Roger Freestone (born 19 August 1968) is a former

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

international

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting ...

Club career

Born in

Caerleon Caerleon (; cy, Caerllion) is a town and community in Newport, Wales. Situated on the River Usk, it lies northeast of Newport city centre, and southeast of Cwmbran. Caerleon is of archaeological importance, being the site of a notable Rom ...

, near

Newport Newport most commonly refers to: *Newport, Wales *Newport, Rhode Island, US Newport or New Port may also refer to: Places Asia *Newport City, Metro Manila, a Philippine district in Pasay Europe Ireland *Newport, County Mayo, a town on the ...

, Monmouthshire, Freestone began his career at Newport County as a trainee before moving to

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament const ...

in 1987 for £95,000. During his time there he was never the established first choice, being behind

Eddie Niedzwiecki Andrzej Edward "Eddie" Niedzwiecki; born 3 May 1959) is a Welsh football coach and former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is currently assistant manager of AFC Wimbledon. After retiring early due to injury Niedzwiecki became a coach ...

Kevin Hitchcock Kevin Hitchcock (born 5 October 1962) is an English football coach and former professional footballer who is goalkeeping coach of MLS side New England Revolution. As a player, he was a goalkeeper who made nearly 300 league appearances, notably ...

and

Dave Beasant David John Beasant (; born 20 March 1959) is an English football coach and former football goalkeeper. As a player, he was a goalkeeper, who notably played top-flight football for Wimbledon, Newcastle United, Chelsea, Southampton and Nottingh ...

, and was loaned out to

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club (; cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Cymdeithas Dinas Abertawe) is a professional football club based in Swansea, Wales that plays in the Championship, the second tier of English football. Swansea have played their ...

and

Hereford United Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'Th ...

. He eventually joined Swansea on a permanent deal in 1991, for a fee of £45,000, and went on to spend over a decade, the majority of his career, at the Welsh club. In 2001 a rumoured move to rivals

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

was met with anger from Swansea fans as they did not want to lose him. He left the club after thirteen years and went on to sign for Newport County in 2004, but his contract was cancelled several months later by mutual consent owing to recurring injury problems and he eventually retired. The way in which he left Swansea City angered a lot of fans. Then-manager Kenny Jackett said he made a tough choice in releasing Roger Freestone and the supporters felt they had missed an opportunity to give a proper send-off that he deserved for his contribution. Freestone is considered a legend among Swansea fans. In 1995, he briefly became the clubs penalty taker, where he converted three out of three spot-kicks. His talent as a shot stopper lead to him keeping 22 clean sheets in a season, which was a club record, until

Dorus de Vries Dorus de Vries (born 29 December 1980) is a Dutch former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. De Vries began his professional career in his native the Netherlands with Telstar, before spending three seasons with ADO Den Haag. He moved to Brita ...

broke the record in the 2009–10 season.

International career

Freestone played for Wales at schoolboy, under-21 and B level before winning his first and only cap against

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

in 2000.

Management career

Freestone had a short-lived stint as manager at Swansea along with Nick Cusack. He currently manages youth side, Risca & Gelli United in the Islwyn Youth League.

Career statistics

Honours

Chelsea *

Football League Second Division The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third t ...

: 1988–89 Swansea City *

Football League Third Division The Football League Third Division was the third tier of the English football league system in 1920–21 and again from 1958 until 1992. When the FA Premier League was formed, the division become the fourth tier level. In 2004, following th ...

: 1999–2000 *

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Leag ...

: 1993–94 *

FAW Premier Cup The FAW Premier Cup (until 1998 the FAW Invitation Cup) was a Welsh football cup competition, organised annually by the Football Association of Wales from 1997 to 2008. Since the FAW excluded clubs playing in English leagues (including six Welsh ...

runner-up: 2000–01, 2001–02 *

play-offs runner-up:

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

References

External links

*
Wales stats
at 11v11 {{DEFAULTSORT:Freestone, Roger 1968 births Living people People from Caerleon Footballers from Newport, Wales Welsh men's footballers Wales men's youth international footballers Wales men's under-21 international footballers Wales men's international footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Chelsea F.C. players Hereford United F.C. players Newport County A.F.C. players Swansea City A.F.C. players English Football League players Welsh football managers Swansea City A.F.C. managers