James Wesolowski
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| James Wesolowski | ||
| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | James Peter Wesolowski | |
| Date of birth | August 25, 1987 | |
| Place of birth | Sydney, Australia | |
| Height | 1.72 m (5 ft 71⁄2 in) | |
| Playing position | Midfielder | |
| Club information | ||
| Current club | Leicester City | |
| Number | 14 | |
| Youth clubs | ||
| Northern Spirit FC Leicester City |
||
| Senior clubs1 | ||
| Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
| 2004- | Leicester City | 54 (0) |
| National team2 | ||
| 2004-2007 | Australia U20 | |
|
1 Senior club appearances and goals |
||
James Wesolowski (born 25 August 1987 in Sydney, Australia) is an Australian football player currently playing for Leicester City.
Contents |
[edit] Leicester City
Wesolowski played for Australian side Northern Spirit before signing for Leicester City in 2002. After showing a lot of potential in the reserves, James played for Leicester in a pre-season friendly against Celtic in 2004, but suffered a broken leg due to a challenge from Bobo Balde.[1] He underwent surgery on the leg but the injury sidelined him until the start of 2005. Wesolowski returned and impressed for the Leicester first team, making his debut at home to Cardiff City in January 2005. However, after only five appearances, he broke his same leg against Brighton in a freak incident. He recovered in time for the start of the 2006/2007 season, although a thigh injury kept him out of the side for the first month.
The departure of Joey Gudjonsson to Dutch side AZ Alkmaar opened the door for Wesolowski to become a first team regular at Leicester, although he faced stiff competition from Stephen Hughes and Andy Johnson for the central midfield spot. Despite disappointing performances by the club's midfielders in 2007, Wesolowski struggled to break into the first team. He did play against Aston Villa in the FA Cup on 24 October 2006, immediately after recovering from injury and impressed with his tenacity and will to do well for his team.[2] Both Hughes and Johnson have since left the club. He scored his first senior goal against Fulham in the FA Cup 3rd round replay on 17 January 2007.[3]
In July of 2007, during the 2007/08 pre-season, Wesolowski agreed to a contract extension with Leicester that would see him remain at the Walkers Stadium until 2011.[4] Wesolowski scored his second goal against Accrington in a Carling Cup match on August 14.[5] He suffered a hamstring injury on September 18 in a 3-2 win over Nottingham Forest and was taken off in 19 minutes, sidelining him for 6 weeks.[6] Wesolowski started to have more hamstring problems since recovering, and he was injured again on December 8 in the 5th minute as Leicester lost 2-1 to West Brom, sidelining him until Christmas.[7]
Since recovering from his hamstring injury, Wesolowski had struggled to get first team football with Stephen Clemence and Matthew Oakley playing in midfield during the early part of 2008. But since starting for Leicester, when they beat Scunthorpe 1-0 on March 29th, James started the remaining 4 matches for Leicester City, to end season 07/08.
[edit] International
Wesolowski received international acclaim at the end of the 2004/2005 season after competing for Australia in the FIFA World Youth Championship and was labelled "a star in the making" by the Australian Football Federation. James was called up to the Australian national team on his 19th birthday for the 2007 Asian Cup qualifier against Kuwait, but was withdrawn from the squad days later after consultation with medical staff from both parties 'on precautionary grounds'. On November 06, 2007, he was called up to the national team for a friendly match against Nigeria on 17 November,[8] but was an unused substitute as Australia won 1-0.
[edit] Statistics
| Club | Season | Domestic League | Domestic Cups | Europe | Total | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apps | Goals | Assts | Apps | Goals | Assts | Apps | Goals | Assts | Apps | Goals | Assts | ||
| Leicester City F.C. | 2005–06 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 2006–07 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 24 | 1 | 0 | |
| 2007–08 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 25 | 1 | 0 | |
| Total | 46 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 54 | 2 | 0 | |
| Career Total | 46 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 54 | 2 | 0 | |
[edit] References
- ^ Wesolowski receives Balde apology BBC Sport 2005-07-24
- ^ Leicester 2-3 Aston Villa (aet) BBC Sport 2006-10-24
- ^ Fulham 4-3 Leicester BBC Sport 2007-01-17
- ^ Wesolowski signs Leicester deal BBC Sport 2007-07-03
- ^ Accrington 0-1 Leicester BBC Sport 2007-08-14
- ^ Wesolowski injury rocks Leicester, BBC Sport 2007-09-20. Retrieved on 2007-09-20.
- ^ Wesolowski out until Christmas, BBC Sport 2007-12-10. Retrieved on 2007-12-15.
- ^ Qantas Socceroos Squad to Play Nigeria Named, Football Australia 2007-11-06.
[edit] External links
- James Wesolowski's Profile at Leicester City Official Site
- James Wesolowski career stats at Soccerbase
- 'Just who is Wesolowski?' Article from 'SBS' The World Game' Site, 12/11/2007
- 'Wesolowski slowly rising' Article from 'Westfields Sports High School' Site, 10/07/2007
|
|||||
