Martin Hodge

Martin Hodge (born 4 February 1959) is an English former professional footballer. He is the current Head of Recruitment at club Hull City.

In total Hodge played 246 times for Wednesday and kept 60 clean sheets before leaving for Leicester City in March 1988, he is remembered at Hillsborough as a fine goalkeeper. Hodge was part of an unusual and rare incident on 25 October 1986 when during the Sheffield Wednesday v Coventry City match, City goalkeeper Steve Ogrizovic scored a freak goal directly from a kick out of his hand with the help of a following wind. This was an embarrassing incident for Hodge and one that he was continually reminded of by fans for many years. Hodge's excellent form at Wednesday made him a favourite to make the England squad for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico and was even measured up for and received a squad blazer. However Hodge cruelly missed out at the last minute when Gary Bailey supposedly recovered from injury only to break down again in Mexico. Hodge has said that this was the biggest disappointment of his career.

Hodge's £250,000 move to Leicester was not a great success, as he tore a stomach muscle in his first match and was out injured for several months. He made 80 appearances in three years before moving to Hartlepool in the summer of 1991, where he stayed for two years before joining Rochdale for a season. In the summer of 1994 he moved back to his first club Plymouth, where he played for two seasons and was also involved in coaching the youth team before retiring from professional football in May 1996.

Post-playing days In the summer of 1996 Hodge returned to Sheffield Wednesday as goalkeeping coach. He later also took charge of the reserve team before being released by the club in July 2004, when he moved to Leeds United to be their goalkeeping coach. With the advent of new Leeds manager Dennis Wise in October 2006, Martin Hodge was relieved of his duties as goalkeeping coach and left the club.

He has since worked as a scout and head of recruitment for a number of Premier League and Championship clubs including Swansea City. On 21 May 2025, Hull City announced that Hodge had been hired as their new Head of Recruitment.

Honours Individual PFA Team of the Year: 1993–94 Third Division