Jason Steele: Roberto de Zerbi’s Unlikely Hero Between the Sticks on His Way to the Europa League

For the first time in their history, Brighton & Hove Albion have qualified for the Europa League – the second tier of European competition. Everyone’s second-favourite team have defied all the odds and will now finish in sixth place, above the likes of Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and Aston Villa. Their magnificent coach, Roberto De Zerbi has risen above the tide of financial domination and beaten the rest to their own promised land and have swept aside Arsenal, Southampton and Manchester United in recent weeks.

They exude confidence and class in the way they play, swiftly playing out from the back starting with Jason Steele in between the posts, providing a constant threat to those who try to press them. Despite the 5-1 home drubbing to strugglers Everton, De Zerbi’s unlikely switch away from Spanish international Robert Sanchez to English veteran Jason Steele has offered a different dynamic to ensure the push for European football was cemented. The Italian’s decision to pivot to Steele has delivered and the Englishman is now thriving in a team playing some of the best football in Europe.

Steele hasn’t had the most orthodox of journeys to the Premier League. After loan spells at Northampton Town and Blackburn Rovers in 2010 and 2014, respectively, he became the mainstay at Rovers in 2015, making 98 league appearances for the Championship side after joining them on a permanent deal. Steele then signed for Sunderland in 2017 on a four-year contract for a fee in the region of £500,000. He struggled to impress in an unambitious, lacklustre Sunderland side which were experiencing life in League One at the time, and Steele was no anomaly in a side struggling for confidence and quality. 

The public then got a closer look at Steel as a person rather than just a footballer when he appeared on the ‘Sunderland Til I Die’ documentary produced and subsequently released by Netflix in 2018. He explained how being a professional footballer wasn’t just about the flashy lifestyle and their relationships with the finer things, but rather the pressure that came with being in the spotlight. Some argue that goalkeepers must operate beyond their own mental well-being and endure the pain with great fortitude whilst being able to bounce back from adversity as quickly as possible – a trait which has led to comical labelling suggesting that you need to be mad to be a goalkeeper.