Tim Howard

Personal information
Full name	Timothy Matthew Howard
Height	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)[1][2]
Position(s)	Goalkeeper
Team information
Current team	Everton
Number	24
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1997–1998	North Jersey Imperials
1998–2003	MetroStars
2003–2007	Manchester United
2006–2007	→ Everton (loan)
2007–	Everton
International career‡
2002–	United States
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of May 26, 2009 ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of June 28, 2009

Timothy Matthew "Tim" Howard (born March 6, 1979, in Template:City-state) is an American football goalkeeper who plays for Everton of England and the United States national team.

Early years

Tim Howard was born in North Brunswick, New Jersey to Matthew Howard, an African-American, and Esther Howard, a Caucasian woman born in Hungary. His parents divorced when he was three years old, and Howard lived with his mother, a project manager for a cosmetics distributor. His father, a long-distance truck driver for a health-care firm, nonetheless maintained a presence in his life. It was his father, in fact, who was determined to get Howard and his brother, Chris, involved in sports. Before the two could walk, he bought them equipment for various sports to see which games they preferred. Tim showed a preference for basketball and soccer.

Racism, which manifested itself when Howard dated a Caucasian girl whose father refused to let him in their house, was one of two major obstacles Howard faced in his early life;^{[citation needed]} the other was Tourette syndrome. Howard's symptoms began to appear when he was in the fifth grade.^{[citation needed]} Before Howard was a teenager, Tim Mulqueen, a one time assistant coach for the United States U-17 men's national soccer team, saw his potential at a soccer camp Howard attended and took the boy under his wing.^{[citation needed]}

In high school Howard proved a star not only in soccer, as a midfielder, but also on the basketball court, where he averaged fifteen points per game and helped bring his team to the state finals in his senior year. However his talent and abilities as a soccer player were far more impressive. Despite his position on his high school team, Howard was a far better goalkeeper than he was a midfielder. Howard spent the first years of high school attending Montclair Kimberley Academy, a small private school in Montclair, New Jersey.^[3] Howard left MKA his junior year to go back to North Brunswick where he grew up, and graduated from North Brunswick Township High School. By the age of fifteen he began covering goals on U.S. youth national teams. He made his international debut against Honduras on the U-17 squad. In 1997 Mulqueen became the coach of the North Jersey Imperials, a team in the United Systems of Independent Soccer Leagues (USISL), and served as the goalkeeper coach for Major League Soccer's MetroStars; he immediately considered Howard for a position on the Imperials. In May of that year, a month before graduating from high school, Howard played for the Imperials in his first professional game.

Club career

North Jersey Imperials and MetroStars

After only six appearances with the USISL's North Jersey Imperials, Tim Mulqueen, who at the time was the New York/New Jersey MetroStar's goalkeeper coach, brought Howard up from the Imperials to the MetroStars.

Howard was victorious in his MLS debut with Metrostars on August 18, 1998, making five saves in a 4-1 win over Colorado at Giants Stadium (his only appearance of the year). He later played in one game with the Nike Project-40 Team, a 3-1 win over the Staten Island Vipers at Giants Stadium on May 6, 1998.

With the MetroStars during the 1999 MLS season, he made eight starts in nine contests. Howard had a 1.58 GAA and won just one match in a season in which the Metros won just seven games. He also spent most of the international season with the U.S. Under-20 MNT, leaving the club to compete in the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship in Nigeria in April and the Pan Am Games in Winnipeg in July.

Howard posted a 5-2-2 record with a 1.59 GAA in 2000, splitting time between the MetroStars and the U.S. Olympic Team, also winning all three of his U.S. Open Cup starts that season.

In 2001, he became the youngest player to win the MLS Goalkeeper of the Year award, recording four shutouts and a league-leading 146 saves, and was named to the MLS All-Star Team. Howard played every minute of every MetroStars game, and finished the year with a 1.33 GAA, four shutouts and a 13-10-3 record. He also received the MLS Humanitarian of the Year Award.

Howard played in twenty-seven of twenty-eight regular season games in 2002 for the MetroStars, recording four shutouts.

Before leaving the MetroStars in 2003, he appeared in thirteen games and had three shutouts as the club challenged for first place during the season’s first half.

Manchester United

Manchester United paid a $4 million transfer fee to sign Howard in the middle of the 2003 MLS season, and he replaced Fabien Barthez as the club's first-choice goalkeeper.^[4] He started off very well at Manchester United, saving the decisive penalty in the Community Shield against Arsenal. Other notable performances followed, including Bolton Wanderers and a home FA Cup tie victory over Manchester City. However, in March 2004, Howard's poor parry handed a last minute goal to FC Porto, eliminating United from the UEFA Champions League. The error appeared to shatter Howard's confidence and he was replaced by Roy Carroll. After a period of rest, Howard reclaimed his starting position ahead of Carroll for the 2004 FA Cup Final, picking up a winner's medal. He was the first American player to collect a winner's medal in the FA Cup (John Harkes had picked up a runners-up medal with Sheffield Wednesday in the 1993 final). Howard was also named in the PFA Best XI in his first season at Manchester United, making him the only United player in the team.

In his second season with Manchester United, he started poorly, making several errors and was dropped again for Carroll. After Carroll made several errors as well, Howard forced his way back in but his performances were unconvincing, leading to Carroll retaining his place again, playing in the FA Cup final defeat to Arsenal.

At the end of the 2005–06 season, Howard signed a new contract, which was to run until 2009. In the summer of 2005, Manchester United released both of his competitors for the goalkeeper position — Ricardo López Felipe and Carroll. However, they also bought experienced Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar soon after. An uncharacteristically outspoken Howard fumed in an interview that he would not have signed the new contract had he known van der Sar was on his way to United (van der Sar replaced Howard as first choice keeper). He felt that he had done enough to remain as the first choice United keeper.

Everton

In May 2006 a deal was agreed between Manchester United and Everton that would see Howard join the Merseyside club on loan for the 2006–07 season. Everton looked to Tim as a replacement for their newly-retired goalkeeper Nigel Martyn, in much the same way as Manchester United, when they were involved in the search for a successor to Peter Schmeichel (after many unsuccessful replacements). Howard made his Everton debut against Watford on the opening day of the season. Since his debut, Howard has established himself as Everton's first-choice goalkeeper.

On February 14, 2007, Everton announced that Howard had signed a permanent deal with the club through the 2012–13 season. The permanent deal was believed to be worth around £3 million, but the exact fee paid by Everton remains undisclosed.

On April 28, 2007, Everton faced Manchester United at Goodison Park. Howard did not participate in the game, and there was some speculation that this came from a clause in his loan contract which states that he cannot take part in games against Manchester United. However, since a permanent deal had been signed by the two clubs, such a clause would not be permitted. This was investigated by the Football Association and according to some newspapers, both Everton and Manchester United could have been fined for this and possibly receive point deductions. But the British newspaper The Sun, however, held it to be more likely that this affair would result in a tightening of the rules on loan deals.^[5] The F.A. eventually stated that neither Manchester United nor Everton had broken any rules regarding Howard's transfer and that both clubs had confirmed that Everton had been free to play Howard against Manchester United if they had wished to do so.^[6] He made his 100th appearance for Everton against West Ham United, on November 8, 2008. On April 19, 2009, in the FA Cup semi final, he saved two penalties against his former club Manchester United in a penalty shoot-out to send Everton to the final against Chelsea. During the 2008–09 season Howard set the club record for most league match clean sheets in a season.^[7]

International career

Howard started for the United States national team in the 1999 World Youth Championship in Nigeria and was a backup to Brad Friedel at the 2000 Summer Olympics. On March 10, 2002, he received his first senior cap, against Ecuador. As of February 12, 2009, Howard has appeared for the U.S. thirty-five times. On May 2, 2006, Howard was named as one of three goalkeepers on the U.S. roster for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. Howard was also the starting keeper for the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup final, a 2–1 win over Mexico. He was the starting keeper for the 2009 Confederations Cup semifinal in which the United States upset Spain, the number one team in the world, 2-0. Howard's 8 saves earned him his first clean sheet of the tournament and the first shutout of the Spanish side since 2007.^[8] Following the USA's second place finish in the tournament, Howard was awarded the Golden Glove award for best goalkeeper.^[9]

Honors

Manchester United

• FA Cup: 2003-04
• Football League Cup: 2005-06
• FA Community Shield: 2003

International

• CONCACAF Gold Cup: 2007

Individual

• PFA Team of the Year: 2004
• U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year: 2008
• Confederations Cup Golden Glove: 2009

Career statistics

Outside football

On 22 June 2009, Howard was drafted by the world-famous Harlem Globetrotters exhibition basketball team.^[11] Each year the team lists a number of athletes seen as potential players and ambassadors. “Globetrotters must be great athletes, great entertainers and outstanding citizens,” said Globetrotters Coach Sweet Lou Dunbar. “We believe each of these individuals possess enough of those unique dynamics to merit our consideration to wear the red, white and blue.”

Personal life

Howard has Tourette syndrome^[12] and was named MLS Humanitarian of the Year in 2001 for his work with children with Tourette's. He is a committed Christian and has been involved with Athletes in Action, a ministry arm of Campus Crusade for Christ.^[13] Howard is married to Wife Laura and has two children, a son (Jacob) and a daughter.

References

• Staff (April 2006) "Tim Howard 1979–" Biography Today 15(2): pp. 60–70
• Biography from Current Biography (2005), Copyright (c) by The H. W. Wilson Company. All rights reserved.

Notes

External links

• Tim Howard – FIFA competition record (archived)
• Tim Howard at Soccerbase
• Tim Howard Story Official site
• Tim Howard profile at Soccernet
• Howard Is Waiting His Turn, Jack Bell, New York Times, February 26, 2002
• Howard Signs Contract Extension, Jack Bell, New York Times, January 23, 2003