Ben Alnwick

Benjamin Robert "Ben" Alnwick (born January 1, 1987 in Prudhoe, England) is a football (soccer) goalkeeper currently playing for Tottenham Hotspur F.C..

Career

Club Career

He made a name for himself at the climax of Sunderland AFC's (2004-05 in English football) Football League Championship-winning season, replacing the injured Thomas Myhre for Sunderland's last three games. His performances against Leicester City F.C. and West Ham United F.C., the games that won Sunderland A.F.C promotion to the FA Premier League and Championship win respectively, impressed the fans greatly.

In November 2005, he enjoyed a stint as the number one goalkeeper at Sunderland, replacing Kelvin Davis. Despite impressing, particularly in Sunderland A.F.C. 3-2 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur F.C. where he made a superb penalty save from Robbie Keane, Alnwick was dropped in favour of Kelvin Davis, though his performances have won him plenty of accolades on Wearside. After the departure of Davis to Southampton F.C], Alnwick was given the no.1 shirt for the 2006-07 in English football.

After a disappointing start to the season 2006-07 in English football season, Alnwick was relegated to the substitutes bench in favour of Darren Ward (goalkeeper) by new boss Roy Keane.

Just two days after the January transfer window had opened in January, Alnwick joined Tottenham Hotspur for £900,000 in a deal that could rise to £1.3m and saw Márton Fülöp going the other way for £500,000.

International

Alnwick received his first call-up to the England national under-21 football team ahead of the August 152006 match against Moldova.

Alnwick was named in Stuart Pearce's first squad as England national under-21 football team coach, alongside another goalkeeper uncapped at U21 level, Joe Hart. He was not chosen to start the match, on 6 February2007, against Spain national under-21 football team.

Alnwick was named in the first England U21 squad to play at the New Wembley against Italy U21s on 24th March 2007, but he remained and un-used sub.

Alnwick was named in Stuart Pearce's squad for the U21 European Championships in Holland.

Personal Life

Orgy Sex Tape Scandal

On December 7 2006, tabloid newspaper The Sun reported Alnwick, along with team-mates Chris Brown (footballer) and Liam Lawrence had filmed themselves in an orgy with a brunette girl referred to as 'Stevie' age 16 at the time(Stevie Leigh Mason - Miss Sunderland), In the video, Brown is said to give "Match of the Day" style commentary as his team-mates perform sex on the girl. Former Sunderland midfielder Martin Woods also features on the tape partially clothed performing a sex act on himself, along with two other men. In reference to the watching men, Brown reportedly comments “Here's the boys — the watching faithful — every week without fail.”

On December 8, The Sun reported that the girl in the video was just 16 years old, with the girl claiming she had no idea she was being filmed.

On 13th April 2007, Ben played in a tribute game for Prudhoe teenager Mark Shields, for the old Prudhoe Youth Team, where he played as a striker and scored a hat-trick.