111: Steve Ogrizovic, Coventry City, Merlin’s Premier League 97 Official Sticker Collection

In October 2020 Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon made his 650th appearance in Serie A during a 1-1 draw against Crotone. He followed this record up with a clean sheet in the Old Lady’s impressive 3-0 win against Barcelona which made him the first player to keep a Champions League clean sheet in four different decades. Furthermore, by making a first team appearance, Buffon continued a frankly ridiculous sequence dating back to the 1931/32 season where one of Sir Stanley Matthews, Peter Shilton or the Italian shot stopper have turned out between then and now. It’s as impressive as it is mildly disturbing.

Such longevity has almost come to be expected of goalkeepers and today’s subject, Steve Ogrizovic, enjoyed a 23-year career taking in spells at Chesterfield, Liverpool, Shrewsbury Town and Coventry City. It was at Highfield Road that Ogrizovic spent the majority of his lengthy career, racking up over 500 appearances and even managing to score one goal in a 2-2 draw against Sheffield Wednesday in 1986. He was in the Sky Blues’ goal when they lifted the FA Cup in 1987 but, like many players of this generation, missed out on the opportunity to play in Europe due to the ban on English clubs following the Heysel disaster. This is even more gutting when you realise that ‘Oggy’ was denied a tilt at the greatest of all club competitions – the Cup Winners’ Cup.

The plethora of goalkeeping talent in England during the 1980s and 1990s also denied Ogrizovic international honours with the aforementioned Shilton, Dave Beasant, Chris Woods and David Seaman preferred by Bobby Robson and Graham Taylor. Oggy’s Yugoslavian father had settled in Britain following the Second World War and the Eastern European nation did offer the keeper a shot at international glory in the late 1980s only to be rebuffed. Instead Ogrizovic dedicated his career to keeping the Sky Blues in the top flight with his reliable glovework and a level of bravery that saw him break his nose on multiple occasions.

As a wide-eyed eight-year-old I met Ogrizovic outside Selhurst Park following a thrilling 2-2 draw between Wimbledon and Coventry. What struck me, besides his distinctive nose, was his imposing stature which made it clear to see why he had proved so difficult for the likes of Marcus Gayle and Efan Ekoku to get past. It came as little surprise to find out while researching for this post that Ogrizovic had served in the police prior to his breakthrough as a professional shot-stopper and I’m sure the miscreants of Mansfield were made to feel as nervous as I did asking him for his autograph on a cold November evening in South London.

As well as serving his local community and performing goalkeeping heroics in the Premier League well into his 40s, Ogrizovic was also a more than handy cricketer who represented Shropshire and a combined Minor Counties side in the Natwest Trophy during the 1980s. His five wickets in List A cricket came at an average of under 30 and included former England internationals Chris Broad and Martyn Moxon and West Indies’ batsman Alvin Kallicharran. Although football took up most of Oggy’s time he still managed to collect 21 wickets for Shropshire in the Minor Counties Championship along with 12 more in the Minor Counties Trophy at an average of under 25. If he’d carried on playing into the 90s there’s every chance such form could have earned him an England call up. He couldn’t have been much worse than Gavin Hamilton.

Steve Ogrizovic’s retirement in the summer of 2000 can be seen as the end of an era in many ways. Despite years of entertaining escape acts Coventry finally succumbed to relegation from the Premier League and have endured turbulent times in the 21st Century. Recent videos from Tottenham Hotspur’s training ground have shown there are a few handy cricketers among the current Premier League stars but it’s highly unlikely Harry Kane will be turning out for Chingford 2s anytime soon. Goalkeepers too have received far greater protection in their tussles with oncoming strikers and it’s hard to imagine the likes of Ederson, Alisson and David De Gea being required to put their faces on the line with such alarming regularity. Then again it’s also highly unlikely that any of that trio of impressive shot-stoppers will only be offered their next contract on the condition they finally give up smoking. Whether they’ll still be keeping their sides in games well into their 40s is another question.