Ben Foster interview on time at Wrexham: 'Any time anyone sees me, all they mention is the penalty save'

Ben Foster’s résumé glitters with World Cup minutes, a League Cup winner’s medal and nearly 400 Premier League appearances, yet the moment strangers chase him down supermarket aisles to relive is a single penalty stop in the National League. “Any time anyone sees me—on holiday, buying groceries—the only thing they mention is that penalty save,” Foster smiles, still bemused two-and-a-half years into retirement.

The save in question arrived on Easter Monday 2023. Wrexham led promotion rivals Notts County 3-2 in the 96th minute of a title-defining shoot-out at the Racecourse Ground. Eoghan O’Connell’s handball offered County a lifeline; Cedwyn Scott’s spot-kick offered Foster immortality. The keeper plunged left, parried, and 9,000 home fans erupted as the club’s 15-year exile from the Football League edged closer to ending.

Foster, then 40 and only three weeks back from a seven-month retirement, ranks the moment alongside winning the 2011 League Cup with Birmingham at Wembley. “There’s footage of the save, then the camera cuts to a County fan with his head in his hands. I’m getting goose-bumps now,” he says. The GoPro he strapped to the net captured every frame; the video has since been viewed 5.5 million times across his channels, part of a digital portfolio that totals 170 million views and 1.7 million subscribers.

Such numbers are modest beside the cultural after-shock. Wrexham clinched the National League crown three weeks later, igniting a streak of three straight promotions under Hollywood owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. Foster, signed only to solve an injury crisis, became folklore alongside Paul Mullin and Ben Tozer. “I was lucky to be one of the original documentary characters,” he notes. “We understand what it was like when Wrexham were just starting—now they’re on the cusp of the Premier League. That’s ridiculous, really.”

The goalkeeper’s second Racecourse stint lasted barely six months and 29 league appearances, yet his influence lingers. Only Max Cleworth and Ryan Barnett survive from his match-day squad, but Foster insists the dressing-room culture remains intact under manager Phil Parkinson. “The owners put more faith in him than any manager I’ve seen. Every transfer, every tactic—Phil and Steve Parkin decide. And there’s a strict no-d**kheads rule. One bad apple makes it two; they spread like bacteria.”

Parkinson’s vetting is legendary. Seventy-six signings have been rubber-stamped only after face-to-face meetings—Foster’s came via Zoom minutes after he answered the SOS call in March 2023. “Phil asked halfway through, ‘Do you want this? Are you sure?’ I’d been retired, doing media, loving life. He wasn’t giving me an easy ride.”

The standards were tested three days after a shock 3-1 defeat at FC Halifax Town. Captain Ben Tozer’s post-match dressing-room rocket, Foster recalls, “made even the manager stop and listen.” The response was the 3-2 victory over Notts County, the penalty save forever etched in North-Wales lore.

Now 42, Foster still contributes as club ambassador, foundation figurehead and co-host of That Wrexham Podcast. He toured Australia with the squad last summer and releases fresh content through his CGK Studios. Yet wherever he goes, the conversation circles back to one dive to his left on an Easter Monday. For a man who has touched every pinnacle English football offers, the save confirms a truth even Hollywood couldn’t script: sometimes the smallest snapshots dwarf the biggest careers.