Who is Fraser Forster?

Roy Hodgson has indeed called up a player from Celtic for England’s upcoming matches against San Marino and Poland later this month as was speculated, but it is not Gary Hooper as expected, as Roy sticks with Welbeck, Rooney, Carroll and Defoe up front, but their goalkeeper Fraser Forster.

This is the shock inclusion of the squad, even more so than the selection of Ryan Shawcross to replace John Terry, as the Stoke centre half has looked solid this season and deserves his chance after finally putting the incident with Aaron Ramsey which had scarred his reputation over the last couple of years, behind him.

So who is Fraser Forster? And is he really one of the best three English goalkeepers at the minute?

In short, the answer is yes. The majority of Celtic, Norwich and Newcastle fans would all agree with this statement and would in fact possibly argue that it is a travesty that he has not been included until now, which in all likelihood is due to him not playing in the Premier League and his relative youth for a goalkeeper.

He started his career at Newcastle but due to having the likes of Given, Harper and Krul in front of him, never made a professional appearance for the club. He spent most of this time in the North East out on loan at clubs including Stockport, Bristol City and Norwich. It was at Norwich that he really began excelling and he kept 20 clean sheets in 42 games in all competitions for Norwich in the 2009/2010 season which in turn earned him the Macron Golden Gloves award for keeping the most clean sheets in the league that season. Paul Lambert was a big fan and indicated that he felt Forster could play at the highest level.

It was under another Scottish Manager that Forster continued his development, moving to Celtic on loan for 2010/2011, he spent the next seasons on loan at Celtic where he kept 42 clean sheets in 69 league games over these two years before eventually being signed permanently in June of this year, and looks set to be their first choice for many years to come.

Forster is now 24, which although young for a goalkeeper, his experience is quite extensive for a goalkeeper of his age, with several years of top flight experience in Scotland as well as featuring in the Europa and Champions League. He certainly is an incredibly imposing figure, standing tall at 6 foot 7, he definitely gives teams presence at the back, and although we are not implying that he will be replacing Joe Hart anytime soon, he is a more than capable understudy and deserves his place in the squad on merit and at a time where we are blessed with a dearth of goalkeeping talent, we are right to give youth a chance and it is refreshing to see a player which does not ply his trade in the Premier League to be given his chance.

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