Where Are They Now: Freddy Eastwood

Just saw that former Academy trainee Freddy Eastwood scored for Wales in his International debut, as a mini tribute he gets to be the second in this blog's "Where Are They Now" series.

Freddy left The Academy after Roeder thought he wasn't good enough (jackass...) and moved to conference side Gray's Athletic. He scored 37 league and cup goals in his first season, winning the Grays' Golden Boot and in turn his professional stock soared.

Eastwood moved to Southend United in October 2004, initially on loan and made his debut for the club in spectacular style, scoring the opener after 7.7 seconds (a record for a debutant). At Southend, Eastwood became somewhat of a cult hero, especially after the memorable free kick against Man U which saw the Shrimpers win 1-0.

In July 2007, Freddy completed a £1.5m move from Southend to Wolves and has been starting for them in the Championship this year. (More on Freddy)

Great to see a player battle up through the leagues. I would love to say that we should have always kept him, but from the looks of it, he needed that time to develop into the player he is now. Good luck to him and if he keeps on getting better I for one would welcome him back.

Where Are They Now: San Lee

While reading the last post something caught my eye. it seems the U17s flew into Jeju where they are preparing for the U17 World Cup. That was familiar becuase that is now the home of ex-academy player San Lee (or Lee San depending on how you do it).

After leaving The Academy of Football, Lee played for Brentford and then with Sheffield United, unfortunately he did not make a strong impression for either and from the sound of it, got knocked off the ball a lot. After attempting to catch on with trials at Colchester and Billeracay Town he signed for Tiptree United in 2006.

In 2007, Jeju United manager Jung Hae-sung was in England visiting the Reading set-up and apparently met up with Lee to persuade him to have a go in the K-League. He was successful and Lee now plays for Jeju. I would love to know how he is doing but alas, I can't read Korean.

From a Premiership Academy to the Eastern Counties Football League First Division to the K-League (1st to 10th to South Korea) what a ride... at least he is playing somewhere