Before the international break began, West Bromwich Albion defeated Bristol City and Huddersfield Town 2-0 and 4-1, respectively, and enter this Friday’s Championship match full of confidence.
Because of West Brom’s recent success, Carlos Corberan’s team appears certain to make the playoffs in the division. They are now sitting pretty in fifth place, eight points clear of their closest playoff competitor, Hull City, who is in seventh.
With 16 clean sheets, the last of which came in the relatively routine Robins victory, Alex Palmer has been a vital cog in the Baggies machine this season as he helps his team dream big about promotion prospects.
But when it comes to dependable goalkeepers, there is one hero from West Brom’s past who is even more idolized than Palmer, having only cost the West Midlands team £4.5 million in 2012.
The move of Ben Foster to West Brom
Ben Foster would walk out of Sir Alex Ferguson’s Theatre of Dreams and never look back, leaving Manchester United for greener pastures, first at Birmingham City.
Foster made a staggering 23 appearances for the Man United first team over two seasons before moving on for more regular minutes, first with the Blues and then later with the Baggies. It is not as though the esteemed boss did not use Foster during his Red Devils days.
Following a single season at St. Andrew’s, Foster left for nearby West Brom, where he eventually established himself as an iconic figure after leaving Manchester United.
After his brief stay at the Blues, the £4.5 million paid by the current Championship club would appear to have been a great deal. Foster went on to become a well-known member of the Baggies and was a dependable goalkeeper for many years while the team was a strong Premier League team.
What Ben Foster’s 2024 net worth would be
At the time of his departure, the 6 foot 4 goalkeeper had made 223 appearances for West Brom over seven memorable seasons, solidifying his place in the West Midlands team’s furniture.
Throughout these games, Foster would end up keeping 57 clean sheets for the Baggies; his finest individual season occurred in 2014–15, when he recorded 12 shutouts from just 28 games played.
During that season, West Brom emerged from the division in 13th place, led by former sensation Saido Berahino, who scored 20 goals. Foster’s club never worried about being in the top flight and eventually dropped to the second level, where Corberan currently oversees his Baggies players.
Before making the big move to wealthy Wrexham AFC, Foster would eventually win over a new group of supporters at Watford, where he broke through the 200-game mark in Hertfordshire. However, West Brom supporters will always consider the eight-time England international to be a Baggies icon first and foremost.
The £4.5 million trade from the Hawthorns is made to appear even more of a masterstroke when looking at TotallyFootball’s trade Index, which accounts for inflation in the present day concerning previous transfer deals. If that move were made today, his value would be £12 million.
In every season since 1992, Totally Money has acquired the top 100 most expensive transactions ever made in each of the top five European leagues. Equipped with an abundance of past financial records, they have computed the current value of former football players, accounting for the notable inflation rate.
Ben Foster’s worth in relation to the West Brom team
Foster’s current market value, calculated using the Transfer Index, is three times greater than that of Jed Wallace, the Baggies’ most valuable player at the moment of Wallace’s arrival. Wallace, an ex-Millwall player, is currently valued at €4.1M (£3.5m), according to Football Transfers.
Even so, Wallace has been just as important to the promotion-chasing team as Palmer has been at times this season, with the aging midfielder contributing to nine goals and 35 assists in 35 games across all competitions.
According to the above table, Foster is clearly the most valuable player when compared to players like Okay Yokuslu and Brandon Thomas-Asante, who are all trying to help the goalie reach the heights at which he achieved when playing for West Brom.
Foster’s career ended with a whimper rather than a spectacular comeback at Watford, when he hung up his boots at the Red Dragons after conceding 13 goals in just four games while playing in League Two’s bottom tier.
Palmer, the current West Brom number one, will aim to be remembered in the same vain as Foster with the Baggies vying for promotion to the top division. Palmer has been a constant in every starting lineup used in the league to date, making him one of the first names on his manager’s teamsheet.
Foster, who is 40 years old now, is becoming more well-known online than as a skilled shot-blocker. Nonetheless, the 6′ 4 goalie is still regarded as a West Brom legend by those with ties to the West Midlands team.
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