Andy Goram - TheSportsDB.com

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Andy Goram

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Born
Deceased

Birth Place

Bury, England

Position
Goalkeeper

Status
Deceased

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Height
181 cm

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Sport

Soccer

Team
_Deceased Soccer

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_No League Soccer

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Andrew Lewis Goram (13 April 1964 – 2 July 2022) was a Scottish footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Born in Bury, Lancashire, England, he started his career with Oldham Athletic and Hibernian, but he is best remembered for playing for Rangers during the 1990s, when he earned the nickname "The Goalie". In a 2001 poll of Rangers fans, Goram was voted Rangers' greatest-ever goalkeeper.
Goram appeared in 43 international matches for Scotland and was selected for their squads at the 1986 and 1990 World Cups, UEFA Euro 1992 and UEFA Euro 1996.
After his time with Rangers, Goram played for many clubs, most notably at Motherwell and a brief loan spell at Manchester United. He also represented Scotland at cricket, and was the only man to play internationally for Scotland in both football and cricket.
After retirement from playing, he went on to become a goalkeeping coach at numerous Scottish clubs.
Goram's first involvement in international football was in 1983, when Howard Wilkinson named him in an England under-21 squad; however, despite his club form at Oldham, Wilkinson had doubts about his relative lack of height and instead played Alan Knight in goal. As such, Goram remained eligible to play for Scotland.
In October 1985, Scotland caretaker manager Alex Ferguson named Goram in his squad for a friendly match against East Germany at Hampden Park. He made his debut in that game on 16 October 1985, coming on in the second half as a substitute for Jim Leighton. In the run-up to the 1986 FIFA World Cup, Goram played the full 90 minutes in friendly matches against Romania and the Netherlands, keeping clean sheets in both games. He travelled to Mexico in the summer of 1986 as a member of Scotland's World Cup squad, although he was third choice behind Leighton and Alan Rough and did not play in any of Scotland's three games.
Leighton remained first-choice goalkeeper for Scotland in their qualifying campaigns for Euro 1988 and the 1990 FIFA World Cup, with Goram as his understudy. Goram played one competitive game during this time: a 1–1 home draw against Yugoslavia in October 1988 during the qualifiers for the 1990 World Cup. He did play in several friendly matches, and was in the Scotland squad that took part in the 1990 World Cup in Italy, although once again he did not actually play in games there.
After the 1990 World Cup, Goram established himself as Scotland's first-choice goalkeeper. He played in all eight of Scotland's qualifying ties for Euro 1992, helping them qualify for the finals of the tournament held in Sweden. Scotland lost in their first two group matches to the Netherlands and Germany but won their final match, against the CIS (former Soviet Union), 3–0.
Scotland failed to build on their showing at Euro 1992 in the qualifiers for the 1994 World Cup. A campaign, which included a 5–0 defeat away against Portugal in April 1993, saw Scotland slump to fourth place in their group and fail to qualify. The match against Portugal was Goram's last Scotland appearance for almost a year due to his undergoing knee surgery and a lengthy return to fitness. He returned to the side in March 1994, playing in a friendly against the Netherlands, and played in a 2–0 win away against Finland on 7 September 1994 in the opening qualifying tie for Euro 1996. Goram kept his place in the side and played in Scotland's next three qualifying ties; however, in August 1995, days before a qualifying match against Greece, Goram withdrew from the squad stating that he was not "mentally attuned" to play. Jim Leighton played against Greece and kept his place in the team for the remaining two qualifying matches, although Goram did play for the last 17 minutes of a friendly match against Sweden in between those final two ties.
Goram had a long-running rivalry with Leighton for the goalkeeping position in the Scotland team. Craig Brown controversially selected Goram ahead of his counterpart for Scotland's matches in Euro 96, despite the fact that Leighton had played in most of the qualifiers. In their final game against Switzerland, Goram was required to make several important saves, notably when he clawed away a header from Kubilay Turkyilmaz in the final ten minutes. Brown then selected Leighton for France 98 which prompted Goram to walk out of the squad completely, fifteen days before Scotland were scheduled to play Brazil in the opening game of the tournament.
Goram also worked as a goalkeeping coach with various clubs after retiring from playing. He took on part-time coaching duties when he returned to Motherwell in 2002. He later coached at Dundee in 2005, Airdrie United in March 2006 and then Clyde in February 2008. He left Clyde in September 2008. In January 2012, Goram helped Hamilton Academical with their goalkeeping coach crisis. In January 2014, he took up the role of goalkeeping coach in the coaching staff at Ayr United, joining up again with godson David Hutton, as he did at Clyde and Hamilton.
In October 2014, he became goalkeeping coach at Lowland League side BSC Glasgow. He returned to professional football in January 2015, when he was appointed goalkeeping coach at Dunfermline Athletic, until May 2015 when he left the position. He later had a spell at Airdrieonians as goalkeeping coach from May 2016 until October 2016, leaving the club following a spate of managerial and coaching changes.
His last club was West of Scotland Football League club Cambuslang Rangers.
Goram was born on 13 April 1964 and raised in England, although he was brought up self-identifying as Scottish. He was the son of Edinburgh-born Lewis Goram, who had played professionally in goal in the 1940s and 1950s for Leith Athletic, Hibernian, Third Lanark and Bury.
Goram was accused in the late 1990s of having sympathies with Ulster loyalists during his regular visits to Belfast. His ex-wife Tracey accused him of collecting loyalist memorabilia and associating with the Ulster Volunteer Force. He denied the accusations, said that he supported the Northern Ireland peace process and threatened to sue his accusers. He was accused of associations with the loyalist Billy Wright and of wearing a black armband against Celtic four days after his murder; he said that the armband was in memory of an aunt who died four months earlier. In September 2007, Goram was assaulted at a fundraising dinner by a man who accused him of sectarianism; he condemned sectarianism and said he was "sick of being called a bigot for no reason".
On 30 May 2022, it was announced that Goram had been diagnosed with terminal oesophageal cancer and had been told he had six months to live. He died on 2 July 2022, aged 58. On 29 August 2022, the league game between Hibs and Rangers at Easter Road was preceded by a minute's applause for Goram and his picture was shown on big screens.