_staff = 1,375 , chancellor = Francis Fitzherbert, 15th Baron Stafford , vice_chancellor = Professor Martin Jones , ...

, from which he graduated with honours in July 2014. Throughout 2013, Lee contributed to the ''Footballers' Football Column'' in the '' Daily Mail''. He appeared on Channel 4's '' Couples Come Dine With Me'' with his fiancée on 7 May 2015. After retiring from professional football in May 2015, Lee began contributing Sky Sports' ''

Soccer Saturday ''Gillette Labs Soccer Saturday'' is a weekly television programme broadcast on Sky Sports in the United Kingdom and Ireland during the football season. The programme updates viewers on the progress of association football games in the United ...

'' as a pundit and reporter and working as a motivational speaker.

Business interests

On 31 August 2006, Lee appeared on the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...