Wes Foderingham believes working with West Ham United’s world-renowned goalkeeper coach Xavi Valero will help him improve his game.
The 33-year-old stopper was personally contacted by Valero as his contract at previous club Sheffield United approached its expiry at the end of last season, with the Spaniard expressing his admiration for Foderingham’s game.
Valero’s call was followed up as the two kept in contact and ultimately and directly led to Foderingham becoming West Ham’s second summer signing of 2024.
“Towards the end of last season Xavi Valero, the goalkeeper coach here, got in touch and we spoke and kept in touch and he told me about his plans here,” Foderingham explained. “He spoke highly of myself and what he thinks I can add to the squad, so I was happy to come on board.”
Valero has developed a reputation as one of the game’s top positional coaches, having completed a Masters degree in Goalkeeper Coaching from the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and a Master of Sports Psychology degree from UNED in Madrid, as well as completing his UEFA ‘A’ Licence, and is known to employ innovative and highly productive approaches to his technical, physical, tactical and mental coaching drills.
After working under Rafael Benítez at Liverpool, Inter Milan, Napoli and Real Madrid, Valero joined Manuel Pellegrini's staff at West Ham in 2018, remained with the Club under David Moyes and has now done so again under compatriot Julen Lopetegui.
Foderingham is relishing the opportunity to work and improve under the guidance of someone who has coached the likes of Júlio César, Pepe Reina and Keylor Navas, as well as current Hammers Łukasz Fabiański and Alphonse Areola.
“Xavi has got a great CV and has worked with some top goalkeepers,” Foderingham observed. “He spoke about how he sees the dynamic of the goalkeepers here and what he wants the goalkeeper department to look like and felt that it was a good match, so it’s a good feeling.
“I've been fortunate to play a lot of football throughout my career. I've amassed quite a few appearances and hopefully have still got many more years to go. Łukasz is shown that you can still be a top goalkeeper at that sort of age. He was brilliant last season when he played and I think, with modern sports science and the rest of it, especially if you take care of your body, the longevity of goalkeepers you can go well up until you are 40.”
As well as being coached and advised by Valero, Foderingham also believes he can learn a lot by training alongside West Ham’s two senior international stoppers, former Poland star Fabiański and current France squad member Areola.
“I think most goalkeepers I've worked with, there's something you can pick up from them, even if it's the way they move, or maybe the way they present hands to to the ball or anything,” he confirmed.
“There's always something you can pick up so, especially with the case of Alphonse and Łukasz, who are top goalkeepers who've shown it throughout their careers as well, so I'm really looking forward to coming in and working with both of them.”
