Alec Francis Roy Chamberlain (born 20 June 1964) is an English former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting ...

. He made 788 league appearances during his 25-year playing career, the final 11 years and 247 appearances of which were with Watford.

Career

Chamberlain started his career at

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

as a trainee, but didn't make a single appearance for the club, moving to

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colc ...

in 1982. He spent 5 years at Layer Road before joining Everton for £80,000. However, the then 23-year-old was unable to displace established Everton goalkeeper

Neville Southall Neville Southall (born 16 September 1958) is a Welsh former international footballer. He has been described as one of the best goalkeepers of his generation and won the FWA Footballer of the Year award in 1985. He joined Bury from Winsford ...

, and his only appearances in the 1987–88 season were during a loan spell at Tranmere. Having failed to make a single first team appearance for Everton in a year there, Chamberlain signed for

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1 ...

in the summer of 1988 whilst living in Northampton, where he ousted Les Sealey after Sealey had a poor game in the League Cup Final against

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

. Chamberlain became first choice goalkeeper for the next four seasons. He did have a loan spell as understudy to Dave Beasant at Chelsea in the

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since th ...

, but didn't make any first team appearances. After signing for

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

in 1993, Chamberlain played regularly, making 90 league appearances over 3 years. He was part of the team that was promoted in 1995–96. Towards the end of the 1994–95 season, he was loaned to

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

as understudy to David James after previous deputy Michael Stensgaard suffered an off-the-field injury. Despite never playing a game for the

Anfield Anfield is a football stadium in Anfield, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, which has a seating capacity of 53,394, making it the seventh largest football stadium in England. It has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since their formation in 189 ...

side he collected a

Football League Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by th ...

winner's medal as he was a non-playing substitute in the final. In the summer of 1996 he was allowed to join recently

relegated In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

Watford Watford () is a town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal en ...

, who paid £40,000 for him. He started off unable to get in the team, but finally played when first-choice goalkeeper and two-time Player of the Season Kevin Miller was sold to

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition buildin ...

in the 1997 close season. Now the first-choice goalkeeper, he was part of the Division Two Championship winning side in 1997–98, becoming Player of the Season in the process. He continued to play an important role as Watford gained promotion to the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

in 1999. In the playoff semi-final second leg against

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

, his save denied Birmingham a winning goal, and won the match for Watford with a

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

save from Chris Holland in sudden-death. He appeared at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

when Watford beat

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pik ...

2–0 in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

. In Watford's Premiership campaign, Chamberlain started off with an injury, and had to wait six games before he could play again. Watford were relegated to Division One at the end of the season. The club signed

Tottenham Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Walthams ...

goalkeeper

Espen Baardsen Espen Baardsen (born 7 December 1977) is a former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Baardsen spent his entire professional career in the English Premier League. He began his career with Tottenham Hotspur, where he made his de ...

, and the two players competed for the starting position through the 2000–01 season. When Gianluca Vialli arrived as Watford manager at the end of the season, he selected Baardsen as his first choice, but Chamberlain returned to the side in October 2001 and kept his place, finishing as Player of the Season for the second time in five years. Under Ray Lewington, he was first-choice for the whole of the 2002–03 season. In 2003–04 he started as first-choice, but lost his place to

Lenny Pidgeley Leonard James Pidgeley (born 7 February 1984) is an English former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Career Pidgeley was born in Twickenham, London. He initially signed up with Chelsea at the opening of the 2002–03 season, and was loa ...

for several months, before regaining his place towards the end of the campaign. Chamberlain, now 40, took the job of goalkeeping coach in the autumn of 2004. Chamberlain was given a testimonial by Watford. With Chamberlain in goal Watford lost to Premiership side

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...

2–1. Various events were run throughout the season to celebrate Chamberlain's 10 years at the club. On 20 July 2006, after Watford's promotion to the Premier League via the Championship playoffs, he signed a new one-year contract keeping him as player at

Vicarage Road Vicarage Road is a stadium in Watford, England, and is the home stadium of championship club Watford. An all-seater stadium, its current capacity is 22,200. History It has been the home of Watford since 1922, when the club moved from Cass ...

until summer 2007 making him, at 42, the oldest

player in 2006–07. On 13 May 2007, Chamberlain came on as a substitute to become one of the oldest Premier League players ever. On 19 May 2007 it was announced that Chamberlain would be retiring from playing and would concentrate on his coaching role at the club.

Honours

Club

; Everton *

FA Charity Shield The Football Association Community Shield (formerly the Charity Shield) is English football's annual match contested at Wembley Stadium between the champions of the previous Premier League season and the holders of the FA Cup. If the Premier L ...

Winner (1):

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airpor ...

;

Winner (1): 1994–95 ;

Football League Division One The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First Div ...

Winner (1): 1995–96 ;

Playoff Winner (1): 1998–99 *

Football League Division Two The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third tier b ...

Winner (1): 1997–98

Individual

PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's English football; the Premi ...

(1): 1997–98 *

Colchester United Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its earl ...

Player of the Year (1): 1985 *

Player of the Season (2): 1997–98, 2001–02

References

External links

*
Alec Chamberlain's official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chamberlain, Alec 1964 births Living people English men's footballers People from March, Cambridgeshire Men's association football goalkeepers Ipswich Town F.C. players Colchester United F.C. players Everton F.C. players Tranmere Rovers F.C. players Luton Town F.C. players Chelsea F.C. players Sunderland A.F.C. players Liverpool F.C. players Watford F.C. players Watford F.C. non-playing staff Premier League players English Football League players Association football goalkeeping coaches Footballers from Cambridgeshire