Antony Nigel Martyn (born 11 August 1966) is an English football coach and 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 lea ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), 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 i ...

. He notably played in the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

for Crystal Palace,

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

and Everton, having initially played in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

with Bristol Rovers. His move to Palace saw him become the first £1 million goalkeeper in British football and was a member of the Palace side that lost the 1990 Cup Final and won the Full Members Cup in 1991. An ankle injury forced him to retire in 2006. He won 23

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

between 1992 and 2002 and was a member of the national squad at four major tournaments. Following retirement, Martyn briefly held a role as goalkeeping coach for Bradford City but has not returned to the sport since 2009.

Club career

Early career

Martyn started his career as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

until invited to play as a goalkeeper for his brother's works team when he was 17. He started by playing amateur football for Cornish sides Heavy Transport FC, Bugle and St Blazey while working in a plastics factory and for a coal merchant, before beginning his professional career with Bristol Rovers in 1987 after apparently having been "spotted" by Rovers'

tea lady Tea is an Aromaticity, aromatic drink, beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over Curing (vegetable preservation), cured or fresh leaves of ''Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in ...

Vi Harris, whilst she was on holiday.

Crystal Palace

Martyn was transferred to Crystal Palace for a fee of £1 million in 1989, becoming the first goalkeeper to attract a million-pound transfer fee in English football. He remained at Palace for seven seasons, appearing 349 times for his club, including the 1990 FA Cup Final, where Palace were beaten by

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

in a replay, and the 1991

Full Members' Cup The Full Members' Cup was an association football cup competition held in English football from 1985 to 1992. It was also known under its sponsored names of the Simod Cup from 1987 to 1989 and the Zenith Data Systems Cup from 1989 to 1992. Th ...

final, where Palace beat Everton. In 1996, he signed with

, setting another record fee for a goalkeeper of £2.25 million. In 2005, Palace supporters voted Martyn into their Centenary XI.

Leeds United

Martyn was signed by boss Howard Wilkinson in the summer of 1996–97, along with another high-profile capture in the form of Britain's most expensive teenager, Lee Bowyer. Martyn's form for United, both at home and on the continent in European competition was outstanding – most notably in a man-of-the-match display at the Stadio Olimpico against Roma in the 1999-2000 UEFA Cup campaign, when Leeds reached the semi-finals. Martyn was also a huge part of the squad that eliminated illustrious clubs such as

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

and Deportivo La Coruna in the following season's UEFA Champions League campaign, leading them to the last four. In total, Martyn played as Leeds' first-choice goalkeeper for six seasons and his consistency was such that years later at a supporters' dinner, the Cornishman was named officially as United's greatest ever goalkeeper, beating off competition from the likes of Gary Sprake, David Harvey, and John Lukic – all three being men who won championship medals at Elland Road. However, it was a disagreement with new Leeds manager

Terry Venables Terence Frederick Venables (6 January 1943 – 25 November 2023), often referred to as El Tel, was an English football player and manager who played for clubs including Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Queens Park Rangers and won two caps for E ...

, combined with the increasingly good form of youngster Paul Robinson, that kept him from playing any games in Leeds' 2002–03 season and after a string of unused substitute appearances, Martyn was told he could find new employers. On 10 April 2006, he was voted as part of Leeds United's greatest team being the only player from after the Revie era to be part of the team. He is still well regarded by the Leeds United fans and was involved in the "Back the Bid Leeds" campaign for Leeds to be one of the host cities in England's World Cup 2018 bid.

Everton

In the middle of 2003, Leeds were approached by Chelsea and Everton with offers to sign Martyn. Both clubs were offering the out-of-favour goalkeeper a backup post: at Chelsea, he would understudy Carlo Cudicini; at Everton, the first-choice was Richard Wright. Martyn chose to move to Everton, and six games into the season, an injury to Wright gave him his Everton debut. His performances for the first team during Wright's recovery were such that Martyn remained Everton's first-choice goalkeeper even after Wright returned from injury. Martyn was one of Everton's best performers in the 2004–05 season when they achieved their best

finish of fourth. Many fans believed that Martyn almost single-handedly stopped them from slipping down the table after Thomas Gravesen's departure. He produced some of the best form of his career, despite being 38 years of age, to the delight of the Everton fans, with whom he remains a favourite. In his final season at Everton he was picking up many injuries and missed the remainder of the season. His final appearance for Everton was his 100th game for the club against Chelsea in an FA Cup tie at Goodison Park which ended 1–1, making numerous excellent saves. He was nicknamed "Big Nige" by Everton fans, a play on

Neville Southall Neville Southall (born 16 September 1958) is a Welsh Manager (association football), football manager and former international association football, footballer. He has been described as one of the best Goalkeeper (association football), goalk ...

's "Big Nev" nickname. On 8 June 2006, Martyn announced his retirement from football due to a stress fracture in his ankle that had sidelined him since January and failed to heal properly. David Moyes said that he would miss Martyn and described him as his "greatest ever signing".

International career

Martyn made his debut for the England national side against the

Commonwealth of Independent States The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional organization, regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an ar ...

in Moscow in 1992, becoming one of the few Cornishmen to play for England. He earned 23

for his national side, spending the peak of his career as second-choice goalkeeper behind

David Seaman David Andrew Seaman (born 19 September 1963) is an English former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. In a career lasting from 1981 to 2004, he is best known for his time playing for Arsenal. He won 75 caps for England, and is the country ...

. Martyn replaced the injured Seaman for England's final

UEFA Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament was ...

group match against

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

, a 3–2 defeat. He also started in goal for a 2–2 draw with

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and is the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,197, it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after W ...

that qualified England for the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea/Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

. In

Sven-Göran Eriksson Sven-Göran Eriksson (; 5 February 1948 – 26 August 2024) was a Swedish association football, football player and Coach (sport), manager. After a playing career as a right-back, Eriksson went on to experience major success in club management ...

's first game in charge of England against

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

in February 2001, Martyn came on as a substitute for David James and saved a Javi Moreno penalty in a 3–0 win. Martyn was selected for the England squad at both the

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

and

2002 Fifa World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea/Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

s, remaining second choice behind

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

's David Seaman at both tournaments.

Coaching career

Martyn spent time as goalkeeping coach at Bradford City, a role he started in March 2007 as a favour for former Leeds United teammate David Wetherall, who was then caretaker manager at Bradford.

Personal life

Martyn grew up supporting Plymouth Argyle F.C. While still in Cornwall he was also a

cricketer Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

, and played with Cornwall Schoolboys as a

wicket-keeper In cricket, the wicket-keeper is the Cricket player, player on the fielding (cricket), fielding side who stands behind the wicket, ready to stop Delivery (cricket), deliveries that pass the batsman, and take a Caught, catch, Stumped, stump the ...

, as well as

Fowey Fowey ( ; , meaning ''beech trees'') is a port town and civil parishes in England, civil parish at the mouth of the River Fowey in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town has been in existence since well before the Norman invasion, ...

Cricket Club. Since his retirement from professional football, he has returned to cricket, playing regularly for a Leeds team called Leeds Modernians in the Airedale & Wharfedale Senior Cricket League. As a player for Knaresborough C.C., alongside another former

goalkeeper, Paul Robinson, he won promotion to the Yorkshire Premier League North, in 2024. His son Thomas is an opera singer.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Crystal Palace *

: 1990–91 *

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

runner-up: 1989–90 * First division champions 1993–94 England * Tournoi de France:

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

Individual *

Toulon Tournament The Maurice Revello Tournament (officially French: the ''Festival International "Espoirs" – Tournoi Maurice Revello''), previously known as the Toulon Tournament, is a Association football, football tournament, which traditionally features invit ...

Best Goalkeeper: 1988 *

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 Football in England, En ...

: 1988–89 Third Division, 1993–94 First Division, 1997–98 Premier League, 1998–99 Premier League, 1999–2000 Premier League * Bristol Rovers F.C. Player of the Year: 1989 * Leeds United F.C. Player of the Year: 1997 * Most clean sheets in the

: 1996–97, 2001–02

References

External links

*
Palace Legends - Nigel Martyn
Crystal Palace FC {{DEFAULTSORT:Martyn, Nigel 1966 births Living people Sportspeople from St Austell Men's association football goalkeepers English men's footballers Footballers from Cornwall Bristol Rovers F.C. players Crystal Palace F.C. players Leeds United F.C. players Everton F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players England men's international footballers England men's B international footballers England men's under-21 international footballers UEFA Euro 1992 players 1998 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2000 players 2002 FIFA World Cup players Bradford City A.F.C. non-playing staff Association football goalkeeping coaches