Richard Anthony Lee (born 5 October 1982) is an English retired 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 is best remembered for his spells 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 ...

and

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

Watford Watford () is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a smal ...

and

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West (London sub region), West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the River Thames, Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has dive ...

. He was capped by England at U18 and

U20 U20 or U-20 may refer to: Naval vessels * * , a sloop of the Royal Navy * , a submarine of the Austro-Hungarian Navy Other uses * Great truncated cuboctahedron * Meizu U20, a smartphone * Roland U-20, a synthesizer * Small nucleolar RNA S ...

level.

Club career

Watford

2002–2004

Born in

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

, Lee joined the academy at

at the age of 11 from Bedgrove Dynamos and progressed through the ranks to become a

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

regular during the 2001–02 season, learning from player- goalkeeping coach Kevin Hitchcock. Lee received his maiden first team call up for a First Division match versus

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It is the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. The town's population was 71,422 in 2021, while the wider boroug ...

on 23 March 2002 and he remained an unused substitute during the 2–0 defeat. Incoming manager Ray Lewington promoted Lee to second-choice goalkeeper ahead of Espen Baardsen for the 2002–03 season and he made his senior debut in a 1–0 defeat to Preston North End on 4 March 2003. He made three further appearances (keeping a

clean sheet In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which the losing team fails to score. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usually seen as a result of ...

in each match) before the Hornets closed out a mid-table season. Lee began the 2003–04 season as second-choice behind Alec Chamberlain, but a broken arm and the form of loanee Lenny Pidgeley saw Lee fail to make a single appearance during the season.

2004–2007

Lee went on to establish himself as Watford's first choice goalkeeper during the 2004–05

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

season, making 38 appearances and signing a new -year contract, before a ruptured

biceps The biceps or biceps brachii (, "two-headed muscle of the arm") is a large muscle that lies on the front of the upper arm between the shoulder and the elbow. Both heads of the muscle arise on the scapula and join to form a single muscle bel ...

and a torn cartilage prematurely ended his season. He played in every match of the Hornets' run to the League Cup semi-finals, but he missed the two-legged tie against

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

due to a broken cheekbone suffered in a defeat to Coventry City a month previously. Out of favour with Watford manager Aidy Boothroyd, Lee joined Premier League club

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

on loan until the end of the 2005–06 season on 25 August 2005. He was only called into the first team squad once, when he was unused substitute for a 4–1 victory over Charlton Athletic on 5 November 2005. In his absence, Watford were victorious in the 2006 Championship playoff Final and sealed a place in the

. Behind Ben Foster and Alec Chamberlain in the pecking order, Lee made just 14 appearances during the 2006–07 season and the Hornets were relegated straight back to the Championship. In January 2007, Lee signed a one-year extension to his contract, which would keep him at

Vicarage Road Vicarage Road is a stadium in Watford, England, and is the home stadium of EFL Championship, Championship club Watford F.C., Watford. An all-seater stadium, its current capacity is 22,200. History It has been the home of Watford since 1922, w ...

until the end of the 2008–09 season.

2007–2010

Lee was undisputed first choice back in the Championship and made 41 appearances during the 2007–08 season, though Watford fell to Hull City in the playoff semi-finals. In

Jay DeMerit Jay Michael DeMerit (born December 4, 1979) is an American former soccer player who played as a center back. He played college soccer for the UIC Flames and was in the Chicago Fire Premier development squad, but after not being drafted for M ...

's absence, manager Aidy Boothroyd made Lee

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

for a period. Save for a run of 11 matches from September through to November 2008, Lee spent the 2008–09 season battling with Mart Poom for the position of second-choice goalkeeper behind

Scott Loach Scott James Loach (born 27 May 1988) is an English former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Loach played for Ipswich Town, Watford and Hartlepool United. He had also spent loan spells with non-League Stafford Rangers and Y ...

. He signed a new one-year contract extension in May 2009, but spent the entire 2009–10 season behind Scott Loach in the pecking order and made just two League Cup appearances in August 2009. Lee turned down the offer of a new contract and departed Vicarage Road on 31 May 2010, after making 110 appearances in eight years as a first team player with Watford. In 2015, Lee stated that failure to be seen as a consistent first-choice at Watford was down to being "seen as a good back up. I backed up Alec Chamberlain and he won player of the season, I backed up Ben Foster and he won an

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 ...

cap, I backed up Scott Loach and he got an England cap. I guess because I never kicked up much of a fuss and I wanted those guys to do well, it didn't help my cause".

Brentford

2010–2012

On 31 May 2010, Lee signed for a two-year contract with League One club

on a free transfer. He had a "car crash" beginning to the 2010–11 season, after being dropped by manager Andy Scott due to a poor performance during

pre-season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of S ...

. He spent the early months of the season behind Simon Moore and loanees Alex McCarthy and Ben Hamer in the pecking order and appeared only in cup matches. After starting his first league game of the season against

Bournemouth Bournemouth ( ) is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. At the 2021 census, the built-up area had a population of 196,455, making it the largest ...

on 2 November 2010, he cemented his place in the team. Brentford's League Cup and

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, officially known as the Vertu Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL League Two and U-21 teams from the Premier Le ...

runs were the highlights of his season, helping the Bees to win four

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 ...

s to send them to the fourth round of the League Cup and the final of the Football League Trophy. He missed the Football League Trophy Final at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

and the rest of the season with a dislocated right shoulder suffered in March 2011. Lee made 33 appearances during the 2010–11 season and won the club's Player of the Year award. Under new manager Uwe Rösler, Lee was first choice goalkeeper during the 2011–12 season and made 42 appearances, but his season ended early after further problems with his right shoulder. He signed a contract extension in October 2011, which would keep him at

Griffin Park Griffin Park was a association football, football ground in Brentford in the London Borough of Hounslow, England. It was the home ground of Brentford F.C. from its opening in September 1904 to August 2020. The ground was in a predominantly resi ...

until the end of the 2012–13 season.

2012–2015

Lee began the 2012–13 season out injured and due to the form of Simon Moore, he made just six appearances. He signed a new one-year contract extension in December 2012 and underwent a shoulder reconstruction operation in March 2013, which kept him out of first team action for six months. He made just five appearances during Brentford's promotion-winning 2013–14 season and spent much of the season as backup to new signing David Button, though he won a promotion medal by virtue of being an unused substitute on the final day of the season versus

Stevenage Stevenage ( ) is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevenage w ...

. Lee signed a new one-year contract extension in February 2014, but after just one appearance during the first month of the 2014–15 season, he made the decision to retire at the end of the campaign. Lee's persistent shoulder injury could be traced back to the ruptured biceps he suffered in 2005 and he admitted in 2011 that playing through injuries had caused lasting damage. Lee spent the 2014–15 season as third-choice goalkeeper behind David Button and Jack Bonham and after falling to fourth-choice behind Development Squad goalkeeper Mark Smith, he joined Brentford's West London Championship

rivals A rivalry is the state of two people or Social group, groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each ...

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

on loan in late March 2015. The move provoked a

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

spat between the two clubs and Lee moved to tell a Brentford fan blog that he made the move in a search for first team football in the final months of his career. He failed to win a call into a Fulham squad before the end of the season. At the 2014–15 end-of-season awards dinner, Lee was presented with a long-service award for his five seasons at the club. He made 87 appearances during his time at Griffin Park.

Post-retirement

Hampton & Richmond Borough

On 27 November 2015, it was announced that Lee had come out of retirement to sign for

Isthmian League The Isthmian League () is a regional Association football, football league covering Greater London, East of England, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, th ...

Premier Division club Hampton & Richmond Borough. He stated that the move was purely on an emergency basis and manager Alan Dowson later commented that Lee had "not committed to training and is just looking after himself in his spare time".

Dunstable Town

In late November 2017, Lee came out of retirement to join Southern League Premier Division club Dunstable Town as one-match cover for loan goalkeeper Nick Hayes. Lee's single appearance ended in a 4–1 defeat to

Bishop's Stortford Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town and civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district, in the county of Hertfordshire, England. It is in the London metropolitan area, London commuter belt, near the border with Essex, just west of the ...

International career

Lee was capped by England at U18 and

level and made two substitute appearances for the latter team. He was called up to the U21 squad, but did not make an appearance.

Coaching and mentoring career

Since June 2009, Lee has been a director of GK Icon, a goalkeeper training franchise. In 2012, Lee gained part one of his

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

'B' coaching license. Together with amateur footballer Rob Lovesey, in April 2011 Lee co-founded Sporting Connect, a football

social network A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

. Through the network, Lee is involved in youth coaching. He also mentors and acts as an

agent Agent may refer to: Espionage, investigation, and law *, spies or intelligence officers * Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another ** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuran ...

for goalkeepers through sports management company Refuel Performance Management, in which he is a partner with former Brentford teammate Scott Barron.

Personal life

Lee grew up in

Aylesbury Aylesbury ( ) is the county town of Buckinghamshire, England. It is home to the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery and the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre, Waterside Theatre. It is located in central Buckinghamshire, midway between High Wycombe and Milt ...

and is a

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 ...

supporter. In January 2012, Lee published ''Graduation: Life Lessons of a Professional Footballer'', a book detailing his experiences with Brentford during the 2010–11 season. The same year, Lee enrolled on a two-year PFA degree in Professional Sports Writing and Broadcasting at

Staffordshire University The University of Staffordshire is a public research university in Staffordshire, England. It has its main campus in Stoke-on-Trent and four other campuses in Stafford, Lichfield, Shrewsbury, and London. History In 1901, industrialist Alfred ...

, from which he graduated with honours in July 2014. Throughout 2013, Lee contributed to the ''Footballers' Football Column'' in the ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...

''. He appeared on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

's '' Couples Come Dine With Me'' with his then fiancée Marina Nigrelli on 7 May 2015. After retiring from professional football in May 2015, Lee began contributing to

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

' '' Soccer Saturday'' as a

pundit A pundit is a person who offers opinion in an authoritative manner on a particular subject area (typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport), usually through the mass media. The term pundit describes both women and men, altho ...

and reporter and working as a

motivational speaker A motivational speaker (or inspirational speaker) is a speaker who makes speeches intended to motivate or inspire an audience. Such speakers may attempt to challenge or transform their audiences. The speech itself is popularly known as a pep ta ...

Business interests

On 31 August 2006, Lee appeared on the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

programme ''

Dragons' Den ''Dragons' Den'' is a reality television program format in which entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to a panel of venture capitalists in the hope of securing investment finance from them. The program originated in 2001 in Japan, where it ...

'', where he and a partner managed to sell 50% of the equity in their company Dr. Cap to the entrepreneur Duncan Bannatyne for an investment of £150,000. The investment deal later collapsed. Lee resigned as a director of the company in September 2015. In 2012, Lee set up the social media platform The Goalkeeper's Union (GKU), which features goalkeeping-related news, interviews, podcasts and blogs. In December 2014, Lee set up dickieleecoffee.com, through which he initially distributed Organo Gold

coffee Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...

products. He co-founded the Bean Team (a

multi-level marketing Multi-level marketing (MLM), also called network marketing or pyramid selling, is a controversial and sometimes illegal marketing strategy for the sale of products or services in which the revenue of the MLM company is derived from a non-salarie ...

product distribution group) with former Brentford teammate David Hunt in 2015, distributing Organo Gold in the UK and overseas. In 2017, together with Adam Woodage, Lee authored a book, ''So, You Want To Become a Professional Footballer?''.

Career statistics

Honours

Brentford *

Football League One The English Football League One, known as Sky Bet League One for sponsorship reasons, or simply League One, is a professional association football league in England. EFL League One is the second-highest division of the English Football League an ...

second-place promotion: 2013–14 Individual * Brentford Supporters' Player of the Year: 2010–11

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Richard 1982 births Living people Footballers from Oxford English men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Watford F.C. players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Brentford F.C. players Fulham F.C. players Hampton & Richmond Borough F.C. players Dunstable Town F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players Southern Football League players England men's youth international footballers 21st-century English sportsmen