Antonin Kinsky debacle shows how precarious goalkeeper’s position can be

In the aftermath of Tottenham Hotspur’s goalkeeping disaster, Peter Schmeichel did not mince his words, asserting that “he’s killed his career”.

The “killer” was Tottenham Hotspur manager Igor Tudor, and his apparent “victim”, back-up goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky.

Aiming to arrest a slide, Tudor threw Kinsky, who had spent his season in the quiet shadows of the bench, straight into the starting line-up for Spurs’ Champions League Round of 16 tie with Atletico Madrid in Spain on March 11.

But by the 14th minute, Atletico were 3-0 up, Kinsky at fault for two of the goals. And by the 17th, the 22-year-old shot-stopper was unstrapping his gloves and trotting off the pitch under the gaze of 64,000 pairs of eyes, replaced by the axed regular No.1 Guglielmo Vicario.

Kinsky, having had just his second appearance all season and first since October abruptly ended, went straight down the tunnel. Atletico eventually ran out 5-2 winners.

Tudor later said the situation was “incredible” and this was the first time he had subbed his goalkeeper off in 15 years as a manager, adding that it was “necessary to preserve the guy”. All he wanted to do was protect Kinsky, he insisted.

The Goalkeeper’s Union saw things differently.

“That is going to have ramifications for the rest of (Kinsky’s) career,” said Schmeichel, arguably the world’s best goalkeeper in the mid-1990s and among the greatest of all time. “He needed to be supported, at least until half-time.”

Paul Robinson, the former England and Spurs goalkeeper, said Tudor’s decision was “confidence-destroying”.

Another ex-Manchester United man David de Gea, whose error-prone beginning and end to his Old Trafford career bookended an otherwise excellent 12-year spell, chose not to excoriate, but to empathise instead.

“No one who hasn’t been a goalkeeper can understand how difficult it is to play in this position,” de Gea wrote on X. “Keep your head up and you will go again.”

These top goalkeepers have all rallied around Kinsky because they know how damaging mistakes can be in their line of work.

Former Brazil goalkeeper Moacir Barbosa was considered one of the game’s best at the time, but his career and life was defined by an error in the 1950 World Cup final. Shortly before he died in 2000, he said: “Under Brazilian law the maximum sentence is 30 years. But my imprisonment has been for 50.”

David Seaman was known for his reliability and nicknamed Safe Hands, but that moniker now comes with an asterisk after Ronaldinho sent the ball sailing over his head and into the net at the 2002 World Cup. Between the sticks, a reputation painstakingly built over years can be fractured with a single moment of misjudgment.

“Most goalkeepers are remembered for their mistakes,” said a sanguine Seaman years later. “Only very few are remembered for great saves. You have to accept it – it goes with the territory.”

Yet not everyone is condemned to relive their mistakes.

I once met former England goalkeeper Robert Green, four years after he let a tame shot bobble through his gloves and into goal at the 2010 World Cup. How has life changed for you since then, I asked.

“I got married and had two kids,” was his answer, delivered with a cheeky smile. Life, he explained, goes on. Here was a man who had made peace with his own fallibility.

Kinsky, at 22, is still a sapling in a position where players traditionally peak in their 30s, and yet in his first comments since his Madrid nightmare has shown he already has the maturity and mental fortitude to deal with such a major setback. In an Instagram story, the Czech expressed gratitude for the support he received.

“Thanks for the messages,” he said. “From dream to nightmare to dream again. See you.”

It is the right sentiment. In goal, the only way to survive the nightmare is to refuse to stop dreaming. Tudor may have pulled him off the pitch, but only Kinsky can decide if he stays in the tunnel.

Perhaps as Kinsky goes to bed, he pictures his next game in a Spurs jersey will end like his first, which was against mighty Liverpool 14 short months ago. In that game, he kept a clean sheet, made a handful of key saves, and Sports Illustrated even named him Man of the Match. If that comes to be, it would be the perfect way to show that his career is not quite dead yet.