Dougie Freedman

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dougie Freedman
Personal information
Full name	Douglas Freedman
Date of birth	May 25, 1974 (age 32)
Place of birth	Glasgow, Scotland
Nickname	The Doog
Position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Crystal Palace
Number	9
Youth clubs
1992-1994	Queens Park Rangers
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1994-1995 1995-1997 1997 1997-1998 1998-2000 2000-	Barnet Crystal Palace → Wolverhampton Wanderers (loan) Wolverhampton Wanderers Nottingham Forest Crystal Palace	57 (27) 86 (33) 2 (2) 36 (11) 83 (23) 223 (70)
National team**
2001-2002	Scotland	2 (1)
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 18/11/2006. ** National team caps and goals correct as of 18/11/2006.

Douglas "Dougie" Freedman (born May 25, 1974, in Glasgow, Scotland) is a Scottish footballer who plays for Crystal Palace in The Championship. He wears the number 9 shirt and is a striker.

According to Freedman, his name is pronounced "Duggie", and it is a common mistake for people to mis-pronounce his name.

Freedman began his career with Queens Park Rangers, later moving to Barnet before joining Palace for £800,000 in September 1995.

He holds the Palace record for the fastest hat-trick, netting his third at home to Grimsby Town in just eleven minutes, on 5 March 1996. Palace eventually won the match 5-0.

He helped The Eagles reach the Premiership with his performance in the 1997 play-offs semi-final first leg against Wolves, scoring crucial goals in the 89th and 90th minutes after coming off the bench with 17 minutes left (his first goal, in particular, was superbly taken, from long distance).

Unfortunately, he would not last long in the Premiership. After 10 games, in October 1997 he moved to Wolves for £800,000 and defender Jamie Smith. Dougie then moved to Nottingham Forest in 1998 for £800,000 but in 2000 was signed by Palace again, this time for £600,000.

With three minutes left and no score in the final game of the 2000/2001 season away to Stockport County, Palace were about to be relegated to the third tier. But a pass from strike-partner Clinton Morrison set Freedman on a run to score a crucial goal that kept Palace in the division, and relegated Huddersfield Town. It is the moment that Freedman is most synonymous for, with Palace fans.

On 6 October 2001, Dougie made his long-overdue Scotland debut, in the crunch match against Latvia at Hampden Park, for a place at the 2002 FIFA World Cup. The Scots won the match, 2-1, with Freedman scoring the winning goal in the process (a header, which went in off then Palace team-mate Andrejs Rubins, past another Palace team-mate, goalkeeper Aleksandrs Koliņko). However, despite the win, Scotland failed to gain a place in the Finals, and manager Craig Brown resigned, being replaced by Berti Vogts.

He only got one more Scotland cap, after that. He played the full 90 minutes of Scotland's 5-0 thrashing, by France, in Paris.

Dougie found things hard, from then on. After Steve Bruce was replaced at Palace, by Trevor Francis, the Scot fell out of favour, with Ade Akinbiyi, Dele Adebola, and Andy Johnson preferred to him, in the starting line-up.

In the 2003/04 promotion season Freedman scored a beautiful volley against top team Sunderland at Selhurst Park at the end of April to prove he still had what it takes to play in the premiership and give Palace a 3-0 victory. They went on to beat West Ham in the play offs, but unfortunately Freedman was on the bench for that match.

Following Palace's promotion to the premiership in 2004-2005, Dougie was overlooked by Iain Dowie as the team employed one striker in most games - Andy Johnson preferred. Dowie did not dismiss Freedman's ability, though, and rejected a loan bid from Leeds United, who had just been relegated to The Championship for Dougie and fellow Palace player Tommy Black. In the final game of the season, and with Palace needing to win at Charlton to safeguard their premiership status, Dowie turned to Dougie in the second half as Palace were trailing 1-0. His first notable contribution was to anticipate a weak back header from a centre half and, advancing on the Charlton goalkeeper, he calmly lobbed the ball over the keeper and into the net. Minutes later he again broke into the box and tried to slip the ball into the path of Johnson. Charlton defender Jonathan Fortune slid in to attempt to block the pass, but handled the ball to prevent it reaching Johnson, instead, resulting in a penalty, scored by Johnson. Unfortunately, Charlton secured a late equaliser (ironically scored by Fortune) and Palace were relegated. However, the effort and skill shown by Dougie explain the affection that Palace fans have for the Scot.

In the 2005/2006 season, Freedman remained at Palace but was some way down the ideal pecking order behind England international Andy Johnson and Republic of Ireland international Clinton Morrison. However, injuries to Johnson and Macken, and lack of form from Morrison brought the 'Doog' back into the team and he scored his 100th and 101st goals for Crystal Palace in a 3-2 win at rivals Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. on November 20, 2005, and even after Johnson's return, Dougie managed to stay in the line-up, having made a great impression to Palace boss Iain Dowie, who, later, made a public call to Scotland boss Walter Smith for Dougie to be given another chance in the national side, saying that, "I've been in conversation with Walter a number of times and he is well aware of what he is. I think Dougie could certainly be an asset to the Scotland squad, but that is for Walter to decide. He is a vastly experienced manager and he has a great team spirit going there. Dougie, I think, would love to play again (for Scotland). If he keeps going the way he is, there is no reason why he can't."

In the second half of the season, Dowie played an alternation of either Freedman or Morrison alongside Johnson. Dougie eventually ended the season with six goals from 20 starts and 16 substitute appearances.

All seemed to be going well at Palace, with the club comfortably reaching the Play-offs. However, Palace were beaten by Watford, and will therefore remain in The Championship for another season. This could, of course, be a blessing in disguise for Freedman, who may not have been retained by the club, had they been promoted. He is now expected have another season at Palace, at least, under new manager Peter Taylor.

When Freedman scores at Palace's home games, the music 'Who Let The Dogs Out' is played and fans sing along, replacing the word 'Dogs' for 'Doog'.

Preceded by: Fan Zhiyi

Crystal Palace F.C. Player of The Year 2002

Succeeded by: Hayden Mullins

Crystal Palace F.C. - Current Squad
1 Flinders | 2 Lawrence | 3 Granville | 4 Ward | 5 Hudson | 6 Cort | 7 McAnuff | 8 Scowcroft | 9 Freedman | 11 Morrison | 12 Speroni | 14 Watson | 15 Kennedy | 17 Hughes | 18 Borrowdale | 19 Soares | 20 Butterfield | 22 Reich | 23 Fletcher | 25 Green | 28 Király | 29 Turner | 31 Fray | 32 Kuqi | 33 Grabban | 34 Starkey | 35 Wiggins | 36 Spence | 37 Sheringham | 38 Wilkinson | Manager: Taylor