Peter Leslie Shilton (born 18 September 1949) is an English former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
Shilton's 31-year career included spells at 11 clubs and he has the unique distinction of playing over 1,000 English league games, including in excess of 100 for five clubs. During his time at Nottingham Forest, he won many honours, including two European Cups, a European Super Cup, the First Division championship, and the Football League Cup.
Shilton represented England at the FIFA World Cup in 1982, 1986 (where Diego Maradona scored two infamous goals against him) and 1990, and the UEFA European Championship in 1980 and 1988. Despite not making his World Cup finals debut until the age of 32, Shilton played in 17 finals matches, and shares the record of 10 clean sheets in World Cup finals matches with French goalkeeper Fabien Barthez.
Shilton holds the record for matches played in the English Football League and the Football League Cup and held the all-time record for the most competitive appearances in world football (1,387) until 2025. With 125 caps, he is England's joint most-capped male player with Harry Kane. The IFFHS ranked Shilton among the top ten goalkeepers of the 20th century in 2000.
Club career Leicester City Shilton was a 13-year-old pupil at King Richard III Boys School in Leicester, when he started training at schoolboy level with his local club Leicester City in 1963. He caught the eye of first-team goalkeeper Gordon Banks, who commented to the coach about how promising he was.
In May 1966, a 16-year-old Shilton made his debut for Leicester against Everton and his potential was quickly recognized to the point that the Leicester City management sided with their teenage prodigy and soon sold World Cup winner Banks to Stoke City. Shilton settled into first team life thereafter, even managing to score a goal at The Dell against Southampton in October 1967 direct from a clearance at the opposite end of the pitch; the Southampton goalkeeper Campbell Forsyth misjudged Shilton's long punt upfield, which, instead of splashing harmlessly in the mud, spun off the pitch and flew over Forsyth's head into the goal. Leicester won the game 5–1.
The following season, 1968-69, Leicester had a mixed season, suffering relegation from the First Division (they were promoted back to the top tier as champions two seasons later) but reaching the FA Cup Final at Wembley; 19-year-old Shilton became one of the event's youngest-ever goalkeepers. It did not go his way, however, as a single goal from Manchester City's Neil Young early in the match was enough to win the game. Despite the many honours and accolades which were to come Shilton's way, he would not appear in an FA Cup Final again. He reached the semi-finals with Leicester in 1974, but Liverpool won the match after a replay.
Stoke City Shilton joined Stoke City in November 1974 for £325,000, a world record for a goalkeeper at that time. Shilton played in 26 matches for Stoke in 1974–75 as they narrowly missed out on the league title. He was an ever-present in 1975–76 playing in all of the club's 48 fixtures that season. However, in January 1976 a severe storm caused considerable damage to the Victoria Ground and to pay for the repair work Stoke had to sell off their playing staff. The summer of 1976 saw Manchester United lodge a bid for Shilton. Stoke agreed a fee of £275,000 for the goalkeeper, but they could not agree on Shilton's wage demands, which would have made him the highest paid player at the club. He remained with Stoke in 1976–77 and a young and inexperienced side suffered relegation to the Second Division. He was sold to Nottingham Forest in September 1977.
Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest made an offer of £250,000 and Shilton signed a month into the new season. Forest had just been promoted to the First Division and were riding high under the management of Brian Clough. They won the League Cup in a replay after initially drawing with Liverpool at Wembley, though Shilton played no part as he was cup-tied, and then won the League title in their first season back in the First Division. Shilton made a save in the clinching 0–0 draw against Coventry City which critics regarded among his greatest ever – a vicious close-range header from Mick Ferguson seemed destined for the net with Shilton slightly out of position, but he got across to palm it over the bar. During the season as a whole, Shilton conceded just 18 goals in 37 league appearances. Shilton subsequently won the PFA Players' Player of the Year award, voted for by his fellow professionals.
Forest won the League Cup again in 1979 – this time Shilton played as they defeated Southampton 3–2 at Wembley – before reaching the European Cup final where a Trevor Francis goal was enough to beat Swedish side Malmö in Munich. Shilton had another eventful season with Forest, reaching a third consecutive League Cup final, with Wolverhampton Wanderers the opponents at Wembley. There was no third successive victory, however, a communication error between Shilton and defender David Needham resulted in a collision on the edge of the Forest penalty area, leaving Andy Gray free to tap the ball into the net for the game's only goal.
Forest then reached the European Cup final again in 1980 – as holders they were entitled to defend the trophy and faced SV Hamburg in Madrid. Like the 1979 final, the game was tight and one goal settled it from Forest winger John Robertson. Among the disappointed Hamburg players was Kevin Keegan, now Shilton's captain at international level.
Life began to decline for Shilton afterwards. Forest failed to continue their trophy-winning form while Shilton began what would be a long-standing gambling addiction which would cause considerable strain to his family. There were also stories of an extramarital affair and a conviction for drink-driving, with the player fined £350 for the offence. All of this contributed to Shilton's decision to leave Nottingham Forest in 1982 and start afresh.
Southampton Shilton left Forest for Southampton, where his former international teammate Alan Ball was playing. Shilton suffered FA Cup semi-final defeat again in 1984 when he was beaten by a last minute Adrian Heath header which gave Everton a place in the final; and again in 1986 when Liverpool beat Southampton 2–0. He joined Derby County in the summer of 1987.
He was the subject of This Is Your Life in March 1986 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at London Waterloo station.
Derby County Shilton helped the Derby side of Mark Wright, Dean Saunders and Ted McMinn finish fifth in the league, and they only missed out on competing in the UEFA Cup due to the ban on English clubs in European competition (which ran from 1985 to 1990) arising from the Heysel disaster. In 1991, Derby were relegated and Shilton started to consider his playing future. He was 42 years old and was ready to become a coach or manager. In early 1991, he had rejected an offer to replace Stan Ternent as Hull City manager for geographical reasons.
Later career Shilton finally left Derby in February 1992 on accepting an offer to become player-manager of Plymouth Argyle – a turbulent era that is documented in the 2009 book, Peter Shilton's Nearly Men. Plymouth were battling against relegation in the Football League Second Division but Shilton's efforts were unable to save Plymouth from the drop. His £300,000 record signing Peter Swan proved to be a disaster as the player had an awful relationship with both his teammates and the fans.
In 1994, he started to concentrate solely on management and Plymouth reached the Division Two play-offs, but lost in the semi-finals to Burnley. In January 1994, he had been linked with Southampton for a possible return as manager following the departure of Ian Branfoot, but the job went to Alan Ball instead. The following February, with Plymouth heading for relegation, he left the club and announced his intention to start playing again. He was now 45 years old.
He joined Wimbledon in the Premier League for a short period, as injury cover for the first choice goalkeeper Hans Segers, but did not play a first team game for them. He subsequently signed for Bolton Wanderers, making a couple of appearances, including the Division One play-off semi final against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux. Bolton lost 2–1, but eventually overcame Wolves in the second leg, Shilton however did not play in this game; Keith Branagan did instead. He then signed for Coventry City, where he failed to make a first-team appearance, before joining West Ham United, where again he never played a first-team game, although he was selected as a substitute on several occasions.
With 996 Football League matches to his name, Shilton was anxious to reach 1,000 and he did when he joined Leyton Orient in November 1996, in an exchange deal for 39-year-old Les Sealey. His thousandth League game came on 22 December 1996, against Brighton & Hove Albion, which was screened live on Sky Sports and was preceded by the presentation from the Football League of a special edition of the Guinness Book of Records to Shilton. He played five more matches before retiring on 1,005 league games at the age of 47 at the end of the 1996–97 season. By the time of his retirement, he was the fifth oldest player ever to have played in the Football League or Premier League. Shilton recovered from financial troubles caused by business decisions and gambling, and became a prolific after-dinner speaker.
International career Early career
Despite playing at a lower level, Shilton impressed England manager Alf Ramsey sufficiently to give him his debut against East Germany in November 1970, which England won 3–1. Little more than six months later, Leicester were promoted back to the First Division. His second England cap came in a goalless draw against Wales at Wembley; and his first competitive match for his country was his third appearance as England drew 1–1 with Switzerland in a qualifying game for the 1972 European Championships. At this stage, Banks was still England's first choice keeper, but the remaining brace of back-ups from the 1970 World Cup, Peter Bonetti and Alex Stepney, had been cast aside by Ramsey so Shilton could begin to regard himself as his country's number two goalkeeper at the age of 22.
Shilton's fourth and fifth England caps came towards the end of 1972, before a tragic incident suddenly saw Shilton propelled into the limelight as England's number one keeper. In October 1972, Gordon Banks was involved in a car crash which resulted in the loss of the sight in one eye and thus ended his career. Liverpool goalkeeper Ray Clemence was called up to make his debut a month later for England's opening qualifier for the 1974 World Cup, (a 1–0 win over Wales). Shilton ended up with over 100 caps compared to Clemence's 61.