15/07/2026
Goalkeepers: “you don’t have to be crazy to be one, but it helps!”
They are a unique breed, either badgered into the position ‘cos no one else wants to put those gloves on, or persuaded that maybe their passing skills are better suited to goal kicks.
But it wasn’t always like that. Many kids growing up fancied having a go between the ‘jumpers’, just to show they could do it if they really wanted to. Then there were the legends like Pele, who trained as Brazil’s reserve keeper in the day before subs, or George Best showing that he wasn’t a bad shot stopper during those legendary, divine trinity training sessions.
Suffice to say, like not having a ref, no keeper then no game.
Only, that isn’t no longer strictly true.
The German Football Association have established a 6v6 format without goalkeepers!!
In a country where pedestrians rarely cross a street on a red light, the Schulmädchen" rule, this going against the accepted norm, seems to be very un-German like behaviour.
Smaller goals, protected area, penalties taken from the halfway line. It’s madness I tell you!!
Or is it?
If walking football was created to give older adults, many with mobility or physical impairments an opportunity to get back into playing a sport they loved, designed to be safer and less stressful to life and limb, why on earth would you encourage throwing yourself around on a hard surface or exposing your fingers, wrists hands and face, to the small air filled object that is still capable, by some, of Exocet missile speeds?
Are the Germans on to something?
Walking football clubs do sometimes struggle to find goalkeepers or those willing to give it a go.
Could this be the way forward?
Or as Lev Yahin once said:
"Весь секрет в том, чтобы выкурить сигарету, чтобы успокоить нервы, а потом сделать большой глоток чего-нибудь покрепче, чтобы привести в тонус мышцы”
So what do we think then:
“To goalie or not to goalie, that is the question?”