Leo Fortune-West

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Leo Fortune-West
Personal information
Full name	Leopold Paul Osborne Fortune-West
Date of birth	April 9, 1971 (age 35)
Place of birth	Stratford, London, England
Height	6 ft 4 in
Position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Shrewsbury Town (on loan from Rushden & Diamonds)
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1994-95 1995-98 1997 1998 1998 1998-99 1999-2000 2000-03 2003-06 2006- 2006 2006-	Stevenage Borough Gillingham Leyton Orient loan Lincoln City Rotherham United loan Brentford Rotherham United Cardiff City Doncaster Rovers Rushden & Diamonds Torquay United loan Shrewsbury Town loan	69 (18) 3 (0) 9 (1) 5 (4) 11 (0) 61 (26) 92 (23) 90 (19) 6 (0) 5 (0) 0 (0)
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 2006-11-08.

Leo Fortune-West (born 9 April 1971 in Stratford) is an English professional football player (striker) currently playing for Shrewsbury Town on loan from Rushden & Diamonds.

Fortune-West started his career with Tiptree United in the Eastern Counties League before having a varied and widely travelled early career with a handful of other lower league sides, including Dagenham, Dartford and Hendon before he eventually signed for Stevenage Borough, who were in the Football Conference. Within the same year he broke into the Football League when he moved to Gillingham for a transfer fee in the region of £5,000. Turning full-time professional necessitated giving up a degree course at the University of Greenwich.

After a three year spell at Gillingham which started off brightly but later became dogged by injury, Fortune-West moved on once more (after a loan spell at Leyton Orient) as he signed on a free transfer with Lincoln City in the summer of 1998. Lincoln saw fit to loan him out to Rotherham United in the same year and eventually Brentford dug deep to sign him for £60,000 in November 1998. However, 12 months at Brentford was only a temporary measure as Rotherham then paid half the initial fee that took him originally to Brentford, to sign Fortune-West in February 1999 for £35,000.

At the age of 29 Fortune-West moved once again, for his largest transfer fee yet, to Cardiff City in September 2000. Rotherham saw a decent return as the Welsh side parted with £300,000 to have him on their books.

He soon became a cult hero at Ninian Park, with City fans often exclaming "Leo is Brazilian".

Doncaster Rovers was Fortune-West's next club, signing in the summer of 2003 when Rovers were in the running for the Division 3 championship. He netted 11 goals to help them win promotion.

The Doncaster fans never really took to Fortune-West, despite his athletic build (a commanding 6' 4") and obvious ability to cause upset in the lower division defenses, his lack of pace and the signing of several other players made his appearances infrequent, although injuries to other players in the 2005/2006 season did see Fortune-West hold down a regular front line position.

On the 10 May 2006, at the end of the 2005-06 season, Fortune-West was released by Doncaster Rovers and made available on a free transfer. He signed for Conference side Rushden & Diamonds on June 23, 2006 on a two-year contract. In September 2006 he joined Torquay United on loan as cover for the injured Mickey Evans, but was recalled by Rushden due to an injury crisis in early November.

Days later, Fortune-West signed for Shrewsbury Town on a two-month loan deal.

[edit] External links

• Leo Fortune-West career stats at Soccerbase

Shrewsbury Town F.C. - Current Squad
1 Esson | 2 Hall | 3 Ashton | 4 Drummond | 5 Hope | 6 Sorvel | 8 Langmead | 9 Cooke | 10 Asamoah | 11 Williams | 12 Herd | 14 Davies | 15 Cadwallader | 16 Cowan | 17 Hogg | 18 Leslie | 19 Edwards | 20 Adaggio | 21 MacKenzie | 22 Humphrey | 23 Thomas | 24 Symes | 25 Jones | 28 Burton | 29 Fortune-West | 31 Shearer | Manager: Peters