How Jordan Pickford became England's record-breaking No 1: The reason his Everton team-mates adore him, the numbers that prove his quality, why he's pen pals with a Liverpool player and the sliding doors moment when he so nearly moved to Man United

First came a punch and then came a pop to puncture the quiet of a sunny afternoon.

It was Wednesday, June 7, 2017. On a training pitch at St George’s Park, England’s Under 21s were gearing up for that summer’s European Championship; away from the main throng, the goalkeepers were working in tandem and it had all been routine until a shot flashed past Jordan Pickford.

Up he sprung from the floor, his face contorted in frustration. The first thing he saw was a blow-up mannequin, being used as a temporary defender. Such was his anger, he threw a left hook that would have impressed his idol Gennady Golovkin, the great Kazakh boxer. The mannequin was no more.

‘I didn’t mean to pop it, like, but I just don’t like conceding really,’ Pickford told us afterwards, with a sheepish smile. ‘It’s as simple as that. Sometimes you can’t help conceding as a keeper but that’s the whole reason you are there – to keep the ball out of the net.’

He’s done a pretty good job of doing what he has expected from himself ever since. Another clean sheet on Thursday against Wales was his eighth in succession – a record – for England, surpassing Gordon Banks, the man who has forever been the reference point for goalkeepers.

Those 720 unblemished minutes have enabled him to zoom up the rankings, leapfrogging Banks (35) and David Seaman (40) in terms of who has had most shutouts. Only Joe Hart (43) and Peter Shilton (66) stand ahead of Pickford, and his 41 clean sheets, now.

There will, inevitably, be some eye-rolling about the sequence: Greece, Ireland, Albania, Latvia, Andorra (twice), Serbia and Wales, with all due respect, don’t have strength and depth in their forward lines, so it will be argued that this is akin to hitting boundaries off underarm deliveries.

Not a bit of it. In the world of international football, when games can meander into stages that invite the crowd to make paper aeroplanes, concentration is tested as much as physical and technical ability and these numbers are reflective of Pickford’s maturity.

‘It’s not easy to stay focused in a dominant first half like that with basically nothing to do,’ Thomas Tuchel, England’s head coach, noted after the 3-0 skewering of Wales. ‘He had a very difficult save to make in the second half – he’s a fantastic shot-stopper.

‘He stayed calm, it’s what we demand of him. He kept his focus. In itself, it’s a great achievement with eight clean sheets. He doesn’t do it alone, it’s a team effort, and I think he’s happy to share it. He’s doing well, he’s in a good moment and still adapting to what we want from him.’

Quite why Tuchel seemed so lukewarm towards Pickford when taking over 12 months ago remains a mystery. Perhaps he had never forgotten the afternoon in May 2022, when as Chelsea’s head coach, he turned up at Goodison Park and saw Pickford keep his team out singlehandedly.

If you have chance, watch back the save he makes from Cesar Azpilicueta, when he leaps up from sliding one way to dive the other and keep the ball out. Comparisons with Neville Southall, the greatest Evertonian to pull on a pair of gloves, aren’t made lightly but they were fitting then.

‘I'd say what he did was acrobatic,’ his old coach Alan Kelly explained. ‘But, really, it was miraculous.'

What a signing he has proven to be for Everton. He made his 300th Premier League appearance for the club earlier this month and the £30million fee that was invested in him was arguably the finest piece of business done during an era of largesse, when Farhad Moshiri was the majority shareholder.

As one of the leadership group, which also includes Seamus Coleman and James Tarkowski, Pickford is responsible for setting the tone and it is widely acknowledged within Finch Farm that he is someone who takes an interest in the well-being of others, making sure they are looked after.

It is not always the case in football, an industry where you don’t have to look too hard to find those who are self-centred, but Pickford hasn’t forgotten the days when he would taken to matches by mum, Sue, and dad, Lee, eating chicken and pasta out of a tub while listening to dance music.

Sacrifice is a huge part of this profession and, as such, he frequently checks in on Bailey Hall, an 18-year-old goalkeeper at Liverpool who was once at Sunderland’s academy and comes from the same area where Pickford was raised.

That he ended up at Goodison Park owed a huge amount to the current manager, who eight years ago had just found himself out of work. David Moyes had worked with Pickford at Sunderland and not been afraid to have one so young between the posts. He has always been a shrewd judge.

‘When I lost my job, at the end of the season, I said to Bill (Kenwright, Everton’s late chairman), “You have got to sign the goalkeeper at Sunderland”. And he did,’ Moyes revealed. Sunderland, remember, had just been relegated and economic ramifications meant they had to sell.

‘He was a fabulous young goalkeeper at the time, he really was. Mature enough in some ways – funnily enough, he wasn’t as giddy in his younger days. I thought he was a bit more settled but he was probably still mad off the pitch! But, seriously, he was a really good goalkeeper.’

Soon Pickford will sign a new contract, with Everton adamant they want him to finish his career on Merseyside – whatever it would cost them to finance such a deal, you could essentially double the figure to bring in comparable quality. He really has become that important.

To think, then, there was a moment when the prospect of him leaving needed to be discussed. In the spring of 2023, when Everton were clinging by their fingertips to their Premier League status and they had to consider what might happen if the trapdoor opened beneath them.

Retaining Pickford in the Championship, ahead of a season that was going to culminate with a Euros, wouldn’t have been feasible. So discussions took place that involved him going on loan to Manchester United and James Trafford, of their rivals Manchester City, going on loan to Everton.

How might things have worked out then? Andre Onana, for one, would have been unlikely to end up at Old Trafford. But as it was, Pickford came to the fore - a critical penalty save in a 2-2 draw at Leicester enabled Everton to scramble to safety.

‘To actually have that longevity of being an England goalkeeper,’ said Moyes. ‘David Seaman was 14 years in the England squad. Jordan has been in it for eight. Well he’s got a bit to do to catch (Seaman), hasn’t he? But it’s some achievement. It really is.

‘In eight years as England goalkeeper he's had what, two World Cups (reaching the quarter-final and semi-final), and two European Championship finals? Incredible. Incredible. And he is still going strong. He’s playing really well – and there is more to come.’

There certainly is. A keen golfer and a father-of-three, Pickford has matured with age but for those who have been down the road with him, a journey that has stops at destinations such as Darlington and Alfreton, Burton and Carlisle, the rise to England’s No1 has come as no surprise.

‘We signed him for Preston (in 2015) when we had just got into the Championship,’ recalls Simon Grayson, who is now in charge of Hartlepool and will soon notch up his 800th game in management. ‘Alan Kelly was working with me and we were in agreement that he was going to the very top.’

The move to Preston was symbolic. Pickford made his first Under-21 appearance in a friendly against the USA in September 2015, the game being staged at Deepdale. England won 1-0 but, afterwards, Gareth Southgate – then the Under-21 head coach – made a point of talking about his goalkeeper.

‘People were seeing him make saves of a weekend but he was doing it in front of us on a daily basis,’ Grayson continues. ‘He just needed to get a break. We loved him because, for want of a better word, he had “roughed it” with all the loans he had been on. We were delighted to get hold of him.

‘The thing I remember most is that he walked in with the belief that he was going to be the next England No1. He just had confidence and trust in his own ability – he used to ask to join in outfield sessions and drills so he could improve his passing ability.

‘What made the biggest impression, though, is the way he is as a person. I only worked with him for a few months but recently I needed something for a charity event; I spoke to him and he sent me signed gloves and a few other bits. Others would say “sorry I can’t” but that’s not his personality.’

Plenty of others would testify to that and personality, as much as ability, has helped him become a more rounded goalkeeper; many will tell you he has improved in the fact that he lets the game unfold in front of him now rather than going looking to make things happen.

This goes back to the ability to keep his concentration and the numbers bear this out. Across his 79 caps, Pickford has made only one mistake that has led directly to a goal – against Belgium in March 2024. It tells you that, perhaps, his development has been under-appreciated.

‘When you get to nearly 80 games for your country, with one critical error, I mean, that says it all for me,’ says Martyn Margetson, who was once England’s goalkeeping coach but is now in that role for Wales. ‘He has been exceptional in some of the biggest games, some of the biggest events.

‘The penalty shootouts have been incredible. And I really think he deserves so many more plaudits than he actually gets. He's an exceptional talent and he’s going to continue that journey for sure. You saw that against Wales.

‘He had some big moments in the game at crucial times. That's the sign of a top quality goalkeeper – not a huge amount to do, but in the crucial moments, he was there to make the action.

‘He's very passionate. He's passionate about his club and he's passionate about his country and those emotions, he’s learning to deal with them brilliantly. 

'We always knew he was on the radar. Gareth gave him his opportunity and he hasn't looked back.’

And he will keep looking forward. In time, there is no reason why he can’t go all the way and surpass Shilton. 

Crucially, it’s only what he will expect of himself.