Chris hails from Barwell and played for the club’s junior teams as a young kid. Kirkland reflected on his career, told us what he’s doing now and outlined his plans for the future. Some trips to come back and watch Barwell F.C. are in those future plans.

Reflecting upon a successful career

“I’m happy with my career overall,” says Kirkland. “I think I could have done better, you know, the injuries had a big impact early on. That’s stuck in the back of my mind: what I could have gone on to achieve if I’d have stayed fit.

“After I went from Liverpool to Wigan, and the 10 years after that, I pretty much stayed fit all the time. I had a great time at Wigan. Then I went to Sheffield Wednesday, which is like Liverpool, a fantastic club with fabulous fans.

“Looking back, time just went so quickly. It doesn’t seem two minutes since I was playing for Barwell under-10s down the park. Your career goes so quick and looking back now, that’s the biggest thing that stands out. The fact that it’s all over."

What was the highlight?

“The biggest highlight of my career was playing for Liverpool. I’ve always been a fan. I used to travel up there from a café in Hinckley with my Dad, when he could afford it. I’ve said many times that Liverpool would be the only team I’d ever leave Coventry City for.

“I had a fantastic time at Coventry. I was playing, it was close to my house and it was full of good people. I loved it. But Liverpool’s the only team I would’ve left for. When that opportunity came up, and I made my debut, that was probably the highlight of my career.”

The here and now

“I’ve got quite a bit on at the moment. I spent six months to a year not doing anything, just spending time with the family, playing golf and doing things I’d never been able to do like going on weekends away.

“Now, I’ve just opened up my own goalkeeper academy up in Liverpool. That’s going from strength to strength. I also do a lot with Sky Sports. I’m doing the Sheffield Wednesday vs Leeds United game with them this week. I also work for LFC TV, so I’m fairly busy!”

So what does the future hold?

“I’m going to try and balance the coaching and media work, for now. But I think, long term, I’ll go down the coaching route. The media stuff is not always guaranteed and it’s not long term. I seem to be doing well with it at the minute, but ideally I want to be a coach. Starting off with my goalkeeping academy is ideal. I'll continue with the goalkeepers, but I'd like to give being a manager a crack!"

Kirkby Road is close to his heart

"I've not been able to come back down to Barwell and watch the team for a while, unfortunately. I've always been playing at the weekends and it's very difficult to get down.

"Hopefully I can come down again when everything's settled with my academy, I'd love to do that. I spent a lot of weekends down there when I was a kid so it would be good to come back down again.

"I used to go down there most nights when there was a game on. Not just for the football, but for the cricket and the bowls as well. It's a great community thing that they've got there. I don't think people realise just what a good set-up it is. It's not like everywhere. They have lots of sports in one place and it's been running for years now. Great facilities and I always got down there whenever I could."

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We would like to thank Chris for taking some time out of his busy schedule to talk to us. Chris is a great friend of the club and we look forward to welcoming him back to Kirkby Road to take in a game or two in the future.