Jordan Pickford milestone is no cause for concern and Everton icon has shown why
As Jordan Pickford turns 30, the man whose saves have helped keep Everton in the Premier League can still have his best years ahead of him.
Any 30th birthday is a time to take stock – especially when you’re a professional athlete – but while outfield footballers are deemed to have reached ‘veteran’ status once they’ve hit the milestone and are often spoken of as being the ‘wrong side’ of 30, for goalkeepers it can genuinely be looked forward to as being the beginning of their peak years.
Pickford’s journey to Goodison Park was a long and winding road which took him to a variety of assorted and often unglamorous pit stops along the way. Born in Washington, he was with local club Sunderland from the age of just eight but as a fledgling custodian, he had half a dozen loan spells at Darlington, Alfreton Town, Burton Albion, Carlisle United, Bradford City and Preston North End before finally establishing himself as number one at the Stadium of Light under David Moyes, who he could be seen chatting to before last Saturday's home fixture against West Ham United.
Pickford was kept busy during the 2016/17 season as the Black Cats were relegated from the Premier League but made it to a six-man shortlist for PFA Young Player of the Year. Everton were duly impressed too and having failed to bring in a long-term successor for Tim Howard the previous summer, paid £25million to make him the third most expensive goalkeeper in history at the time and the most expensive British player in his position.
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