Top 10 things you need to know about England - and now Strictly's - Peter Shilton

By Mirror Football in Mirror Football Blog

Published 00:00 08/09/10

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With one of England's greatest goalkeepers, Peter Shilton, soon to appearing on Strictly Come Dancing, perhaps we need to know a little more about the goalkeeping legend. Karl Sears has the facts.

1) Peter Leslie Shilton was born in Leicester on the 18th September 1949, which means he's coming up to his 61st birthday. So when the new series kicks off, Shilts will be one of the series' oldest ever dancers. However, having retired from professional football at 47 years old, being one of the elder competitors will be nothing new for him.

2) As a young boy of 13, Shilton started training with Leicester City, during which time he was spotted as a future talent by then England goalkeeper Gordon Banks - talk about a glowing recommendation. Three years later in 1966 Shilton replaced Banks in the Foxes first-team and made his debut against Everton - the first game of his 30 year professional career.

3) Shilton is perhaps most famous for winning 125 England caps in an international career spanning 20 years. He took the English record from Bobby Moore when he won his 109th cap against Denmark in 1989. Despite being the most capped Englishman, Shilton is someway off the world record. He is ranked at joint 37th in the FIFA appearances list, and is someway off the 177 caps won by Saudi Arabia player Mohamed Al-Deayea.

4) Not content with just achieving an appearance record at international level, Shilton also did it at domestic level. He amassed an amazing 1,005 appearances in the football league - a record likely to never be broken. He won this accolade during spells at 11 teams, including; Leicester City, Stoke City, Nottingham Forest, Southampton and Derby. His milestone 1,000th game was for Leyton Orient in 1996 against Brighton, he kept a clean sheet and won the game 2-0.

5) If you look through the list of goal-scoring goalkeepers, under the year '1967' you'll find the name 'Peter Shilton'. In his debut season he got on the scoresheet against Southampton on a rainy day at The Dell. His long clearance up the field skidded on the pitch, went over the head of his opposite number and into the net. Leicester won the game 5-1.

6) Nowadays we're used to seeing Premier League players on the covers of our favorite Xbox titles, but when it comes to video game endorsements, Peter Shilton was way ahead of his time. In 1987 'Peter Shilton's Handball Maradona' was released for the Commodore 64. In an original approach to the football genre you had to control the goalkeeper and save shots while the computer knocked the ball around and hit improbable swerving shots at your goal amidst a drone of monotone bleeps and sound effects.

7) Despite his 125 caps, and 66 clean sheets, Peter Shilton is unfortunate that he will always be remembered for his role in some of English football's most infamous moments.

He was the goalkeeper who let Poland's goal shot squirm underneath his body in the decisive World Cup qualifier in 1973, a moment Shilton described as the only mistake he ever made during his England career.

After a long break from controversy, aided by England's inability to qualify for a major tournament, along comes Maradona. In the 1986 World Cup, Shilton was the goalkeeper who was out jumped by Maradona and his 'Hand of God' which was the opening goal of England's 2-1 defeat.

Jump forward a World Cup to 1990 and Shilton is beaten by Andreas Brehme's heavily deflect free-kick in the second half of the semi-final. The ball looped over the stranded Shilton, who failed to get back to his line, or even get off the ground. Whoever Shilton's partner is on Strictly Come Dancing, they'll be hoping his footwork will be better than it was on that evening.

8) While 125 caps is pretty good and not to be scoffed at, Shilton could have amassed many, many more. During the 70's the position of England goalkeeper was sometimes at the centre of a rotation policy in order to accommodate himself and fellow goalkeeping great Ray Clemence. Clemence himself accumulated an impressive 61 caps during this era, which means that Shilton could have been pushing 200 before he retired.

9) Unsurprisingly given the length of his career, Shilton won the lot. His haul includes First and Second Division titles, League Cup, European Cup (twice) and European Super Cup. His personal honors include the PFA Players' Player of the Year award in 1978, an MBE and OBE, a PFA Order of Merit award and an inductee of the English Football hall of Fame.

10) Even from an early age, Shilton was very focused on his future profession. Legend has it that, as a boy, Shilton spent hours hanging from his stairs in order to grow a few inches after he was told that he was too short to make the grade.

Despite having retired, he still has a good mentality towards fitness. Shilton has said: "I'm still very professional about my fitness, I stay as trim as I always did", an attitude sure to bode well when the Saturday evening dancing commences.

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