The nation has seemed to fall head over heels for the boy from Tyne and Wear who we must remember only a year ago was being ridiculed and scoffed at for being the subject of an apparently extortionate deal to bring him over from recently relegated Sunderland over to Everton.
Furthermore, going into this World Cup in Russia, it was more or less up in the air as to which keeper would get the nod by Gareth Southgate for the starting berth between the sticks, with Jack Butland and Nick Pope also having stellar seasons behind less costly defences at Stoke City and Burnley, respectively, to stake their claim to be England’s number one.
Now, however, Pickford has gone beyond just just many of his own national teammates, but to have replaced both competing and exited legends on the lips of many, with his stunning performances for England helping get the Lions to the semi-finals of the tournament for only the third time in their history.
The fact that he is now mentioned in the same breath as such luminaries as Manuel Neuer and Gigi Buffon stakes his claim as a world-beater, leaving the cynicism of his £30million transfer fee confined to distant memory.
With just potentially two more performances for the national team, Pickford might very well become the recipient of the same award gifted to those two legends of the game, and cement his status on the world-stage.
In it deservedly arguable that the Golden Glove is a harder award to achieve than , with the race hard to recapture once going behind and the keeper simultaneously having to rely on a solid but sometimes questionable defence to allow the individual eccentricities to capture attention.
The Gordon Banks comparisons have snowballed after Pickford’s heroics against Colombia and Sweden.
Emulating the 1966 hero, who was retrospectively awarded, will inevitably cement his prestige on the world stage.
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Though Pickford has retained just one clean sheet, stand-out saves in those aforementioned games, including a vital penalty stop from Carlos Bacca, has elevated him into the upper echelons.
Currently, Hugo Lloris remains favourite to pick up the award, at 9/4 ahead of his fellow competitors Pickford, Belgium’s Thibaut Courtois, and Daniel Subasic of Croatia all slightly behind at 11/4, reflecting France’s favoured position to win the most prestigious trophy in football for a second time.
What currently hinders Pickford to some extent is that he’s behind Courtois, Subasic, and Lloris have all kept two clean sheets this tournament (Marseille’s Steve Mandanda replaced the Spurs’ stopper in goal in the damp squib of a last group game against Denmark), to his one, managed in the Quarter-Final match. Courtois also remains ahead in overall saves made, with a stunning 18.
Oliver Kahn remains the only keeper in the last five competitions to have won the award without his national team winning the World Cup, when he helped take Germany all the way to the final to lose against Brazil. Pickford ideally doesn’t one to become the second in six.
If anyone needed reminding, England are currently striving for their first World Cup in over half a century, which will break the record currently held by Italy for the longest time between successive titles.
