When most people compile their fantasy dinner date guest list it usually comprises of the same people- Nelson Mandela, Mohamed Ali, Martin Luther King etc., etc. For me, the first name on that list has always been Keith Edwards. Over 30 years ago, as an 11 year old boy, I somehow managed to discover where my then favourite footballer, Keith Edwards lived. After sharing the information with my friend, David Brown, the two of us dared each other to turn up and knock on his door. Much to our delight Edwards invited us into his home and happily signed our souvenir posters. We were probably in his house for less than 10 minutes but the memory of meeting the man will probably stay with me for ever.

This 10 minute meeting elevated Keith Edwards from being my favourite player to the head of the top table on my fantasy dinner guest list. Admittedly there were more predictable names on the list-James Dean, Marlon Brando, John Wayne and the likes, although the majority are dead. 
In the absence of a medium to contact any of them, I set about trying to find top of the list, Keith Edwards.

Keith Edwards played for Sheffield United in 1981, finishing the season with 36 goals; a post war record still held today. He is one of a select -few players to have scored over 250 goals in his professional career.  

He now commentates for BBC radio Sheffield on United’s games.

I have tried for years to track him down, in the deluded hope that I could persuade him to allow me to write his biography. (He recently published the book without me)

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 I searched the internet, searched face book, twitter and any other website I could find, but the elusive Mr Edwards was nowhere to be found. I even emailed the radio station, but got no reply.

I had all but given up when a friend at work told me that his mates Dad is friends with Keith. Although I was undeniably impressed, I thought little else of it until a few days later when he told me he had fixed up a meeting with me and Keith Saturday morning to do an interview..
Friday night felt like Christmas Eve. I could barely sleep. It actually felt like I was a small boy with an appointment to interview Father Christmas.

Then the fear set in. What if the man I had blindly worshipped for so many years turned out to not live up to the legend? What if he was awful? What if he thought I was?

Despite having only a few hours’ sleep after being up until the small hours trawling the internet once more, trying to find some inspirational questions, I awoke Saturday morning bright and early. (Much like a child does on Christmas day). I set off in plenty of time to the agreed location, his local golf course and arrived 15 minutes early. I entered the building nervously, wondering if I had got the right place.

Three ageing gentleman were sat watching TV as I walked in and all three of them turned to face me. I told the men that I thought I was there to meet Keith Edwards. One of the men confirmed I was in the right place and another followed up with “he’ll be here any minute – you’ll hear him.” While this seemed to amuse his companions it only served to fuel my nerves. I was ushered into a waiting area, where I sat alone for 5 minutes getting ever more nervous by the minute. At one point I almost persuaded myself to turn and run, leave him in the distant past as a childhood memory, never quite sure if I imagined the whole thing. Just then a well-tanned gentleman entered the room with another man and distracted me with a story about Sticky Vicky in Benidorm.

What seemed like an eternity later, Keith Edwards walked in, and at exactly the time we had agreed. We went through to a lounge area where Keith directed me to a table. It wasn’t quite a fantasy dinner party but coffee with the man at the top of my wish list was close enough. Not only were we to have coffee together, he was actually making it for me.
He entered into some banter about his book with a couple of by-standers while making the coffee as I sat trying desperately to look like this was no big deal.

The first thing he did when he sat down was apologise for taking a while to respond to the invitation but he had been very busy working.

To give the day some context I told him about my visit aged 11 and tied this to my first question. I asked that considering so many look to him with a kind of hero worship, was he aware of this in everyday life, and asked if this makes him consciously act in a certain way. He replied that he hoped football hadn’t changed him. He said that he was often arrogant on the field and is sometimes accused of being when he is on the radio, but actually in real life that’s not him and at the end of the of the day he’s a council lad. (Could the answer have been any closer to my heart?) He went on to say that he grew up in house with older brothers and if he was too cocky he would have got a good hiding- and sometimes did...
He continued that he came into football late after working in the cheese factory. When he isn’t on the radio, he now works as a lorry driver.

Next I informed him that according to the internet, he had scored 256 goals in his career and asked did he remember any of them? He proudly told me that he remembered them all but not before he had corrected me that they were just the league goals. He said you name a game and I will tell you the score and how I scored it.

When asked if the game today had changed from the game he played in, he acknowledged that the players are fitter and the centre backs can turn quicker but the nets he scored in were quite similar to the ones used today.

The arrogance he warned me of stayed well hidden for the most part but when we talked about the 4^th division campaign where he scored his 36 goals, he told me bluntly that he found that league easy. He said he was too good for that league, which he undoubtedly was. He thinks the following season in the third division was a better haul and mentioned the contribution of the brilliant Colin Morris.

I referred to my 18 year old nephew, who, when told that Keith had a book out commented that he should be United manager. This seemed to please Keith. He looked proud that someone who had never seen him play respected his opinion as a commentator.
His response to the suggestion of his being a manager was that you don’t go from lorry driver/ radio commentator to being a football manager.

Turning to the current Blades team, I said a colleague at work that supports rival Sheffield Wednesday, had said recently that the media circus surrounding the club had meant that he hadn’t realised that United were actually 5^th in the league and doing rather well.
Keith picked up on my inference that the media focus on negatives related a story from his playing days. In an away game to Blackburn he scored his 200^th league goal, making the score 1-1 at half time. Blackburn ran out 5-1 winners in the end and when asked by a journalist what he thought to the performance Keith said “I thought it was even in the first half and even worse in the second”.

My hour with Keith passed quickly; too quickly. I could have sat there quite happily for whole day but I didn’t want to outstay my welcome and finished my round of questions bang on the hour we had agreed on.

My fears that Keith Edwards might in some way not live up to my expectations were completely unfounded. He was entertaining, polite, humble and human. It was an absolute pleasure talking to him. Most journalists have to work many years before they get to interview their heroes, I have interviewed mine before I even have the right to call myself a journalist.