Simon Church

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Simon Church
Simon Church.jpg
Simon Church (2012)
in Reading
Personnel
Surname Simon Richard Church
birthday December 10, 1988
place of birth Amersham ,  England
size 183 cm
position striker
Juniors
Years station
1998-2003 Wycombe Wanderers
2003-2007 Reading FC
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
2007-2013 Reading FC 106 (21)
2007-2008 →  Crewe Alexandra  (loan) 12 0(1)
2008 →  Yeovil Town  (loan) 6 0(0)
2008 →  Wycombe Wanderers  (loan) 9 0(0)
2009 →  Leyton Orient  (loan) 13 0(4)
2012 →  Huddersfield Town  (loan) 7 0(1)
2013-2015 Charlton Athletic 55 0(5)
2015-2016 Milton Keynes Dons 19 0(2)
2016 →  Aberdeen FC  (loan) 13 0(6)
2016-2017 Roda Kerkrade 4 0(0)
2017-2018 Scunthorpe United 4 0(0)
2018 Plymouth Argyle 2 0(0)
National team
Years selection Games (goals) 2
2007-2010 Wales U-21 15 0(8)
2009-2018 Wales 38 0(3)
1 Only league games are given.
As of January 27, 2018

2 As of February 13, 2018

Simon Richard Church (born December 10, 1988 in Amersham , England ) is a former Welsh national soccer player who played for the Welsh national team from 2009 to 2018 on and off . The 1.83-meter-tall attacker played for the Dutch first division club Roda Kerkrade in 2016 , followed by several appearances for English third division clubs . Before that, he played for several English clubs, mainly in the second , third and fourth English leagues .

Athletic career

Born in Amersham , north-west of London , Church was discovered at a U-9 tournament where he played for Chalfont Saints and recommended the Wycombe Wanderers in nearby High Wycombe . After five years, at the age of 14, he moved to Reading FC a little further west for £ 32,000 . The club was promoted to the Premier League in 2006, but Church initially played for the juniors and since he could not prevail against Dave Kitson , Kevin Doyle and Shane Long , he was loaned to third division club Crewe Alexandra in northern England for the 2007/2008 season , who just escaped relegation as fifth last. Before the 2008 season ended, he was loaned out within the league to the southern English club Yeovil Town and from August 2008 to his youth club Wycombe Wanderers, which played in Football League Two , the fourth highest English league. Since he received the red card in the fourth game after 22 minutes , he was suspended for three games.

At the end of the 2008/09 season he was then awarded to the East London third division Leyton Orient . From the 2009/10 season he played for Reading. Reading was relegated from the Premier League again in 2008 and had first missed direct promotion in the pre-season as fourth in the 2008/09 Football League Championship and then failed to climb in the playoff semifinals against Burnley FC , in which Church for Reading for the first time was used. The rise did not succeed in the next two seasons as Church played there, who now got more playing times after the departure of Doyle and Kitson. First they had nothing to do with promotion as ninth and then they failed in fifth in the playoff promotion final to Swansea City . 2011/12 then finally succeeded as the second division champion, Church was awarded for the 2012/13 season to second division Huddersfield Town after he had played 106 second division games for Reading in three seasons and scored 21 goals. In 2013 he then moved to the second division Charlton Athletic , with whom he was 18th and 12th, on a free transfer . He then moved within the second division free of charge to newly promoted Milton Keynes Dons , who was relegated after one season . In February 2016, however, he had already been awarded to FC Aberdeen and was able to play first division football for the first time in the Scottish first division and even become runner-up, in which he had a small share with six goals in 13 games. As runners-up, Aberdeen was eligible to take part in the first qualifying round for the 2016/17 UEFA Europa League . For the 2016/2017 season he moved to the Dutch first division club Roda Kerkrade , where he only had four appearances. This was followed by two positions at English third division clubs before he announced his retirement due to injury in May 2018 at the age of 29.

National team

The England born player can play for Wales because of his Welsh grandparents. Church played eight games for the Welsh U-21 selection between 2007 and 2008 in qualifying for the 2009 U-21 European Championship . He scored four goals in the group stage, which the Welsh won. He also scored three goals in the playoffs against England . However, that was not enough, as the English won 3-2 in Wales, so that 2-2 at home was enough for them.

In March 2009 he played twice in qualifying for the 2011 U-21 European Championship .

On May 29, 2009, at the age of 20, he played for the Welsh national team for the first time . In the friendly against Estonia he came on for Sam Vokes in the 59th minute and received a yellow card two minutes later . In the next game against Azerbaijan in qualifying for the 2010 World Cup , he was in the starting line-up, but was replaced seven minutes before the end. In the next twelve games, substitutions and substitutions alternated with bench press and games over 90 minutes as well as games for the U-21 team. Even when he scored 2-0 in a 3-0 win over Scotland with his first international goal on November 14 , he was substituted at the second half to spare him for the U-21 European Championship qualifier four days later . His last game for the U-21s was the last qualifying game against Italy . Before the game, the Welsh led the table with three points ahead of the Italians and had won the home game against Italy 2-1. With a 0-1 defeat in Italy they were tied, the Italians had the worse goal difference, but won the direct comparison due to the away goals rule . Wales was therefore eliminated. Italy then failed in the playoffs to Belarus .

After his twelfth full international match in February 2011, he had to wait eight months for his next matches. Then he played only one of the next 13 games over 90 minutes, but was substituted eight times and once. After an almost seven-month break, he scored the 1-0 winning goal in qualifying for the 2014 World Cup against Macedonia on October 11, 2013 , but was substituted in stoppage time for tactical reasons. In the next 17 games he was substituted on seven times and five times, but never played over 90 minutes. In the penultimate game against Northern Ireland on March 24, 2016, he scored the 1-1 equalizer with a penalty in the 89th minute, 13 minutes after being substituted on. In the qualifying for the Euro 2016, which was successfully contested by the Welsh for the first time , he was used in seven out of ten games.

On May 9, 2016, he was appointed to the provisional squad for the Euro 2016, with which a training camp in Portugal began on May 23. He was then also considered as a substitute striker for the final squad. He got his first appearance when he came on for Gareth Bale in the third game against Russia, which had already been decided 3-0 . After that he stayed on the bench. Only in the semifinals, when Portugal had taken a 2-0 lead with a double strike, did he come back into the game for the last half hour, but could no longer contribute to a change in the score and the team was eliminated.

He was nominated for the first game for the qualification for the 2018 World Cup , which began after the European Championship , but was not used. There were no further nominations.

successes

  • Second division champions 2011/12 (with reading)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ bucksfreepress.co: "On-loan Blues striker remembers his roots"
  2. ↑ Wycombe Wanderers FC vs. Dagenham & Redbridge FC 2-1
  3. ↑ bbc.com: "Simon Church: Wales striker retires aged 29 because of hip injury"
  4. ↑ westerntelegraph.co: "Gwent pair are crucial - Flynn"
  5. ↑ Wales (U21) - England (U21) 2: 3
  6. ↑ England (U21) - Wales (U21) 2: 2
  7. ↑ Wales 1-0 Estonia
  8. ↑ faw.org: "COLEMAN ANNOUNCES SQUAD FOR PORTUGAL TRAINING CAMP"
personal data
SURNAME Church, Simon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Church, Simon Richard (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION welsh football player
DATE OF BIRTH December 10, 1988
PLACE OF BIRTH Amersham , England