My game got cancelled today, so amongst other things, my Dad and I checked my height and we thought we'd do a blog about this subject. A question we often see posted to goalkeeper coaches and ex-professional goalies is "I'm XX years old and XXm tall. Am I tall enough to make it as a pro keeper?"
With the average male height in the UK being 5ft 9in (1.75m)* but the average height of 1st choice goalkeepers in the Premier League being 6ft 3in (about 1.9m), it's no wonder that young goalkeepers worry about it. See below for the full Premier League goalkeepers height list.
I'm 9 years and 7 months old and today I measured 4ft 6.5in (1.38m) tall, which is about 1in (2.5cm) above the average height for a boy of my age. This is between the 75th & 91st centile on the RCPH growth chart. Plotting this on their adult height predictor chart, I may reach within 6cm (2.35in) above or below 6ft (1.83m). So going by this height predictor chart, I could reach anywhere from 5ft 9.65in to 6ft 2.35in (1.77cm to 1.89cm)... A pretty broad prediction !
So although we can take some information from this chart and read the best prediction possible and hope we finally get to that height, my advice is not to worry about your height. This just wastes valuable energy. We should simply concentrate on what we can control;
eat healthily
exercise regularly
get a good amount of sleep
train hard
work on all areas of our game, not just the weaknesses
work on athleticism, spring & power in case we don't reach the expected height
enjoy playing in goal every time we play
play to the highest level we can reach
be proud to be playing in the hardest position on the football pitch
For the 2018/19 season, the EPL goalkeeper heights** are as follows;
My hero, Hugo Lloris, is towards the bottom of this list. But he is not short at 6ft 2in (1.88cm). However, he has excellent speed, agility and this makes up for any lack of height that other Premier League goalies have above him. He is a World Cup Winner after all!
Please feel free to comment on this post.
Henry ⚽👐
*Source: ONS 2010
**Source: https://www.worldfootball.net/players_list/eng-premier-league-2018-2019/nach-groesse/1/