Monday, September 29, 2008

Schizophrenia Series-Disabled Legend Andrew Goram

Andrew Lewis Goram was born on 13 April, 1964 in Bury, Lancashire, England. Andrew Goram is a former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Andrew Goram currently works for Clyde as a goalkeeping coach. Andrew Goram started his career with Oldham Athletic and Hibernian, but he is best remembered for playing for Rangers during the 1990s, when he earned the monicker "The Goalie". In 2001 he was voted Rangers' greatest ever goalkeeper by the Rangers fans. After his time with Rangers he played for many clubs, most notably at Motherwell and a brief loan spell at Manchester United. Andrew Goram also represented Scotland at cricket, but was banned from playing that sport after moving to Rangers.

Andrew Goram joined Oldham Athletic as a teenager and spent 7 years with the English club, winning his 1st Scotland caps and selection for the 1986 World Cup. In 1987, he moved to Hibernian, where his father had also been a goalkeeper, for a fee of £325,000. Andrew Goram was a great success at Hibs and achieved the remarkable feat of scoring a goal in a Premier Division match, against Morton.

Andrew Goram was sold to Rangers in 1991 for £1,000,000 and went on to help the club to win 6 of their 9 Scottish League titles in a row between 1989 and 1997. Andrew Goram was also involved in Rangers' notable run in the European Cup in 1992-93, as they came within 1 point of reaching the final.

Andrew Goram was also an important player for the Scotland national team, winning 43 caps. Andrew Goram had a long-running rivalry with Jim Leighton for the goalkeeping position in the Scotland team. Craig Brown controversially selected Andrew Goram ahead of Jim Leighton for Scotland's matches in Euro 96, despite the fact that Jim Leighton had played in most of the qualifiers. Craig Brown then selected Jim Leighton for France 98, which prompted Andrew Goram to walk out of the squad completely.

After it was reported in the press that Andrew Goram had a mild form of schizophrenia, fans responded with a chorus of "Two Andy Gorams, there's only 2 Andy Gorams". This chant quickly gained popularity, and became the title of a book documenting humorous football chants.

While playing for Dumfries club Queen of the South in 2002, he won the Scottish Challenge Cup. This made Andrew Goram the 1st player to collect a full set of winners medals from the 4 senior Scottish football competitions.

Andrew Goram is now an after-dinner speaker and regularly attends Rangers' fan gatherings. Andrew Goram has also worked as a goalkeeping coach, joining Airdrie United in March 2006 and then Clyde in February 2008.

Also a cricketer, Andrew Goram represented the Scottish cricket team 4 times: twice (1989 and 1991) in the annual first-class game against Ireland and twice (again in 1989 and 1991) in the NatWest Trophy.

A left-handed batsman and right-arm medium-pace bowler, he never achieved any great success, and his most significant act was probably to bowl England Test player Richard Blakey in a NatWest Trophy game against Yorkshire in 1989.

Andrew Goram was also a league cricketer, appearing as a wicket-keeper and batsman for various Oldham clubs in the Saddleworth League including Delph & Dobcross, Moorside and also East Lancashire Paper Mill in Radcliffe, Bury.

Recently Andy Goram has been making a cricketing comeback. Andrew Goram has played for the Freuchie Cricket Team and their most recent match was against the Sussex Ladies.

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