Neville Southall

Neville Southall looked less like a goalkeeper and more like a locked building with gloves. Broad, explosive and wonderfully stubborn, he gave Everton a presence that changed the mood of matches before the first save had even arrived. During the club’s great 1980s side, he was not simply protected by structure: he was part of the structure, commanding the area, dominating one on ones and producing reflex saves with the casual cruelty of a man cancelling celebrations for sport. For Wales, he carried the authority of a world-class keeper in a team that did not always give him world-class protection, which is one way to test character without asking politely. He was not a modern distributor, but as a pure goalkeeper his peak was immense. Huge hands, huge aura, huge problem for strikers.