Former Black Cat Jordan Pickford was born on this day in Washington, in 1994.
Pickford’s career began with us when he was just a child after signing for the Academy at the age of 8 years old. He was playing and training with people older than him and managed to still stand out from the crowd. He was awarded a professional contract with us in 2011.
He spent the 2013/14 season on loan in League Two, with Burton Albion and Carlisle United. After a brief two weeks with Burton he was recalled after not making many appearances. A few months later he was back at Burton, but once again recalled. He then spent 11 matches on the bench for Sunderland as a backup to Vito Mannone. There, he could get a taste of the matchday atmosphere at the Stadium Of Light.
The 14/15 season gave Jordan a lot of experience of the highs and lows in football. Starting the season out in League One, again another step up in competition, he began to cement his place as the number one choice for Bradford City. Halfway through the season Pickford recorded his first ever professional red card against Rochdale in a 2-1 loss. A month later he went on to receive another red card in the final minutes of a 2-2 draw against Port Vale. However, Bradford appealed the decision and he didn’t serve any suspension.
Pickford started his next campaign at Championship side Preston North End. In his first game for Preston he managed to keep a clean sheet against Middlesbrough in a 0-0 draw. On the 7th of November he equalled a club record of six consecutive clean sheets, including one against Premier League club Watford in the League Cup. He was starting to impose his style of play and managed to impress his teammates in the process, as his goalkeeping teammate Chris Kirkland was impressed, saying that “Jordan comes out to take crosses and has an authority for someone still very young... As for his kicking, that is brilliant! I have never seen anyone kick a ball like he does.”
In January 2016, he was recalled to us as we sat 19th in the Premier League, eyeing another relegation battle. After his debut against Spurs, he had now played in each of the top 5 leagues of English football and he was only 21. Shortly after, he signed a contract extension with us until 2020.
In what would be his final season for us he began as second choice, but after an injury to Mannone he was moved into the starting role in the third game of the season. He spent the entire campaign wearing his heart on his sleeve impressing clubs higher up in the table who became interested in acquiring his signature. His good performances weren't enough to keep us up on their own though, as we suffered relegation to the Championship finished in dead last with just 24 points. He was amongst the top keepers in the league in certain aspects of his game, including highest save percentage, most saves, most saves inside the box and most punches. He finished the season on the shortlist for the PFA Young Player Of The Season Award which was ultimately awarded to Leroy Sane.
Obviously far too good for second tier football by this point, Pickford joined Everton in the summer of 2017 for a fee of £25 million, to this day that makes him the most expensive Sunderland player in history. He's remained virtually ever present for the blue half of Liverpool since then, recently breaking the 300th appearance mark in all competitions. In his first season on Merseyside he featured in the Europa League, his only involvement in European club competition to this date. That's a bit unbelievable owing to how good he is and the fact numerous clubs who regularly qualify for the Champions League have tried to sign him over the years. The last few seasons have really shone a light on Pickford, with his exploits between the goalposts massively helping Everton to constantly just about keep their heads above the water and maintain a run of not being relegated since 1951. Owing to this, the goalkeeper has been named Everton's Player of the Season on four different occasions. He's also been twice awarded the Premier League Save of the Month award and won the Save of the Season in 2021/22. Currently, he's once again under the management of David Moyes. Pickford is probably one of the few people from Wearside who hold a positive view of the man as he was the one who originally gave him a proper run out in our side.
On the international stage he's also consistently impressed. Whilst at Sunderland he was only ever called up for youth internationals, playing at every level between the U16 and U21 squads. The highlight came in 2016 when he won the Toulon Tournament with the U21s. Pretty quickly after moving to the north west, Southgate put him in the England squad and he's now made north of 70 caps. A major trophy for the Three Lions has been painfully close for the mackem, with him twice being given a runners' up medal at the Euros, in 2021 and 2024, and a bronze medal for the 2019 Nations League. Penalty shootouts have allowed him to create some great moments for himself and England. Prior to him playing for his country, they rarely won shootouts, now it always feels like they have a decent chance because of him. At the 2018 World Cup he saved a penalty to help send his team to the quarter finals, in the Euro 2020 final he made two saves in the tiebreaker but somehow that wasn't enough to break England's trophy drought. The most recent tournament, the 2024 Euros, also had him making a save in yet another shootout to aid in booking a spot in the semi finals. In a less remembered and less important affair, he scored a penalty and then saved the decisive spot kick in the third placed playoff of the Nations League's first ever edition.
