Ben Alnwick, born on January 1, 1987, is a professional football goalkeeper who was born in Prudhoe, a small town in England. His younger brother Jak Alnwick, is also a goalkeeper, and has been capped at the Under-16 and Under-18 levels for England.
Ben Alnwick represented England internationally at the Under-21 level and received his first call-up to the England Under-21 football team for the match against Moldova that was held on August 15, 2006. Following this, he was also named in the squads for the match against Spain on February 6, 2007 and against Italy on March 24, 2007. Team Manager Stuart Pearce included Ben Alnwick in the squad for the U21 European Championships in Holland. He made his first international appearance in a friendly against Romania at Ashton Gate as a second-half substitute and managed to keep a clean sheet.
Known as “Ben” in the world of football, Ben Alnwick began his career by training at Sunderland’s youth system and broke into the senior team in 2004. He replaced the injured Thomas Myhre for Sunderland’s last three games in the 2004-05 Football League Championship-winning season. His impressive performances in matches against Leicester City and West Ham and helped the club earn promotion into the Premiership and Championship title, respectively and shot him into the limelight.
In November 2005, Ben Alnwick was the number one goalkeeper for Sunderland and made several crucial contributions, including saving a penalty from Robbie Keane in a match against Tottenham. He was again given the number one shirt for the 2006-2007 season after the departure of the club’s first-choice goalkeeper Kelvin Davis. Ben Alnwick featured in nineteen games as the goalkeeper for Sunderland till his tenure ended in 2007.
In January 2007, Ben Alnwick made a move to Tottenham Hotspur and was sent as a loan player for three months in September 2007 to Luton Town, which plays in the League Two division. After four games for Luton, he was recalled by the Spurs in October because of an injury to Paul Robinson. On January 7, 2008, he was sent on loan again, this time to Leicester City to play till the end of the season. Ben Alnwick made his league debut for Leicester City on January 12, 2008 in an M69 Derby and helped his team win the match 2-0. He kept a clean sheet during this game and managed to get two more clean sheets against Norwich City and Crystal Palace.
