One of England’s most decorated goalkeepers with a career spanning over 20 years from 1970 to 1990 including 125 caps for country and nearly 1300 career games spoke to Joe to discuss his legendary career.
"It was a long career although it’s everything I wanted to do as a youngster and thankfully I achieved most of my ambitions which I set out to do except for winning the FA Cup and the world cup. To get into the squad in the ‘70 World Cup was unbelievable. I didn’t make the final 22. I made my debut against East Germany in 1970. We had some great players.
"Football is a simple game really, you’ve just gotta have good players and good team spirit. The great managers I had were the ones who just did it simple. We had our own jokers in that squad in 1970, it was done in a way it wasn’t childish, it was good fun. Compared to the ‘90 squad, Gazza was Gazza, he was a one-off. I wouldn’t have thought some of the antics Gazza got up to would have happened in 1970."
Perhaps one of the most famous moments of a World Cup and one of Shilton’s most infamous moments was Diego Maradona’s handball in the quarter-final against England in Mexico ‘86. He spoke to Joe about what he recalls from the incident and his feeling towards the Argentine over the years.
"The ‘86 one, we were cheated out of that. It’s something I don’t like to be associated with. I was getting to it and he knew that’s why he punched it into the net. You’re relying on the referee and linesman. Players have cheated all the time. People look at keepers now and only see the negative side and the mistakes. Maradona has shown no remorse since and has done everything but talk about it. A great player but a very bad sportsman."
Stephen Kierans
