Profile of Nigel Martyn on Famous Like Me

Anthony Nigel Martyn (born August 11, 1966 in St. Austell) is an English football goalkeeper, who currently plays for Everton in the English Premier League.

Although best-known as a goalkeeper, Martyn typically played as a midfielder until invited to play in goal for his brother's works team when he was sixteen. He began his professional career with Bristol Rovers in 1987, and transferred to Crystal Palace for a fee of £1 million in 1989, becoming the first goalkeeper to attract a million-pound transfer fee in English football. He remained at Palace for seven seasons, appearing 349 times for his club, including the 1990 FA Cup final. In 1996, he signed with Leeds United, setting another record fee for a goalkeeper of £2.25m.

Martyn played as Leeds' first-choice goalkeeper for six seasons, but a disagreement with new Leeds manager Terry Venables , combined with the increasingly good form of youngster Paul Robinson, kept him from playing any games in Leeds' 02/03 season.

In the Summer of 2003, Leeds were approached by Chelsea and Everton with offers to sign Martyn. Both clubs were offering the out-of-favour goalkeeper a backup post: at Chelsea, he would understudy Carlo Cudicini; at Everton, the first-choice was Richard Wright. Martyn chose to move to Everton, and six games into the season, an injury to Wright gave him his Everton debut. His performances for the first team during Wright's recovery were such that Martyn remained Everton's first-choice goalkeeper even after Wright returned from injury.

Martyn made his debut for the England national side in Moscow in 1992, becoming the first Cornishman to play for England. Since then he has earned only 22 caps for his national side, spending the peak of his career as second-choice goalkeeper behind David Seaman.

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