Aaron Adam Flahavan (15 December 1975 – 5 August 2001) was an English football goalkeeper who played for Portsmouth.
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Aaron Adam Flahavan | ||
| Date of birth | (1975-12-15)15 December 1975 | ||
| Place of birth | Southampton, England | ||
| Date of death | 5 August 2001(2001-08-05) (aged 25) | ||
| Place of death | Bournemouth, England | ||
| Height | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) | ||
| Position(s) | Goalkeeper | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1992–1994 | Southampton | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1994–2001 | Portsmouth | 93 | (0) |
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Flahavan played for the Southampton youth team,[1] before turning professional with Portsmouth at age 18 in 1994. He had to wait until 1996 before making his first-team debut as he was understudy to long-serving Alan Knight. Towards the end of the 1990s, Flahavan gradually began receiving increased playing time, and became the team's first-choice goalkeeper by the time Knight retired in 2000. Overall, he played 105 first-team matches for Portsmouth, 93 of them in Division One, and was part of the team which reached the quarter-finals of the FA Cup in the 1996-97 season and just missed out on the Division One playoffs.
Flahavan twice had blackouts during matches; the first was attributed to a virus, and the second to a drop in his blood pressure.[2][3]
Flahavan's younger brother, Darryl, also played as a goalkeeper, and had a spell at Aaron's former club Portsmouth between 2010 and 2011. Darryl has a son named Aaron in memory of his brother.
Flahavan died in a car accident near Bournemouth in August 2001.[4] An inquest heard that Flahavan died as a result of a fractured skull, and his blood alcohol level was nearly three times over the legal limit when he lost control of his BMW sports car.[1]
Following his death, Portsmouth and Southampton retired his number 1 jersey for the 2001–02 season as a mark of respect.[5]
