Name: Aaron Ramsdale

Club: Bournemouth

Date of Birth: 14 May 1998

Position: Goalkeeper

Aaron Ramsdale - his career so far

Even though Aaron Christopher Ramsdale is currently the first-choice goalkeeper at Bournemouth, regularly playing in the top-tier of English football despite being just 21 years of age, he did have to go through quite a bit to get where he is right now.

Born in Stoke-on-Trent and raised in Chesterton, Ramsdale’s first encounters with the footballing world came in 2014 when he joined Sheffield United’s academy. He made his first steps towards a professional gig with the Blades, graduating from the academy, signing a scholarship and then signing his first professional contract in May 2016.

But his stay with Sheffield’s senior team was brief as he moved one having only played two official games for the squad, tallying a clean sheet and a win against Leyton Orient in the FA Cup and losing the following clash against Bolton Wanderers in the same competition.

In January 2017, he switched to the Vitality Stadium, penning a contract with Bournemouth. However, 2016/17 and 2017/18 still weren’t the years for him as he could not break into the Cherries’ team, finally going out on loan to Chesterfield in January 2018.

There, he could finally start tallying valuable minutes for the League Two outfit, recording 19 appearances with two clean sheets, conceding a total of 33 goals in the process as well. Even though it sounds like a rough time, Ramsdale was getting valuable experience as a young goalie getting a regular shot in the team.

The loan deal ended in May 2018 and he would spend half a season at Bournemouth that campaign but with no minutes once again under his name, the club decided to send him out on another loan, this time to AFC Wimbledon.

League One was a step up of for him, both competition and performance-wise, as he mustered 23 appearances with seven clean sheets, conceding 31 goals along the way – an improvement on his previous loan spell with Chesterfield a year before that.

In October 2019, he penned a new contract with Bournemouth, having finally imposed himself as the first-choice goalie at the Vitality Stadium and can now boast with 28 senior performances, four clean sheets and 44 conceded goals for the Cherries.

The Premier League’s youngest first-choice goalkeeper made his competition bow against Sheffield in a 1-1 draw and tallying his first clean sheet against Norwich in a goalless draw, two months after that.

Transfer latest

Needless to say, with such a young, up and coming goalkeeper in their ranks already, Bournemouth are bound to face some transfer rumours and potential inquiries about their 21-year-old asset. And it doesn’t really come as a surprise to see some of the big teams feature in almost all of the transfer news surrounding Ramsdale.

Following his rather impressive bow into the Premier League, teams like Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea were reportedly after his signature as both clubs could do well with a quality backup goalie for their first-team squads.

Of course, some of the transfer rumours also suggested Leeds United were up for challenging the big boys for his signature as Marcelo Bielsa likes the young lad and would like to take him away from the Vitality Stadium.

But with the still fresh Bournemouth news of Ramsdale penning that long-term contract that should keep him at the club until 2024, it remains to be seen how successful all these big teams are going to be in courting the 21-year-old.

Player profile

Analysing a goalkeeper is not always an easy task – although their styles might vary, there’s only so much you can note down about them without proper footage, images and clear in-game examples that could justify the claims you make.

But from what you can gather by watching Ramsdale’s first-team exploits at Bournemouth, he does seem like a direct goalie who excels at shot-stopping, often using his impressive reflexes and good positioning to get the better of his opposition.

Of course, having conceded a total of 44 goals in 2019/20 does not go in his favour but that’s more due to the Cherries struggling as a team than him dropping unconvincing performances. According to Wyscout, he made 3.27 saves per 90 minutes this season with 53.2% being made with his reflexes only.

He also makes 1.35 exits per game and sends out 6.32 long passes per 90 minutes with 58.2% accuracy. It has to be said that he faced the third-most shots in the Premier League with 149 but has managed to tally 105 saves, ranking as the fourth-best goalkeeper in that category for 2019/20.