316: David James, Liverpool, Merlin’s Premier League 98 Official Sticker Collection

Over to Richard Allinson for today’s post where we get an insight into the power of nicknames and just how bad Fabio Capello was at managing the England team. That being said he might have upset Joe Hart in this story so at least there’s a silver lining.

Won the FA Cup. Represented his country 53 times. Awarded an MBE. Played a lot of Tomb Raider.

Looking back at David James’ career it is easy to get swept up with the bad stuff. Yes he was nicknamed Calamity James, yes he had bizarre haircuts, yes he wore a white suit before a Cup Final (I don’t think this was his fault to be fair) and, yes he blamed his bad form on spending too much time on a video console. However, David James was a bloody good goalkeeper.

Just to reiterate he earned 53 caps for England. That is more than Teddy Sheringham, more than Trevor Brooking and more than Geoff Hurst (although surprisingly less than Joe Cole). Most people would give anything just to play 53 seconds of international football. When he took to the pitch against Algeria in South Africa 2010 he became the oldest ever World Cup debutant and he remains the only black goalkeeper to play for his country. This alone should be enough to justify why his career should be held in high regard. But just look at his club career. He is an inductee in the Watford Hall of Fame. He played nearly 300 times for Liverpool, one of the biggest clubs in the world. He won the League Cup. He won the FA Cup. He played almost 1,000 professional games, most of which were in the most competitive league in world football. At one time he also held the record for the most clean sheets in the Premier League and is still second on this list. This is good stuff.

As an aside, he once finished a game for Manchester City as one of two goalkeepers on the pitch after Stuart Pearce, rather than leaving an experienced international midfielder in the game and his first choice goalkeeper in goal, brought Nicky Weaver on for Cláudio Reyna and put James at centre forward. The Guardian described big Dave’s performance in this role as him “charging round like a headless Ostrich.” So similar to his performances on Strictly Come Dancing really.

The one thing I never fully got about David James is why this ‘Calamity’ nickname stuck around for so long. In an article from April 2020, which looked into why England underperformed at the 2010 World Cup finals, Fabio Capello revealed that upon dropping Rob Green, after he made one mistake, he turned to his squad and asked “Who should I pick? Calamity or Joe Hart?” Absolutely woeful man management aside this was a man who could barely speak any English yet somehow had the knowledge and ability to refer to his most experienced goalkeeper by a four syllable nickname that was introduced about 15 years previously. Surely James had done enough to shake off this tag in the intervening years?

There are many more interesting things about David James’ life and career than the loose 500 word limit of this little piece allow. Actually, sod it, I’m going to list some: He established a foundation to sponsor projects in Malawi (there is a load more to this I genuinely don’t have room for); he wrote a newspaper column for a broadsheet in exchange for donations to the foundation; it is reported that when Portsmouth went into administration, James donated his creditors' agreement to members of staff from the club who were not being paid and at risk of unemployment; he is global ambassador for the Special Olympics; he works with Access Sport to provide sports provision in deprived areas of the United Kingdom; and he is an illustrator for children’s books. How is that for calamitous Fabio?