The elevation of Paul Parker to the status of England's right back in only the second World Cup semi-final in the nation's history is made all the more remarkable when Parker's particular circumstances are considered. Firstly, he wasn't the first choice right back when the tournament began - that was Gary Stevens. Secondly, he wasn't in a glamour side which frequently played top-drawer football - Queens Park Rangers. Thirdly, he wasn't even a right back at club level - at Loftus Road he was one of the smaller central defenders ever to play the game. And fourthly, he had yet to play a full competitive 90 minutes for England before Bobby Robson pitched him in, with just one measly sub appearance in a qualifier against Albania on his record, and England were already 5-0 up when he came on. Yet there had been a mini-clamour, admittedly shrouded by more pressing team matters elsewhere, for Robson to give Stevens a break after the Rangers defender had proved less than impressive in the opening group game at the 1990 World Cup against the Republic of Ireland. Parker was recruited and never looked back.
His sixth cap - after the cautionary Albania opening and five friendlies - was the second group game against the Dutch as Robson erred on a cautionary side, picked three centre backs and deployed Paul as a roaming wide defender. Parker blamelessly played his role in England's progress through the group and the knockout phases and won his tenth cap as England took on West Germany in the semi-finals (the photo above is just prior to the game), and here was where Paul's international career would be defined. After a tight first half, the Germans punctured the English defence with an Andreas Brehme free kick which looped outrageously off the onrushing Parker's shin and dipped under Peter Shilton's crossbar. Paul cleared his head and made amends with a searching cross in the final ten minutes which caused panic amongst the German defence and let Gary Lineker equalise. Parker got nowhere near taking any individual part in the penalty shootout which saw England's exit, and despite a successful move to Manchester United afterwards, his England career came down and stayed down very quickly.
Graham Taylor preferred Lee Dixon at right back and although Paul initially got some work in the centre of defence, he would only win six more caps in the next two years, and only one in competitive football. When Dixon, Stevens and Rob Jones all pulled out of the 1992 European Championship squad with injuries, Taylor went for the positionally dubious and barely capped Keith Curle instead of the World Cup hero, and Parker came back just twice more afterwards, with injuries causing all sorts of strife and interruption to his career. Taylor dragged him out of nowhere to replace the luckless Jones in England's crucial 2-0 defeat to Holland which ended all hope of reaching the 1994 World Cup, and then Terry Venables played him at right back in his first game in charge as England beat Denmark at Wembley. Jones was clearly the future though, and even when tragedy struck and he succumbed permanently and prematurely to injury, it was Parker's outstanding young team-mate Gary Neville who was given the shirt and his decade unchallenged in the job suggested Paul could not have any complaints. (Matthew Rudd) |