Newcastle United allowed academy graduate Freddie Woodman to leave in 2022.
Freddie Woodman is in line to sensationally make his Liverpool debut against Crystal Palace tonight.
A former Newcastle United youth product, the 28-year-old joined the club as his father, Andy, served as Alan Pardew's goalkeeping coach. Woodman was a schoolboy when he relocated to the North East and was once viewed as a future England No.1.
He was part of the under-20s side that won the World Cup in 2017 and Newcastle fans were excited about his potential. Injuries to Martin Dubravka and Karl Darlow resulted in Woodman starting the 2021-22 season as first-choice keeper but a string of errors at Manchester United saw him dropped.
Liverpool opportunity
The now 28-year-old never played for Newcastle again and has spent the ensuing years playing in the Championship. When his contract expired in July, there was talk of him returning to St James’ Park to help with the homegrown quota for the Champions League.
As it happened, Woodman was offered a shock opportunity to join Liverpool. Admittedly, he is behind Alisson and Giorgi Mamardashvili in the pecking order but will debut against Crystal Palace - the team he supports - tonight.
Freddie Woodman to Liverpool programme
Speaking to Liverpool’s match programme before tonight’s game, Woodman said: “Any time I get to pull on the jersey for this club, whether it be a pre-season game or whatever competition, I’ll always just try to do my best and enjoy the moment, because I’ve spent a lot of time playing in the Championship and so to play for a club with this history is pretty special.
“It’s clear that this club takes the competition seriously, like it does every competition. When you get to the latter stages, you go to Wembley and you see how important it is to the fans.
“We train in the goalkeeping area at the AXA Training Centre and I regularly see the photo of Caoimhin Kelleher on the wall after his success in the recent finals, and that’s how important it is. You can really write yourself into history if you win trophies at this club, so I know how important it is and the club recognises how important this competition is too.”
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Andy Woodman’s kind words
Woodman Sr returned to St James’ Park in January as manager of Bromley in the FA Cup. On his affection for Newcastle, the 54-year-old said: “You’ve to realise I moved to Newcastle having never been there in my life. I moved all my family to Newcastle, having never lived out of London.
“The whole place is really close to my heart. It was brilliant for me to bring up a family there. I had a young daughter of 12, and a son of 14. They were really important years for my children. They became adults at Newcastle. Their love for the city is as great as mine. Without being over the top, there’s one big thing I learnt from Newcastle.
“Everyone got confused with Newcastle fans being delusional and all of this and that. They were never delusional. All Newcastle fans ever wanted was a team of players to go out on the pitch and give everything.”
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