Tim Howard, legendary goalkeeper and Daily Mail columnist, is inducted into the US National Soccer Hall of Fame.

Former United States men’s national team goalkeeper and current Daily Mail columnist Tim Howard has been officially inducted into the United States National Soccer Hall of Fame.

Howard, who is easily on the Mount Rushmore of American goalkeepers, if not the best the country has ever produced, was awarded a red jacket as part of the Soccer Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024.

In a speech, Howard thanked his mother and reflected on his successful club and national team career.

Concluding his remarks, Howard said: ‘I often think about what I most want people to know about me. I hear people talk about me all the time and they say, “God gave me the ability.” I don’t know what that is. That’s ambiguous. It is vague and subjective.

“What is not ambiguous, vague and subjective was my desire to be the best goalkeeper this country has ever seen. The truth is, any great athlete will tell you that when you are in that tunnel, shoulder to shoulder with your brothers, you look at your opponent in the eyes, you are scared to death. You want the earth to swallow you whole. You are afraid of failure. You are vulnerable and doubt consumes you.

‘”To whom much is given, much is required,” you told me, and I live by those words. I wrote it down in a notebook in July 2003, on the way to Manchester. And I lived by those words since I was ten years old. When I was diagnosed with Tourette syndrome.

“I was afraid, I wasn’t sure. I told you I didn’t feel normal. And you said: “You’re right. You are not normal. You’re extraordinary”. Good times are easy. Anyone and everyone can celebrate them. Anyone and everyone can be around.

‘When I think of my earliest football memories, I think of our apartment in North Brunswick, New Jersey, backed up against a brick wall. I was a rambunctious child, I had a piece of chalk, I drew a goal on the brick wall and said: “Mom, mom, come outside, play soccer with me.” And God bless you, you don’t have an athletic bone in your body, but you pulled through.

And for those of you in the room who remember soccer balls from a long time ago, they had patches attached to them and the patches came off, you held them up and that’s how you made them roll. And I put on my baseball batting gloves, and God bless you, you ran and hit that ball, and I dove in, and that was one of my first soccer memories as a goalie.

‘The second is in that big game in Belgium. Second extension, we change. I saw you, I found you. I didn’t know where your seats were. I was so focused on the game, focused, but I saw you and made eye contact, and I punched you just to let you know that there was nothing to worry about and that we already had this.