Leicester City In 100 Players: Peter Shilton
A dedicated trainer, Peter was a very consistent goalkeeper. He was a superb shot-stopper and had fine aerial ability. He also had a great sense of positioning and was always in command of his area.
Between 1966 and 1974, he played 339 games for Leicester City, including the 1969 FA Cup Final. He also won the first 20 of his record-total of 125 England caps while at Filbert Street.
As a schoolboy, Peter played for the Leicester Boys side which shared the English Schools’ Trophy with Swansea Boys in 1965. Soon afterwards, he played for England Schoolboys against Scotland in front of a 90,000 Wembley crowd.
He signed for City as a 15 year-old apprentice and made his first team debut against Everton in May 1966 as a 16 year-old, covering for Gordon Banks, who played for England that night.
By April 1967, his good form forced Leicester to decide whether to keep World Cup-winning goalkeeper Banks or his young protégé Shilton. The Club decided to sell Banks.
For the next seven seasons, Peter rarely missed a game for City, playing under Matt Gillies, Frank O’Farrell and Jimmy Bloomfield. During that time, he scored the only goal of his career at Southampton in 1967, played in the 1969 FA Cup Final against Manchester City, was relegated in 1969, promoted again in 1971, and won the Charity (Community) Shield by beating Liverpool three months later.
He won 13 England Under-23s caps and, in November 1970, won the first of his 125 England caps in a match against East Germany.
Often playing in his distinctive all-white strip, Peter was a key member of Bloomfield’s attractive Leicester side, before transferring to Stoke City in November 1974 for a then-world record fee for a goalkeeper of £350,000.
He went on to play at three World Cups for England, conceding only 10 goals in 17 games. One of these goals was Diego Maradona’s infamous ‘Hand of God’ goal in 1986. His penultimate England game was the World Cup last-four penalty shootout defeat by West Germany in 1990.
At club level, Peter was a league title winner and two-time European Cup winner with Nottingham Forest. He played for a total of 11 clubs, amassing 1,374 games for clubs and country before retiring in 1997, aged 47.
Peter became an MBE in 1986 and was admitted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002.