Brad Friedel became one of the few American football players who were able to make a career in England. As part of the United States team, he participated in three World Championships and the Olympic Games. He was also the oldest football player in Europe, ending his career at forty-four. For his professionalism and reliability in the game, the fans began to call him the Wall Man.
Brief information about the footballer
Brad Friedel was born on May 18, 1971 in Lakewood, Ohio. His height, according to various sources, is from 188 to 193 cm, and his weight is presumably 93 kg. His speci alty in football was goalkeeping, meaning he was a goalkeeper.
Brad has been involved in various sports since childhood. He excelled in football, tennis, basketball. Despite the fact that European football is not very popular in the United States of America, the athlete decided to do it. He did not choose tennis due to financial considerations, since this sport is very expensive, and he did not have a soul for basketball.
To get highresults in football, Brad needed to get to Europe. He really wanted to work in England, which is considered the birthplace of this sport. What club started his career in Europe?
Club career
Early in his career, Brad aspired to be a striker. After a while, he changed his mind and concentrated on defending the gate. In the nineties of the last century, he could have become a player for the English side Nottingham, but problems with paperwork prevented him from obtaining a work permit in the UK.
All attempts of the football player to get into the English club were unsuccessful, he had to return to his homeland to begin preparations for the 1994 World Cup. He played there as the second goalkeeper.
After the championship, he had another prospect - to become a player in an English club. This time he was invited by Newcastle. However, this time the British authorities did not give the go-ahead to work.
Failure with the paperwork for a job in England led to the fact that the player could not accept the offer of Newcastle, he had to be content with the Danish Brondby. He played there only one season and returned to the United States. After there was another attempt to get into the English club, but instead Brad Friedel began to work in the Turkish Galatasaray, the American Columbus Crew.
Liverpool
By 1997, the football player's desire to work in an English club came true. He ended up at Liverpool. This time all the documents were completed, andhe was able to sign the contract.
Brad Friedel belonged to the second cast. The American played his debut game against Asten Villa. But in three seasons, he was able to enter the field only thirty times, of which two games were in the UEFA Cup. This did not suit the ambitious goalkeeper, who saw himself as number one.
Blackburn Rovers
After the end of the contract with Liverpool, the player decided to join Blackburn. This event happened on 2001-07-04. At that time, the team participated in the First Division. Becoming the leader of the team, he led his club to the Premier League.
The following year, Friedel helped the team beat Tottenham in the League Cup final. He saved the gate from several hopeless moments. For this he was recognized as the best player of the match. But the fans could thank the goalkeeper not only for this game. He also performed well in matches against Arsenal and Fulham. In one of these meetings, he was able to reflect the pen alty.
In the 2002-2003 season, the American goalkeeper was able to not concede a single goal in fifteen matches. For this, he was included in the symbolic team of the year. By the end of the season, he was declared the club's best player.
In 2004, in a game against Charlton Athletic, the goalkeeper was able to score a goal. And two years later, in the game against Sheffield, the athlete managed to repel two pen alties. In this match, he was declared the best player.
Friedel has twice extended his contract with Blackburn. For all the time he worked at the club, he missed only five matches. At this time, he was preparing for the 2002 World Cup with his team.
The football player spent eight years in this club. With no team, he has not achieved such results. During this time, Blackburn returned to European competition. He liked to play in the club. He once said that it was always a pleasure for him to return to Blackburn. However, the 2008 crisis in the team forced the thirty-seven-year-old goalkeeper to change clubs.
Aston Villa
When Brad Friedel (footballer) moved to this club, he was also going through hard times. However, this allowed the player to become the first number. The debut took place in the game of the Intertoto Cup, in which the goalkeeper defended the gate from the Odense players. However, in this match he only came on as a substitute. A full-fledged debut took place against the Manchester City club. His new club won 4-2.
After spending three seasons in the squad, the football player played about one hundred and twenty matches, and missed one hundred and forty-three games. Then his career continued in another team.
Tottenham
The transfer to Tottenham took place in 2011. By this time, the player was forty years old. In the new team, Brad Friedel (goalkeeper) decided to give his best. As a result, he managed to play three hundred matches without substitutions. It was his personal record. In addition, the athlete spent five hundred matches in the Premier League. After success in work, the club signed a contract with the goalkeeper twice more (in 2012 and 2014). He was even able to withstand the competition and remain number one, despite the fact that the club's management found him a replacement in the person of French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.
LastThe American footballer signed a one-year contract with Tottenham Hotspur in 2014. He was also appointed as the club's ambassador. His responsibilities included interacting with fans in the United States, as well as promoting the club in North America.
Retirement
In the spring of 2015, Brad Friedel, whose biography is associated with football, announced that he was ending his career as a goalkeeper. In the last months of his work at the club, the goalkeeper was more often on the bench and entered the field only in cup matches. After that, Brad Friedel retired.
In his interviews, he said that he planned to play as long as he had the he alth and desire to do so. He did not believe that you can just come to training for the sake of wages. The player also said that he was ready to retire from football. However, he noted that he will miss the interaction with other players and club staff. All these words were said by the goalkeeper on the eve of his forty-fourth birthday. By this time, the athlete was one of the oldest acting football players in Europe.
His career ended at Tottenham. This is the team that he was so eager to get into. The football player said that he was leaving a great club, Brad was glad to be a part of him for all the four years he spent there.
Career in the national team
Brad Friedel, whose photo is presented in the article, made his debut in the national team in the game against Canada. In the match, held in 1992, he did not miss a single goal. In the same year he participated inOlympic Games.
In 1994, the football player went to the World Cup as a substitute goalkeeper, and in 2002 he went to the same championship as the first number. With him, the US team became a quarterfinalist, losing to Germany. The goalkeeper conceded only one goal. In 1998, the goalkeeper played against Yugoslavia. The US team lost, albeit by a minimal score. Brad got his nickname Wall Man during the 2002 World Cup, when he managed to repel two pen alties. Since then, fans have called him that.
In 2005, the goalkeeper announced that he was ending his international career. Brad made eighty-two caps for the national team.
Coaching career
Brad Friedel (former American football player) decided to start a coaching career at the age of forty-four. He became the assistant coach of the United States of America national team. It was Jurgens Klinsman who recommended the former goalkeeper for the position of head coach of the US Under-19 National Team. This was his first coaching experience. Perhaps Friedel's name will be heard in more than one championship, only as a coach of the winning team.
Major Achievements
Brad Friedel is an American football player who for a long time could not find a job in a European club. But he still succeeded. It was professionalism that helped win both the English championships and the world ones.
Goalkeeper Achievements:
- League Cup;
- third place in the Confederation Cup;
- second and third placein the CONCACAF Cup;
- first place in the Pan American Games.
Besides this, the athlete has personal achievements. At different periods of his career, he was declared the best goalkeeper and football player in the United States, a member of the symbolic team of the World Cup and the Premier League.
