Rovers' goalkeeping coach Kyle Letheren. Picture Howard Roe/AHPIX LTD.placeholder image
Rovers' goalkeeping coach Kyle Letheren. Picture Howard Roe/AHPIX LTD.
It's abundantly clear that Kyle Letheren's upbringing played a huge part in making him the man he is today.
As the son of a professional goalkeeper, Letheren has ably followed in the footsteps of his late dad Glan - a stopper who represented Leeds United in their heyday in the 1970s. From net-minding as a player to now guiding the next generation of custodians in his role on the coaching staff at Doncaster Rovers, Letheren junior has been immersed in the world of goalkeeping since day dot.
"Yeah, I was really fortunate to have that at home," he says of his father, who passed away two years ago. "Obviously, I wouldn't have had a career without it. And everything that he's done in life, I've sort of carbon-copied in a way. He was my hero.
"Everything I do, day in, day out, reminds me of him. So he installed that hard work and mentality into me. I took that into my coaching. I find myself out on the training ground now and the phrases that you say just instantly remind me of him straight away, which is nice, but very hard at the same time. He was instrumental in what I did in my playing career and obviously now my coaching career so it's something that I'm very fortunate that reminds me of him every day."
Letheren represented a clutch of clubs in England, Scotland and Wales during his playing career. (Photo by Charlotte Tattersall/Getty Images)placeholder image
Letheren represented a clutch of clubs in England, Scotland and Wales during his playing career. (Photo by Charlotte Tattersall/Getty Images)
It seems that Letheren was always destined to be a goalkeeper given that upbringing but growing up in the Welsh town of Llanelli, he admits rugby was king there. So, was a life in union ever on the cards?
"Believe it or not, and I get this question all the time because I'm obviously a big lad, I never ever played rugby in my childhood" he laughs.
"It was always football or cricket for me. I played cricket for my county and where I grew up, it was a cricket and football club so you played cricket for them in the summer months and football for them in the winter. So yeah, it is a big rugby town where I'm from, definitely, but I managed to swerve that, fortunately. I've got mates that play and it looks a far too brutal sport for me!"
As a player Letheren enjoyed a 15-year career that took in clubs in his native Wales as well as in England and Scotland.
As with any professional, there were highs and lows aplenty but such is the life of a goalkeeper that were many periods where he was having to bide his time for a chance to impress. His most successful period undoubtedly came during his time north of the border. He was part of the Kilmarnock squad that won the Scottish League Cup in 2012 before he helped Dundee to the Scottish Championship title in 2014, amassing 50 league games in two seasons at Dens Park.
"That was sort of my first step in being the number one," the 38-year-old says. "Everywhere before Dundee, I was number two. And then I went up to Scotland and I got my chance at Kilmarnock and then, obviously, I had to move on if I wanted to be a number one. And I managed to go to Dundee and sort of break through sort of to be a number one and success came along the way with that. I look back on it fondly and I'm grateful for those memories."
It was those performances at Dundee that eventually got Letheren noticed at international level. Then Wales boss Chris Coleman named Letheren in his squad for the opening Euro 2016 qualifiers and although he was an unused sub in the first couple of games, he maintains it was a mightily proud moment for him. "I experienced it first hand and I've seen the camaraderie in the Wales camp," he says. "And they've just sort of snowballed from there to where they are now on. I got called up to the first couple of squads but then I think going back to Dundee in the next game I did my metatarsal. So, obviously, I only managed to make the two squads. But it was a great experience to go with that calibre of players and test yourself against that calibre of players as well."
Returning to the topic of his late father, Letheren senior's legacy lives on not only through Kyle's work in the professional game but also in helping mould the goalkeepers of tomorrow.
TopCatch Goalkeeping was set up by Glan and Kyle now runs sessions over in West Yorkshire, with more than 70 youngsters signed up.
"My dad started it when he was sort of in and out of work back in Wales," Kyle adds. "And he took it all over, to be fair. He took it to America, Australia and New Zealand and recruited goalkeepers back to the UK and put them in academies, for instance, to the likes of Leeds, Fulham and Southampton.
"And a few have gone on to make their EFL debuts along the way. Then, when he became ill, it's something that he said he wanted me to sort of take on. When somebody asks me to do something like that, I go wholehearted at it. And for the last three years, I've been running it in."
His roles at Rovers and TopCatch, combined with having two boys, aged two and 10, means there's little down time for him. Not that he'd have it any other way.
"It's a bit of a hectic schedule I've created for myself. But at the same time, it's something that my dad wanted me to do. And I'll continue to fly that flag for him because he did more than his fair share for me."
* This is the first in a two-part interview the Free Press conducted with Letheren. The second piece will be published in the coming days.
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