Freddie Woodman- our next big thing?

http://www.touchlinetalk.com/one-for-the-future-freddie-woodman-newcastle-united/31940/

Freddie Woodman isn’t your average 15-year-old. He isn’t your average goalkeeper either.

The Newcastle United youngster has already made his reserve team debut for the club, and been described by some as the new Joe Hart.

He has set his sights high, and dreams of playing for England at the 2018 World Cup, when he will still be just 21.

‘Keepers are usually said to enter their prime when they reach their thirties, and Woodman is only halfway there.

Great Strides

However, he has already made great strides at St James’ Park and one thing you cannot accuse him of is being ordinary, as proved by his footballing upbringing.

Woodman grew up as an avid West Ham United fan, was a ballboy for Arsenal and started on the books of Crystal Palace.

However, he left his London roots behind in August 2011 when his father, Andy, persuaded him to join him on Tyneside after he became Newcastle’s goalkeeping coach.

Freddie and his family moved to the north-east and he was immediately snapped up by the club’s academy. He has made some impression since, even catching the eye at a national level.

Woodman already has six caps for England at junior level: four times for the under-17 side and twice for the under-16s.

Highly Rated

He is rated so highly that he is currently playing alongside players two years his senior for his country, which is very unusual for a goalkeeper.

The young Magpie is still growing, and you can only presume he will continue to improve as his stature builds and he fills out.

His international career can’t have started much better. Woodman has conceded just one goal in six games for the Three Lions, and the statistics show just how important he has been.

Since Woodman made his debut for England, the under-17s have played 13 games, with the Newcastle youngster playing in four of them.

In those 13 games, England recorded four clean sheets, all of which came when Woodman was in goal.

Just last week, Woodman played for England under-16s against Germany in a 4-3 loss, although he was substituted when the Three Lions had conceded just once.

England Captain

It is a measure of how highly he is regarded that he captained England in the game, which is unusual for a goalkeeper, particularly at that level.

It has certainly been a fairytale start for Woodman, who won’t turn 16 until March.

As his father is also his goalkeeping coach at Newcastle, some may make an accusation that nepotism is at play.

However, his progress with England proves that this is not the case, and Woodman is seen by many as a future star for club and country.

He could hardly have made a quicker impact at Newcastle, either, as he made his reserves debut aged just 14 in a friendly against York City.

Woodman’s opposite number that day was 42-year-old Paul Musselwhite, who was three times his age and older than Freddie’s father.

The 15-year-old may not have played for Newcastle’s reserves since that day, but that is by no means a slight on him.

Prospects

Jak Alnwick is another hot goalkeeping prospect at Newcastle, as is Jonathan Mitchell, so Woodman has had to make do with being the club’s number one goalkeeper in the under-18 competition, still playing alongside team-mates up to three years older than him.

He has made the bench for the reserves – now rebranded the under-21s – four times so far this season, including matches at Villa Park and the Stadium of Light.

His natural reflexes and bravery have stood him in good stead, as have his temperament and love for the game.

Unsurprisingly for someone who has made so many breakthroughs so early, Woodman sees few hurdles to reaching the top of the game.

In fact, in an interview with Newcastle’s official matchday programme in December 2012, he admitted he harbours ambitions of becoming the youngest goalkeeper ever to play in the Premier League.

Ambitions

He said: “I see Jack Butland playing for England at 19 and Adam Campbell playing for the first-team [at Newcastle] and think ‘why can’t I become the youngest goalkeeper to play in the Prem?’.

“I trained with first-team goalkeepers at Palace when I was 13 and I didn’t get why I couldn’t be a first-team ‘keeper then!

“I’ve learned to be a bit more patient now but I still want to keep pushing on. Ultimately I want to be a goalkeeper for Newcastle United and England. That’s my ambition.”

Before he joined Newcastle, the likes of Manchester United, Manchester City and Arsenal were interested in signing Woodman, his father – an ex-Crystal Palace goalkeeper – admitted to the Journal.

However, the Magpies have brought through a number of goalkeepers in recent times, including Steve Harper, Tim Krul and Fraser Forster, so it was decided that father and son should link up together on Tyneside for the good of the youngster’s career.

Again, accusations of nepotism could be made by some here, but Woodman snr insisted to the newspaper that the club was interested in his son anyway.

Big Clubs

He said: “It’s funny that people ask [about nepotism] because there were a lot of good clubs interested in Freddie. Some very big clubs were interested and they were putting pressure on.

“Unbeknown to me, the academy people here had done their homework on Freddie and in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way the bosses above said to me, ‘If your boy goes to another club how does that look because you’re his coach and you’re the coach here!’

“They told me to forget who he is because they want the best ‘keepers here.”

Woodman started out as a midfielder at junior level before realising he was not as quick as other players, so became a goalkeeper.

His father is very excited by his potential, and admitted some of the things said about him have been “lovely”.

Proud

He added: “I’m a proud coach, like I am with Tim [Krul], Robbie [Elliot], Harps [Steve Harper] and Jak [Alnwick]. And I’m a proud dad of a lad who is giving himself every opportunity. That can never be questioned.

“Without getting carried away because he’s got a long way to go and things can happen in this game, I’m really excited about him from a coach’s point of view.

“I’m really excited about him as a goalkeeper. There’s been some lovely things said about him already and England must think highly of him because they’ve already moved him up a year.”

Woodman, whose goalkeeping idols include Joe Hart and Wojciech Szczesny, has already trained with Newcastle’s first-team and faced shots from the likes of Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse.

He looks set to have an extremely bright future, although the position of goalkeeper is an unpredictable one and Woodman will need to develop physically as well as technically to make it to the top.

The 15-year-old certainly doesn’t lack ambition though, and has a very clear image of where he wants to be in five years’ time.

Determined

In an interview last year, he told Total Football Magazine: “I am determined to keep pushing myself and I have set out long term aims.

“For example, I aim to be part of the England squad when we compete in the World Cup in 2018 in Russia, and by that point I also hope to be a regular first team goalkeeper for Newcastle.

“I have always known that I was an ok footballer but I strongly believe in always believing in being better and continuously improving.

“That also applies whether I’m playing FIFA on the Xbox or playing golf. What is the point in doing something if you can’t try and be the very best at it?

“There is nothing else I want to be or would want to do. Being a footballer is my dream and if you have a dream you go out and get it and make it a reality.”

 

Sounds good. If he's aiming at getting enough first-team football in about 4 years time to be at the World Cup, he probably won't be playing for us, unfortunately.

Another victim of Timothy

 

If Pardew could sort his tactics out we wouldn't need a bloody goalkeeper.

 

Our current stock of young goalkeepers is second to none and the future looks very rosy for us. The youngsters will be just about ready for when Tim decides he is moving on.

 

If this lad proves good, we could sell Timmy for a large profit!
(Just what Cashley probably wants, to cash in at the right time)

And have him take over in goal.

 

What is it with us and keepers?