Premier League legend almost performed basketball earlier than ‘full luck’ made him a US hero
A Premier League legend has admitted he never planned to have a career as a professional footballer and as a boy was pursuing a life in a different sport altogether.
Friedel played 450 times in the Premier League for Tottenham, Aston Villa, Liverpool and Blackburn, where he cemented himself as one of the most reliable goalkeepers of his generation and still holds the record for most consecutive Premier League appearances, with 310.
However, his life could have panned out completely differently. The 82-time USA international, now 55, grew up in Ohio playing multiple sports, specifically excelling at football, basketball and tennis, but it looked for all the world that the 6ft 4 goalkeeper would focus on making it at basketball.
JOIN US ON FB! Get all the best sports news and much more on our Facebook page
Friedel won his school’s Outstanding Athlete of the Year award and was invited to try out for UCLA’s basketball team after playing as an All-State player in Ohio.
But he went on to play in goal for UCLA Bruins in the NCAA Championship and was selected as the first-team All-American goalkeeper in consecutive years before winning the top collegiate player in 1993. A decision to play football that no doubt he thanks every day, as well as the fans of his former clubs.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Star Sport, via prediction market experts at casino.org, Friedel admitted he never considered football as an option, let alone making a career out of it.
He said: “I never thought I’d play football at all. I got scholarship offers in other sports, basketball being one of them.”
“I only got one scholarship offer, and that was to UCLA for soccer. So I never thought I’d play at all. Then Ziggy Schmidt gave me the scholarship offer for the sport that I loved the most.
“So I went out and it was complete luck. I always kind of laugh when people talk about pathways. I mean, my pathway was either playing tennis, ice hockey, or basketball, and then someone threw me a lucky chip and then football found me.”
Friedel left UCLA early, with international caps already to his name with the USMNT, to pursue a professional career. After being denied a work permit to sign for Nottingham Forest, he joined Brondby in Denmark before signing for Galatasaray the following year.
The stopper returned to America in the newly founded MLS with Columbus Crew. Eventually, after numerous failed attempts to join a Premier League club, Friedel signed for Liverpool in 1997.
He spent three years at Anfield, but found himself second choice behind David James and then Sander Westerveld. However, former Galatasaray manager Graeme Souness then signed him for Blackburn, where he became a legend.
Freidel was named man of the match as Blackburn won the 2002 League Cup final against Tottenham, before in 2002-03, his 15 clean sheets earned him Blackburn’s Player of the Year award and selection in the Premiership Starting XI.
During his eight seasons at Ewood Park, he also became just the second goalkeeper in Premier League history to score, after Peter Schmeichel, when he bagged away against Charlton Athletic.
Following Mark Hughes leaving Rovers, he joined Aston Villa – breaking the record as their oldest ever player, away against Manchester United at the age of 39 – and later Tottenham, hanging up his gloves in 2015 at the age of 44.
Between August 2004 and October 2012, Friedel played an incredible, unbroken 310 consecutive appearances, a record he still holds and will likely continue to keep for many years to come.
He was unable to beat out Tony Meola as first-choice keeper for the US team at the 1994 World Cup, but played in the 1998 World Cup, and then shone at the tournament in 2002, in a surprising run to the quarter-finals, and was dubbed ‘The Human Wall’ by fans.
