Tim Howard, legendary goalkeeper and Daily Mail columnist, is inducted into US National Soccer Hall of Fame

Former United States men’s national team goalkeeper and current Daily Mail columnist Tim Howard has been officially inducted into the USA’s National Soccer Hall of Fame.

Howard, who is easily on the Mount Rushmore of American goalkeepers – if not the greatest the country has ever produced, was gifted a red jacket as a part of the Soccer Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024.

In a speech, Howard thanked his mother and reflected back on his accomplished club and national team career. 

At the close of his remarks, Howard said, ‘I often think about what it is I most want people to know about me. I hear people talk about me all the time, and they say, “God given ability.” I don’t know what that is. That’s ambiguous. It’s vague and it’s subjective. 

‘What’s not ambiguous and vague and subjective was my desire to be the greatest goalkeeper this country has ever seen. The truth is, any great athlete will tell you, when you stand in that tunnel shoulder to shoulder with your brothers, look your opponent in the eye, you’re scared to death. You want the ground to swallow you whole. You’re afraid of failure. You’re vulnerable, and self doubt consumes you. 

‘”To whom much is given, much is required,” you told me, and I live by those words. I wrote it down in a notebook in July of 2003 on the way over to Manchester. And I lived by those words ever since I was ten years old. When I was diagnosed with Tourette syndrome.

‘I was scared, I was unsure. I told you I didn’t feel normal. And you said, “you’re correct. You’re not normal. You’re extraordinary.” The good times are easy. Anyone and everyone can celebrate those. Anyone and everyone can be around.

‘When I think about my earliest soccer memories, I think about our apartment in North Brunswick, New Jersey, backed up to a brick wall. I was this rambunctious little kid, and I had a piece of chalk, and I drew a goal on the brick wall, and I said, “mom, mom, come outside, play soccer with me.” And God bless you, you don’t have an athletic bone in your body, but you got yourself out there.

And for those of you in the room who remember soccer balls way back when, they had glued on patches and the patches would come off, you’d hold it, and that’s how you’d roll it. And put my baseball batting gloves on, and God bless you, you ran and you towed that ball, and I dove around, and that was one of my earliest soccer memories of being a goalkeeper.

‘The second one is in that great Belgium game. Second overtime, we change over. I saw you, I found you. I didn’t know where your seats were. I was so locked into the game, in focus, but I saw you and I made eye contact, and I gave you a fist pump just to let you know there was nothing at all to worry about and that we got this.