Bruce Grobbelaar

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Personal information
Bruce Grobbelaar
Full name	Bruce David Grobbelaar
Date of birth	October 6, 1957 (age 49)
Place of birth	Durban, South Africa
Height	6 ft 1 in
Position	Goalkeeper
Club information
Current club	retired
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1979-1981 1979-1980 1980-1994 1993 1994-1996 1996-1997 1997 1997 1997-1998 1998 1998 1998 1999	Vancouver Whitecaps →Crewe Alexandra On loan Liverpool →Stoke City On loan Southampton Plymouth Argyle Oxford United Sheffield Wednesday Oldham Athletic Chesham United Bury Lincoln City Northwich Victoria	24 (1) 440 (0) 4 (0) 32 (0) 36 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 4 (0) 1 (0) 2 (0)
National team
	Zimbabwe
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Bruce David "Jungleman" Grobbelaar (born October 6, 1957 in Durban, South Africa) was a football goalkeeper for Zimbabwe and a number of clubs, most notably Liverpool F.C.

1 Early years
2 Playing career
3 Match-fixing allegations
4 After Southampton
5 Retirement and coaching
6 Teams
- 6.1 Playing
- 6.2 Coaching
7 Honours
8 References
9 Notes
10 External links

[edit] Early years

In his teenage years, Grobbelaar was a talented cricketer and was offered a baseball scholarship in the United States, but a career in football was his main ambition. In his late teens he was signed up by Jomo Cosmos in South Africa, but left claiming to have been sidelined owing to his colour in this predominantly black team. Immediately after leaving the Cosmos, he signed up for National Service, spending two years on active service in the Rhodesian National Guard. In 1979, Grobbelaar was signed up by the Vancouver Whitecaps after he had attended their scouting camp in South Africa.

[edit] Playing career

[edit] Vancouver Whitecaps

At the Vancouver Whitecaps, Grobbelaar played under the management of former England & Blackpool goalkeeper, Tony Waiters, making his debut against the Seattle Sounders in 1980. Though second choice to Phil Parkes, he became a cult figure at the Whitecaps. During 1980, he visited England to see family friends, and a chance phone call from Ron Atkinson, brought him an impromptu trial with West Bromwich Albion. Atkinson was keen to sign Grobbelaar but owing to difficulties over gaining a work permit, the deal fell through and he returned to Vancouver, but subsequently returned to the UK on loan to Crewe Alexandra. During his time at Crewe, Grobbelaar played 24 League games and scored his only professional goal, a penalty, in his last game. By good fortune, on the evening when he gave his greatest performance for Crewe, he was spotted by Liverpool FC's Head Scout Tom Saunders

[edit] Liverpool

By the time Liverpool FC had completed their research on Grobbelaar, he had returned to Vancouver with his loan spell now over. Liverpool approached Tony Waiters with the idea of taking Grobbelaar to Anfield, and Waiters, who had a working relationship with Liverpool in the 1970's, paved the way for the move. Grobbelaar signed for Liverpool in early 1981 as their reserve goalkeeper, but in the summer of 1981, regular goalkeeper Ray Clemence's departure to Tottenham Hotspur gave Grobbelaar his opportunity.

During the period 1981 - 1994, Grobbelaar played 627 first team games for Liverpool, becoming known for his eccentric and flamboyant style. In 1984, the European Cup final between Liverpool and A.S. Roma finished 1-1 after extra time, and went to penalty shootout. As Roma's Bruno Conti prepared to take his kick, Grobbelaar walked towards the goal smiling confidently at the cameras lined-up behind, then proceeded to bite the back of the net, in imitation of eating spaghetti. Conti sent his spot kick over the bar. Grobbelaar then produced a similar performance before Francesco Graziani took his kick, famously wobbling his legs in mock terror. Graziani duly missed and Liverpool went on to win the shootout 4-2, making Grobbelaar the first African to win a Champion's League winner's medal.

Whilst criticism is often aimed at him for his sometimes erratic performances, Grobbelaar was retained by three of Liverpool's greatest managers; Paisley, Fagan and Dalglish, over a period of 13 years. They all recognised that beneath the showbiz, there was one of the outstanding goalkeepers of his generation: he defended his eccentricity by claiming that, having fought in a civil war in Zimbabwe, he could appreciate that football is not as important as some people would suggest. His strengths were his gymnastic-like agility, and an unflappable confidence; even if he made a mistake, he would always want to be involved. He was never afraid to be seen to berate his defenders if he thought they had given easy opportunities to the opposition, most famously in his verbal assault on Jim Beglin in the 1986 FA Cup final. Over the course of his Liverpool career he won more medals than any of his contemporaries, and he would certainly challenge his predecessor Ray Clemence for a place in an all-time Liverpool XI.

Although there were occasional challenges to his position as Liverpool's number 1, Grobbelaar was a virtual ever-present from Clemence's departure to the end of the 1980's, apart from occasional injuries and a bout of meningitis which cause him to miss half the 1988/89 season. It was the signing of David James in the summer of 1992 that spelt the beginning of the end for Grobbelaar. Although James struggled to impress at first, Grobbelaar's insistence on playing for Zimbabwe gave James chances; Grobbelaar only played 6 times for Liverpool during 1992/93, and even spent a period on loan at Stoke City. James' uncertainty allowed Grobbelaar to regain his place in the first team at the start of the 1993/94 season, in which his performance, like the team's, started well but fell away badly. He was ever-present until he was injured in the final minute of a 2-0 defeat at Leeds United on 28 February 1994. It turned out to be his final appearance for the club.

[edit] Southampton

Grobbelaar left Liverpool in the summer of 1994, transferring to Southampton. He spent 2 seasons at The Dell competing with another goakeeper with a reputation for eccentricity, Dave Beasant. Despite the fuss caused by the match-fixing allegations (see below), manager Alan Ball maintained faith in him, and he kept his place in the team for most of the 1994-95 season.

The match-fixing allegations first appeared in November 1994, and in his next game, at home to Arsenal he managed to keep a clean-sheet despite the media frenzy that surrounded the game.

In the 1995-96 season the distraction of the court cases was such that Grobbelaar only managed 2 games for the Saints, before moving on to Plymouth Argyle.

[edit] Match-fixing allegations

In November 1994, Grobbelaar was accused by the British tabloid newspaper The Sun of match fixing during his time at Liverpool to benefit a betting syndicate, after being caught on videotape discussing match-fixing. He was charged with conspiracy to corrupt, along with the Wimbledon goalkeeper Hans Segers and Aston Villa striker John Fashanu, and a Malaysian businessman, Heng Suan Lim.

Grobbelaar pleaded not guilty, claiming he was only gathering evidence with the intent of taking it to the police. After two successive trials, in both of which the jury could not agree on a verdict, he and his co-defendants were cleared in November 1997. Grobbelaar later sued The Sun for libel and was awarded £85,000. The Sun appealed, and the case was eventually taken to the House of Lords where it was found that, though the specific allegations had not been proved, there was adequate evidence of dishonesty. The Lords slashed his award to £1, the lowest libel damages possible under English law, and ordered him to pay The Sun's legal costs, estimated at £500,000. In his judgement, Lord Bingham of Cornhill observed:

"The tort of defamation protects those whose reputations have been unlawfully injured. It affords little or no protection to those who have, or deserve to have, no reputation deserving of legal protection. Until 9 November 1994 when the newspaper published its first articles about him, the appellant's public reputation was unblemished. But he had in fact acted in a way in which no decent or honest footballer would act and in a way which could, if not exposed and stamped on, undermine the integrity of a game which earns the loyalty and support of millions."^[1]

Grobbelaar was unable to pay the costs and was declared bankrupt.

[edit] After Southampton

Grobbelaar spent the 1996-1997 season with Plymouth, before becoming a bit of nomad, spending short spells at Oxford United, Sheffield Wednesday, Oldham Athletic, Chesham United, Bury, Lincoln City and Northwich Victoria over the next 2 years before returning to his native country.

[edit] Retirement and coaching

Grobbelaar moved back to South Africa where he has coached a number of teams with various degrees of success. He managed Seven Stars in 1999 and took the team from the relegation zone to finish fourth in the final league table. In 2001 he took over struggling Hellenic. He twice previous was briefly player-manager of Zimbabwe's national team.

Grobbelaar has recently stated that he "hopes to one day return to Anfield as the manager of Liverpool FC" but with outstanding debt orders in the United Kingdom, and the damage to his reputation from the match-fixing allegations, this seems nothing more than wishful thinking on Grobbelaar's part.

Bruce returned to England however in 2006 to play in a replay of the 1986 FA cup final against Everton for Cancer research, which Liverpool won 1-0.

Grobbelaar played in the Sky one Match in 2004 and The Match 3 in 2006, keeping a clean sheet in both games.