There is nothing wrong with goalkeepers showing off. Football needs entertainment but you dont have to go overboard, said former national goalie Earl Spiderman Carter, who was home on holiday for the Christmas vacation.
The trademark of Carter in his heyday was his backward and sideways acrobatic flip after making a save, followed by an almost flawless distribution of the ball.
When I was in Europe, they classified me as the best distributor in the game with both my hand and my feet, Carter disclosed.
They were fascinated with the distance I threw the ball and the low trajectory and consistency and accuracy with which I found my players.
They encouraged me to maintain that acrobatic agility, because it enhanced my goalkeeping.
Carter pointed out that some of the local spectators saw it as a form of gallery.
Obviously, it bothered me when I heard remarks that I was gallerying in goal, said Carter.
The goalkeeper added that when he heard such negative comments he pushed them aside and gained more in confidence.
In England, I was encouraged to keep using that technique, because it gave me an edge when stopping shots, he said.
Carter, now 49, was born in Tacarigua, and later moved to Arouca.
He also spent some of youth in Tobago.
When Carter came back to Trinidad he was hooked on running and not football.
Everything I did I ran. If I had to go to the store, I ran. If I had to go to school, I ran back and forth.
As one of the pioneers of the Trincity Striders Athletic Club, Carter competed on the track at the 1972 Southern Games, where he won a bronze medal in the 4 x 400 metres relay.
At St Bedes Technical School at Mount St Benedict, he was an outfield player.
After leaving school in 1973, he was invited to join the Sir Frank Worrell United club.
When I got there in March, the team did not have a goalkeeper. To my surprise, the players kept shouting, coach weve got one. I did not know what they were talking about but they were pointing at me.
When the match started, coach Vernon Bain stood behind the goalpost observing me between the uprights. Then he asked me if I knew Lincoln Phillips.
He said I did everthing like Lincoln and I should consider becoming a goalkeeper.
I told him that I wasnt interested and that I came to play midfield. He thought otherwise. That was met with great resistance from my father because he wanted me to be a track athlete. In May, I returned after a match and he told me it was my last game.
Carter said he was all set to pack in his goalkeeping gear when his coach decided to speak to his father. My coach drove me home and spoke to my father. After about half and hour, he convinced my father to change his mind.
You are depriving a young man of becoming a national goalkeeper in two years, Bain told daddy.
Admitting that he did not know what Bain saw in him, Carter decided to stick between the uprights and the rest is now history.
In 1974, Carter was voted the most outstanding goalkeeper in his first appearance for the national Under-19 team in the FIFA Youth Championships qualifying series in Canada. He spent only a season with Maple before moving on to Malvern.
Six professional teams were interested in my services after the tournament but there was a mix-up between Andre Kamperveen, then head of the CFU, and the club representatives, Carter disclosed.
In 1976, he was offered a semi-pro contract in Suriname with the Leo Victor club.
I stayed for five months and returned because I coundnt get time off to play for my country, he said.
Between playing for Tarouca United (Tacarigua/Arouca) as a pro in the National League and for TESCA (Tunapuna EC School Association), Carter went to Shrewsbury Town in the English Third Division on trial but could not obtain a work permit.
Spiderman also played for New York Cosmos in the North American Soccer League, alongside German Frank Beckenbauer, Brazilians Carlos Alberto and Francisco Marino, Dennis Stuart of England and Georgia Chinaglia of Italy.
He remained at Cosmos for only half a season and had to leave because of a strike by the players.
When he returned home in 1980, he played with ASL (Aviation Services Ltd) in the countrys first pro league organised by ASL businessman Arthur Suite.
In 1986, he went to trials in Denmark and Norway but could not get a contract because of work permit problems.
For the next two years, Carter played for Arima United and his performances propelled him back into the national team, known then as the Strike Squad which missed qualifying for the World Cup in Italy in 1990.
Carter got the name Spiderman in 1977 whilst playing for TESCA.
There was this guy nicknamed Hound who would walk around the field taking bets that no goal would score on me.
You have to be a Spiderman claimed Hound.
So when he walked around the field, he asked: Who against the Spiderman? The public picked it up, then the media, and that was it.
In 1990, Carter went to Brooklyn and had a successful coaching stint with Columbia University.
Two years ago, he started coaching Tewksbury Bengals, who won the State Cup in 2003 and 2004 and became the No. 1 Under-12 team in the US.
I want to come back home, said Carter.
The contribution that I have made and the success that I have had in the US make me want to return for good.
However, the lack of interest on the part of some of the people in authority is preventing me from returning.
I am bothered by the standard of play of the national team. The football is no longer attractive because of the inconsistency on the part of the players, he ended.