Tim Howard is probably the best goalkeeper in the Premier League. He had his finest season ever Everton in 2013-14, and he’s signed with the club now until 2018. The New Jersey, USA might actually be the best keeper in the world; period. He’s come a very long ways since the difficult spell he had during the Manchester United portion of his career.
a great piece on this topic from the DailyMail :
Howard began his career at Old Trafford in promising fashion after joining from Major League Soccer for around £3million in 2003, making a decisive penalty save to help the Red Devils win the Community Shield against Arsenal.
He continued his impressive form in the Premier League, cementing his place as the club’s No 1 goalkeeper ahead of Frenchman Fabian Barthez and Roy Carroll as Sir Alex Ferguson’s side chased the title.
But the honeymoon period didn’t last for long. In the latter half of his first season in England, Howard fumbled a Benni McCarthy free-kick during a Champions League last 16 tie against Porto and allowed Costinha to fire home the rebound.
He failed to secure the #1 role, and during 2004-05 he fell out of favor. However, David Moyes took a liking to his talents and he then went on loan to Everton for 2006-07. And with the Toffees he found his new home and his groove. And he’s only getting better. He’s also found his groove off the pitch as a broadcaster. He called a few Premier League games for NBC Sports this year.
He set a new World Cup record for saves in the game where USA was eliminated. He almost single-handedly took the United States to the quarter-finals of the tournament for the first time in three World Cups. At age 35, it’s probably his last appearance in a USA shirt. I doubt he’ll come back at age 39 in 2018.
But for now let’s live in the moment. Look at how far he’s come since his time at Old Trafford didn’t quite pan out. He’s our national hero now. For a couple days he was as talked about as any footballer in the world.
Here’s a video in which Tim Howard talks about his present and future.
For an entire week ESPN promoted/marketed/covered him as much as they do Lebron James, Tim Tebow or Johnny Manziel. Howard became the most viral athlete on the internet with the “Howard saves” memes and photoshops. Tim Howard mania ran became so strong that someone out there changed Howard’s entry on Wikipedia. And made him the U.S. Secretary of Defense.
The position is actually currently held by Chuck Hagel. The very next day Hagel called Howard to congratulate him on a fine performance. Here’s what he said.
Then Howard received a congratulatory telephone call from President Barack Obama (here’s video of it). Then a petition for his name to adorn an airport in Washington begin online. Well, you get the idea. In short, he became the biggest American star for an entire generation. You have to back multiple decades to find a player from the USA who’s been on his level.
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports and Yahoo! The Postgame. He’s been a guest on news talk shows all across the world. Banks has been featured in numerous media outlets including NFL.com, Forbes, Bleacher Report, Deadspin, ESPN, NBC, the History Channel and more. President Barack Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)