The 2014 World Cup was a career-defining tournament for Tim Howard.

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His 15 saves against Belgium not only set a new record in the competition but led to a call from the President and a deluge of memes and tweets that turned the man from New Jersey into America’s latest sporting icon.

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But Howard’s path to widespread acclaim has been a long and difficult one, and history could have been very different after a huge move to Manchester United in 2003 didn’t go to plan.

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Now considered one of the world’s finest goalkeepers, Howard tells Rabona about his decision to take a year out from the US national team, his relationship with mentor Kasey Keller and his decision to quit football in 2018.

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The US had already exceeded all expectations.

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A win over Ghana, a narrow defeat by eventual winners Germany and then a stirring 2-2 draw with Portugal in Manaus had put them through against the odds.

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No one wanted to play the US, and much of that was because of a man who the average American had never heard of.

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Howard has long been a familiar face in the English Premier League and has enjoyed some of his finest performances in the Autumn of his career. But it was that mountainous performance against Belgium that catapulted him to mainstream prominence in his homeland.

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Even though it ultimately wasn’t enough to save the US from departing the tournament in the last 16, it was statistically the greatest ever performance by a goalkeeper at a World Cup - a fact he wasn’t aware of until after his monumental display.

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“I only realised afterwards that I’d played a big game,” Howard said. “We don’t have the luxury of keeping track of things during the game. I’m sure when LeBron James scores 50 points in a game he doesn’t realise how many points he’s amassed until afterwards. I’m sure he feels in the rhythm and the same applied to me in that game against Belgium.”

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Howard says that while he was aware that he was making a number of saves to keep Eden Hazard, Kevin de Bruyne and Everton teammate Romelu Lukaku at bay, his main recollection from the game is relentlessly trying to martial the back four to give the team a chance.

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“I was just making save after save and didn’t realise until afterwards how many I made. The main thing I remember is trying to organise my defence to make sure Belgium didn’t get another opportunity. It’s a constant battle in a game like that, so you’re not really thinking about how many saves you’ve made. I certainly wasn’t conscious of the number of saves I was making, I was just trying to get myself in the right position and make as many as I could.”

The players, the fans

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The US exited the tournament bruised but far from broken.

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Not for the first time, Team USA galvanised a nation, and Howard was central to that as tens of thousands of fans descending on city parks in the US and the Copacabana Beach draped in the Stars and Stripes.

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“The fan reaction was impressive to say the least, and something that will live long in the memory. Americans like a reason to celebrate, and it’s awesome to see the average American sports fan taking to soccer. We’ve got great soccer fans, but the baseball, basketball, and football fans were inspired and were wearing US shirts and playing hooky from work to watch our games – it was great to see.”

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Howard believes the US could, and should,have gone further than they did in Brazil but says their progress was down totheir key players stepping up when it mattered.

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“We didn’t get as far as we’d have liked,but we played four games and there was only a one-goal difference in every game plus a ton of drama. You don’t always get that so it was a great journey and something I’ll cherish forever. We are a good unit, but our leaders and standout players really came to play; you don’t often get all of your top players performing at major tournaments. The likes of Clint Dempsey, Michael Bradley, and Jermaine Jones really came to play – and that was the only way we had a chance.”

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Fans of the Premier League wouldn’t have been surprised to see Howard among those top players. While he was pleased with how he led by example at the World Cup, he is keen to point out that it was merely a continuation of the form he and his teammates have been showing at Everton for a long time now.

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“I came into the World Cup on the back of a good season and have been feeling good about my performances for a long time.But statistically, I’ve had better seasons so it wasn’t as if it was some sort of epiphany that I played well only at the World Cup. We had a good season at Everton last season, and if you look across the board at the club, you can say that almost everyone had one of their best ever seasons. In terms of myself, it was easy to carry it over into a World Cup. I’m at the age where I know what works, how to get myself prepared, and what things to keep doing to sustain myself over a long period.”

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Memes, Obama, & the reaction

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Despite being the star of the show for the US, Howard is very humble.

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So there was little that could have prepared him for the reaction that was to follow his record-breaking performance.

The keeper admits the online response to him – which included the top worldwide Twitter trend #thingstimhowardcouldsave (featuring Howard saving everything from Bambi to Kanye West) and the editing of his Wikipedia page to “US Secretary of Defense” – kept his family and friends entertained.

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“I actually spoke to the Secretary of Defense after my Wikipedia page was changed. That was pretty brilliant. It’s the age in which we live that people can react to something instantly by creating something funny and post it online. I found the flood of memes and tweets as funny as everyone else. It was a great form of publicity! My family and friends certainly got a kick out of it, and they just kept sending them tome. It was pretty funny.”

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And of course there was that call from the White House, which was perhaps the most surreal of all the post-World Cup hype surrounding Howard.

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“President Obama wanted to speak to myself and the captain, Clint Dempsey, and what the President wants, he gets! So we sat down and spoke to him. It was pretty cool. 99.9% of people will never get the chance to utter a word to him so to have a nice conversation - albeit brief- was nice.”

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Howard’s American admirers are not limited to the most powerful men in the country. He was mobbed by fans on the street on his return home in the summer and admits he’s had to adapt to his newfound celebrity status in the US.

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“I do a pretty good job of getting away from everything and making space for myself; I try not to let too many people invade it. I’m the kind of guy that needs my downtime, and time with the kids is important. Having that privacy is a priority to me.”

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The German connection

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The US currently has more players born,raised or playing in Germany than ever before, something coach Jürgen Klinsmann has focused on since succeeding Bob Bradley as US coach in 2011.

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With the focus on increasing the pool of players available to the national team, Howard believes the strategy could be along term benefit to the US.

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“Jürgen has done a great job of cultivating the strong link between the US and Germany,” explains Howard. “He has tried especially hard to pluck the German-born Americans from Germany and have them commit to play for the US, and that’s undoubtedly been a huge positive for our team. A lot of credit has to go to Jürgen for that.”

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He adds: “The Bundesliga has so much quality and is one of the best leagues in the world, right up there on par with the Premier League. So we’ll continue to benefit if we can get players that play there and can work hard, because hard work is one of the American staples and is certainly key to the German psyche too.”

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Extracting players from Germany is just one of the benefits Klinsmann has brought to the US setup. His approach to coaching is cutting edge in its attention to every detail. Howard compares him to Everton manager Roberto Martinez. The US stopper believes Klinsmann’s philosophy will be embedded in every one of his players in time for the next World Cup.

“Jürgen is his own man and has his own style. He’s very much a coach, where his coaching staff support him with their own individual area of expertise – and he manages it all very well. He’s a very open-minded thinker, a very positive individual and someone who likes to think outside the box, not only on how he thinks football should be played but on nutrition, stretching, yoga, and everything that’s not football-related: things that if you enhance will improve your fitness, state of mind, and ultimately, your game.

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“It’s been interesting to have all these new ideas and techniques put onto about 30 players and have everyone take it onboard,” Howard continues. “It’s a long process, but I think we got it right choosing Jürgen for the job. Just as Roberto Martinez has planted seeds at Everton, Jürgen has done the same with the US, and by the time 2018 comes around, the new system will be implanted in us and we won’t have to go over so many things.”

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Keller the mentor

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It isn’t just the wisdom of Klinsmann and Martinez that brings the best out of Everton’s keeper.

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Howard, like many goalkeepers do, is getting better with age. With experience on his side, he’s making fewer mistakes and is trusted implicitly between the sticks for club and country.

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But he hasn’t always enjoyed that confidence. When Howard left Manchester United, the club that spotted his talent as a 24-year-old for the New Jersey Metrostars (now the New York Red Bulls), his career was at a crossroads. Howard became the first American to win the FA Cup in 2004 and was still in the side when the team reached the final of the same competition a year later. But Sir Alex Ferguson’s acquisition of Edwin van der Sar from Fulham left Howard marginalised and he eventually joined David Moyes’s Everton in 2007, after impressing during a loan spell.

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Howard is the first to admit he owes a great deal to long-term friend and mentor Kasey Keller, who became the first of a long line of American goalkeepers to make a lasting impression in English football and helped Howard during the tough times.

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“I know Kasey very well, and he’s a dear friend of mine. I speak to him often,” Howard said. “He’s a guy who mentored me when I was breaking into the national team in 2002 and later, when I was having a tough time at Manchester United.”

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Howard says Keller’s dressing room demeanour and leadership skills were the particular qualities that rubbed off on him.

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“Being in the locker room with him during the 2006 World Cup and big qualification games was huge for me. The biggest thing when I was young was watching how Kasey handled himself in the big moments. It was a learning tool to see how he prepared himself in the moments leading up to a game and then communicated to his teammates. He was a consummate professional, and I found it very enriching to take all that onboard. It helped me find my own way as a goalkeeper and a pro.”

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Howard still takes strength from his relationship with Keller, and the two remain in regular contact.

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“As I got older and when I moved to England, he was there for me to talk on the phone and text him. We talked almost weekly when I first joined Manchester United and Kasey was at Tottenham at the time. It was nice to have a friend in England at that time – someone who knew the ins and outs and ups and downs of the Premier League – and he was able to help me steady the ship a few times.”

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Rich history of American goalkeepers

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Keller and Howard are only two in what has become an impressive line of American keepers.

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Now a seasoned professional and on the home straight of his career, Howard is recognised as the latest great American goalkeeper to ply his trade in England. Jürgen Sommer was the first to play in England when he signed for Queens Park Rangers, while Keller was the first to make a big impression when he broke onto the scene with Millwall in 1992 and went on to play almost 400 games with Leicester City and Tottenham. Brad Friedel, still going strong at 43, has been playing in England since 1997, and Aston Villa’s Brad Guzan is continuing the tradition.

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America’s ability to produce such a long line of great goalkeepers is no coincidence given the tradition for ball sports in the US.

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“Most American sports rely on strong hand-eye coordination, and the history of the Premier League says you need to have size, explosive ability, and obviously good hands. So, the attributes required to be a top level Premier League goalkeeper are the same ones required to be the prototypical American athlete. We’ve found some sort of a niche.”

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Howard has urged his country to keep producing goalkeepers and ensure that Guzan, 30, is not the last off the conveyor belt.

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“I’m getting old now, and we need more guys to come through. You’ve got Brad Guzan at Aston Villa, but he’s only five years younger than me so we could do with producing more goalkeepers like Kasey Keller and Brad Friedel to keep that legacy going.”

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While the US has had little problem producing top goalkeepers in the men’s and women’s game (Hope Solo has been the first choice women’s keeper since 2005) the country sorely lacks an outfield A-Lister to galvanise the nation’s passion for the game. A world-beater would surely capture the imagination of the casual American sports fan – but Howard says the US shouldn’t hold its breath.

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“Every country dreams of having a Messi or a Ronaldo, and I’m skeptical as to whether we’ll ever produce a player like that. Those kind of players are once in a generation, and when a country can produce someone like that, they’re extremely lucky to have them. But the more players we can get playing regularly at the top clubs in the world, then that’s where the maturation process happens. If you can get talent into a situation where they have to compete and can learn from better players by being challenged every day – that’s how players grow and can become great. If we can get one or two individuals at the best clubs in the world and eventually have nine or ten playing at the elite level, then we’re onto something. But the one diamond-in-the-rough superstar player? I’m not sure that will happen.”

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Taking time out
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Recently Howard shocked the US when he revealed via a heartfelt Facebook that he’d be taking a year away from international football in order to spend some much-needed time with his two children, who live with their mother in Memphis, Tennessee. Howard says it was a decision that was a long time in the making and admits the daily rigours of club football combined with the demands of representing his country can be significant.

“I always knew after the World Cup that I was going to re-evaluate where I was at in my international career,” Howar dtold Rabona. “I didn't know exactly what that meant but [it] was certainly a time of reflection. When you're a full international and play at the highest club level, there's a responsibility of meeting those demands. They take their toll, but if you take care of your body properly and are continually motivated then it's manageable.”
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When Howard returns in 2015 after his country hosts a special centenary edition of the Copa America, he doesn’t expect to automatically win his place back, with Aston Villa’s Guzan providing stiff competition.
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“Since the day I put on the US jersey, it's always been tough to make the team and stay on the team. I don't anticipate that to change.”

Looking ahead
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Howard’s decision to take a year out from his national team is part of a wider plan to retire from all football in 2018.
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Howard has come a long way since he turned professional with the North Jersey Imperials in 1997, not least becoming a USA and Everton legend over the past decade. But Howard has one eye on his future beyond football, which he plans to start after the next World Cup.
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“Win, lose, or draw, I’ll be finished with football in the summer of 2018,” Howard reveals to Rabona. “My current contract with Everton finishes in May of that year and then there’s the World Cup, so that would be the right moment for me to be done playing. It will be nice to be in Russia, but it’s hard to say now because I’m getting older and I don’t know how things will ebb and flow, but to play in Russia will be nice.”
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Domestically, Howard has made the decision to finish his career at Everton and has ruled out a return to Major League Soccer to see out his playing days. There had been suggestions that Howard may return to New Jersey to end his playing days with the Red Bulls, but Howard has ended the speculation.

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“I don’t think I’ll return to the States to play. A few years ago that may have been an option, but I think that ship has already sailed.”

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Howard is a man who strives for perfection, and having fought so hard to reach the top of his game, intends to enjoy the Indian Summer of his career and bow out at his peak.