Goalkeeping PDF

Goalkeeping PDF

Football is a sport that has been immensely enjoyed by players and spectators of all ages for many years.

The sport evolved naturally from early ball games with improvements being gradually introduced.

There were few rules in the earliest forms of the sport which resulted in spontaneity and brute force prevailing.

The first signs of organisation began to appear in the games of football being played in English schools at the start of the 19th century.

Gradually the game was taken up outside the school environment and clubs were formed.

The cornerstone of football as we know it today was the foundation of the fi rst football federation, the “Football Association”, in London on 26 October 1863.

The development of football then gathered pace; rules were drawn up and progressively refi ned.

On 8 December 1863, rules were introduced to prohibit players handling the ball. One player was exempt: the goalkeeper.

This can be considered the “date of birth of the goalkeeper”. Initially the position of goalkeeper was allocated to a team member haphazardly. The sole criterion was the player’s height. The fi rst refl ections on the role of the goalkeeper appeared in 1871.

But by the start of the 20th century, goalkeepers were still not differentiated from other players in terms of appearance or the way in which they played the game.

Spectators also did not view goalkeepers in a different light. Innovations gradually appeared: in 1878, a cord was strung between the posts to serve as the forerunner to the crossbar, although it was not until 1893 that goal nets were used.