youthclubs years clubs caps goals birth_place position birth_date article_title name
liverpool 1987 1987 1988 -- 1991 1991 -- 1992 liverpool tranmere rovers bury waterside karori southport 0 0 0 ? 9 0 0 0 ? 0 huyton , liverpool , england goalkeeper 4 april 1967 chris pile -lrb- footballer -rrb-
 christopher james pile
chris pile -lrb- footballer -rrb-

christopher james `` chris '' pile -lrb- born 4 april 1967 in huyton , liverpool -rrb- is an english former footballer whose career was curtailed by injury .
a goalkeeper , pile never actually made a professional appearance , and in fact only made the bench for one senior game .
uniquely , however , this game was the 1985 european cup final , which saw him become the youngest footballer to be involved in this fixture , generally considered to be the biggest in club football .
pile came through the liverpool f.c. youth system , and signed professional forms in 1984 at the age of 17 .
initially fourth-choice ` keeper , injuries to bob wardle and then bob bolder elevated pile to second place -lrb- behind bruce grobbelaar -rrb- and saw him facing a possible european cup winners medal having just turned 18 .
pile was indeed named on the bench for the final , but liverpool lost to juventus in a game overshadowed by the heysel disaster .
he joined tranmere rovers and then bury as a non-contract player , playing reserve team football and impressed sufficiently at bury to be offered a contract .
unfortunately though , the deal was scuppered when he broke his wrist on the day of signing .
needing regular football , he accepted an offer to move to new zealand , a move that he initially expected to be short-term .
however , he settled so well , playing for wellington side waterside karori , that he was able to ignore reported interest from scottish giants celtic .
a couple of years later , personal reasons saw him return to england , and he joined southport , where he had some success until he suffered a broken hand , the third of his career .
this caused him to quit playing , and he returned to new zealand where he has remained to this day .
