Stefan Frei

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Stefan Frei
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Playing for the Seattle Sounders in 2014
Personal information
Full name Stefan Frei
Date of birth (1986-04-20) 20 April 1986 (age 38)
Place of birth Altstätten, Switzerland
Height Script error: No such module "person height".
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Team information
Current team
 Seattle Sounders FC
Number 24
College career
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2005–2008 California Golden Bears 47 (0)
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2006 San Francisco Seals 6 (0)
2007–2008 San Jose Frogs 18 (0)
2009–2013 Toronto FC 82 (0)
2014– Seattle Sounders FC 70 (0)
International career
Switzerland U15 1 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 18:36, 6 March 2016 (UTC)

Stefan Frei (born 20 April 1986) is a Swiss footballer who currently plays for Seattle Sounders FC in Major League Soccer. Frei has played his entire professional career in Major League Soccer.

Youth and college

Frei moved from Switzerland to the United States in the late 1990s, attended De La Salle High School in Concord, California, and played college soccer at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2008, he was named to the All-Pac-10 first team and the NSCAA Far West All-Region team, and was also named to Top Drawer Soccer's Team of the Season.[1] During his college years, Frei also played with both San Francisco Seals and San Jose Frogs in the USL Premier Development League.

Club career

Toronto FC

Frei was named MVP at the 2009 MLS Player Combine in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, signed a Generation Adidas contract.

Frei was drafted in the first round (13th overall) of the 2009 MLS SuperDraft by Toronto FC.[2]

He made his professional debut on 21 March 2009, in Toronto's first game of the 2009 MLS season against Kansas City Wizards,[3] and soon established himself as the team's first choice goalkeeper.[4] Shortly after Frei was named Toronto FC Player of the Month for April 2009. Frei also won MLS's Save of the Week for week 15 and then three times consecutively for week 24, 25 and 26 of the 2009 season.

File:Stefan Frei.jpg
Frei with Toronto FC in 2010

He played in 3 games of the 2009 Canadian Championship going 3–0 and ultimately making key saves in the deciding game that ensured Toronto FC would win by at least 4 goals on goal differential and their first trophy.[citation needed]

On 25 April 2010, Frei picked up his first clean sheet of the 2010 season in a 2–0 home win over Seattle Sounders FC.[5] Frei had another standout season as Toronto's first choice keeper. He finished the season with a 1.32 goals against average and a 70% save percentage, he improved all statistics from his rookie season. It was announced on 18 November 2010 that Frei would graduate from the MLS Generation Adidas program at the end of the 2010 season.[6]

In January 2011, after the hire of Aron Winter as the club's new coach, he stated in an interview that Julian De Guzman, Dwayne De Rosario and Stefan would be the key players of the upcoming season and he was impressed with Frei's abilities.[7] Frei recorded his first clean sheet of the 2011 season in the second game of the year in a 2–0 home victory over Portland Timbers on 26 March. Frei also earned his third assist since playing with Toronto setting up the second goal for Javier Martina, it was later awarded the Goal of the Week in MLS.[8][9] Following the departure of Toronto captain Dwayne De Rosario in early April, Coach Winter named Maicon Santos as the replacement captain while Frei would become vice captain. On 13 April against Los Angeles Galaxy Frei wore the captain's armband for the first time with Toronto due to an injury to Santos, the game ended in a 0–0 home draw.[10] Frei played started most games in the first half of 201 but faced some injuries, after resting a few games backup keeper Miloš Kocić strung together several strong performances creating a highly competitive environment at the position. At the end of the season it was announced that Frei would be training with Liverpool, and return to Toronto before pre-season training.[11][12]

After making his season debut against Los Angeles Galaxy on 7 March in the 2011–12 CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals first leg, Frei sat out the second leg with Kocić being given the start. Much speculation began to arise with rumors of Frei being traded, however the following week he sustained a broken fibula during training.[13] Two weeks later the club announced that Frei would have to undergo surgery to repair ligaments in his left ankle, he is expected to be out for four to six months putting his entire season in jeopardy.[14]

Following a year of recovery Frei entered the 2013 pre-season as the first choice keeper, however he suffered a minor injury in training allowing back up Joe Bendik to start in the season opener.[15] Bendik continued to put in strong performances forcing coach Ryan Nelsen to stick with him, Frei earned his first start in over a year in a Canadian Championship match against Montreal Impact on 24 April 2013, the game ended in a 2–0 home victory for Toronto.[16]

Seattle Sounders

Frei was traded to Seattle Sounders FC on 10 December 2013 in exchange for a conditional pick in the 2015 MLS SuperDraft.[17]

International

Frei was a member of the Swiss U-15 national team.

Personal life

Stefan is a second-cousin of the recently retired captain of, and all-time leading scorer for, the Swiss national football team, Alexander Frei, an accomplished striker twice voted Swiss player of the year, who used to play for Axpo Super League club FC Basel and is now the sports director for FC Luzern.[18]

Frei holds a U.S. green card which qualifies him as a domestic player for MLS roster purposes.[19]

Doppleganger for American actor Aaron Paul of Breaking Bad [20][21]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ http://web.mlsnet.com/scoreboard/game.jsp?match=03212009_TORKC
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/generation-adidas-players-graduate-seasons-end Generation adidas players to graduate at season's end
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Swiss striker Frei has a nose for goal
  19. ↑ http://americansoccernow.com/articles/thriving-in-seattle-stefan-frei-has-trophies-in-mind
  20. ↑ http://famousface.us/wp-content/gallery/aaron-paul/Aaron-Paul-(18).jpg
  21. ↑ https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://seattle-mp7static.mlsdigital.net/styles/image_player_headshot/s3/FREI_0.jpg%3Fg7Wnwd31OA_VrrjGODvlS0YQVdy2Od5l%26itok%3DMPsLNJxt&imgrefurl=http://www.soundersfc.com/players/40/stefan-frei&h=200&w=140&tbnid=PSQVDbTbSGLVkM:&tbnh=160&tbnw=112&docid=5YWO4rB65GA-fM&itg=1&usg=__EsFKPz-IzdQUPHrODoy-V5dDU04=

External links

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