Sunderland are even better at producing goalkeepers than you may think...

Look in the England squads and it's obvious that Sunderland are good at producing goalkeepers, but just how good are they?

When the England number one came from your academy, you are going to get a reputation for producing quality goalkeepers. With Sunderland, though, there is some real substance to that reputation.

After all, the club’s current goalkeeper is from the club’s academy too and it would be a surprise to see him not follow Pickford into the full England squad at some point.

However, look around the top three divisions in English football and you will find no fewer than five goalkeepers who learned their trade at Sunderland.

Jordan Pickford

At the time of writing, only six goalkeepers have played more games for England than Jordan Pickford. Sadly, all of those caps have been won as an Everton player.

Pickford did break into the Sunderland side in the Premier League but there is no question his hometown club did not get to see the best of him.

After relegation to the Championship, Everton were only too happy to gobble him up and he has pretty much been England’s number one ever since.

Anthony Patterson

Anthony Patterson has been so good for Sunderland that it is easy to forget that he is still in his first ever full season in senior football.

Yes, he has made the odd mistake over the course of the campaign but he has firmly established himself as perhaps the top young English goalkeeper.

He has shown himself to be especially impressive in commanding his box and claiming crosses, which is becoming a real rarity in the modern game.

Ben Wilson

While Anthony Patterson has certainly made his presence felt at Championship level, no goalkeeper in the division has more clean sheets to his name than Coventry’s Ben Wilson. He even has a goal this season too.

Now 30, for most of his career Wilson looked like he was going nowhere at all. After leaving Sunderland in 2013, the Stanley-born stopper joined Cambridge on a non-contract basis before touring several clubs as emergency cover.

Since getting his big break at Coventry in 2020, though, he has blossomed and finally shown some real quality.

Joel Dixon

Joel Dixon was born in Middlesbrough but opted to join Sunderland at youth level instead of him hometown club.

He didn’t make a breakthrough at the Stadium of Light, although he has made a career for himself since so he must have got himself a good grounding.

He worked his way into the Football League with Barrow before moving onto League One Bolton Wanderers.

Max Stryjek

Not all goalkeepers to come through the Sunderland academy are local loads, of course. Max Stryjek joined the club at 16-years-old from Polish club Polonia Warsaw.

He never actually played a game for Sunderland, which is remarkable as he couldn’t have been any worse than Lee Camp. Mind, he was also at the club during the Pickford days.

In the end Strycek went to the Scottish Premiership and Livingston to get his career moving, before joining League One side Wycombe last summer.  

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