Sam Bartram, the goalkeeper who was 15 minutes only under heavy fog

Being goalkeeper is complicated. They are those who say it is special and different. Sometimes, even, something really unpleasant because your goal is to deprive the most beautiful football in this game, The goal. Many of them have a special mentality and can get to talk about 'Goalkeeper loneliness’. But nevertheless, the story of Sam Bartram It is to bring this phrase to the end.

This curious and funny story happened in a very marked date, Christmas day of the year 1937. That morning dawned bleak in London and elsewhere in England and many games scheduled to be played that day were suspended. But nevertheless, in Stamford Bridge the meeting between Chelsea and the Charlton He began and during the first part of the game could be developed relatively normally.

BARTRAM SAM AND MIST

At halftime the score was 1-1 but the resumption the fog It made it almost impossible to develop the game. At times the referee stopped the match, both teams expected to dissipate the phenomenon slightly and resumed again with visibility more complicated.

The protagonist of this story, Sam Bartram, He defended the goal of Charlton that morning. Sometimes he lost sight of his teammates and rivals who occasionally reappeared for your area. But nevertheless, It was a long time when he lost sight of everybody. According account in his autobiography cancerbero: “we must be completely dominate the opponent”. But time passed and nobody near you approached.

In one of those, the goalkeeper moved forward to the edge of the area but could not see anything beyond their noses so he went back to the goal and continued performing exercises to stay active in case the strikers Chelsea suddenly they appeared. That was when the thick fog He could see a figure… uniformed. It was a policeman who was surprised to the see Bartram in alert position: “What do you do here yet? The party has suspended ago 15 minutes, It has left everyone”.

The keeper went to the locker room and received the ridicule of their peers who were already showered and changed. In the stands there was no one, but the fog prevented the goalkeeper aware of it. Sam Bartram, that is the player most games official has worn the shirt of the Charlton with 623, made history by this curious and amusing anecdote that still we like to remember.