Carson Reveals His World Cup Goalkeeper Pick

In 2006, a 20-year-old Scott Carson boarded the plane to Germany with his country’s hopes resting on his and his England teammate’s shoulders.

That year, the Three Lions made it to the World Cup quarter-finals where they faced Portugal. After finishing in a goalless draw, England felt the agony of a 3-1 defeat in a penalty shootout to end their campaign.

Carson was drafted into the squad after Robert Green suffered an injury in a friendly against Belarus in the run-up to the tournament. It was in that game that the Derby County keeper made his debut for the England B team.

In Germany, Paul Robinson was Sven Goran Eriksson’s choice as No. 1 with David James and Carson as his back-ups.

While the decision may have been clear cut for Eriksson, that certainly isn’t the case for Gareth Southgate who named Jordan Pickford, Nick Pope and former Derby loan player, Jack Butland, as his three choices for the upcoming tournament.

It is still unknown who will be between the sticks in Russia, but Carson thinks that isn’t a bad situation to be in.

He told RamsTV: “There’s been a lot of speculation and normally an England team going in to a World Cup has a No.1 already half written on the teamsheet.

“I don’t think it’s a bad thing though, it keeps them all on their toes and trying to improve to show the manager who is up for the job.

“I think over the season, for me it would be Jordan Pickford. From what I’ve seen he looks like he is a confident lad and he seems to have everything in his game.”

With a pool of talent to choose from, Carson believes English goalkeeping is making moves in the right direction.

Having played in the Premier League and earned four senior England caps, he hopes clubs will take notice of the progress of goalkeepers in this country instead of turning their attention elsewhere.

Carson added: “There could have been about seven or eight he could have pick from and that’s something that wouldn’t have been the case in past tournaments, the three had basically picked themselves.

“It is definitely a good thing, it’s hopefully something that will keep on coming and improving.

“The keepers that have played in the Premier League this season have done themselves proud and hopefully they can show that to everybody looking out to sign foreign keepers because they assume English keepers aren’t up for it.

“We need to get more English goalkeepers playing at the highest level because if we don’t it is just going to go back to how it used to be.”