Fabian de Freitas (born 28 July 1972) is a Dutch former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a striker. He notably played in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

for

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

and in

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

for CA Osasuna. He also played in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

for

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pla ...

and in his native country for

FC Volendam Football Club Volendam () is a professional Association football, football club based in Volendam, Netherlands. They play in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football league system, Dutch football from the 2022–23 season following promotion ...

SC Cambuur SC Cambuur, also known as Cambuur Leeuwarden, or simply Cambuur, () is a Dutch football club from the city of Leeuwarden formed on 19 June 1964. They currently play in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, after winning the 2020–21 Ee ...

FC Den Bosch FC Den Bosch () is a football club from 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. They were founded 18 August 1965, as FC Den Bosch/BVV. They are the successor of BVV (1906) and Wilhelmina (1890). Their stadium is called 'De Vliert', an 8,500 all-seater. R ...

and

NEC is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It prov ...

Playing career

Fabian de Freitas is probably best known for his late goals in the 1995 Division 1 Play-off final between Bolton Wanderers and Reading at Wembley which finished 4–3 to Bolton. Wanderers found themselves 2-0 down (although goalkeeper Keith Branagan saved a penalty in the first half to prevent Reading going 3-0 up) with 15 minutes to go before Owen Coyle pulled one back. De Freitas' goal in the 86th minute forced the game into extra-time, before Mixu Paatelainen headed Bolton in the lead. De Freitas then added the winner, firing in from close-range, with a minute to go, promoting Bolton to the Premier League, though Reading responded with a last gasp consolation goal which made the scoreline 4–3. He made his Albion debut on 22 August 1998 in a 3–0 away win at

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...

; in the 87th minute he replaced Lee Hughes, who had scored a hat-trick in the game. He missed a home match against Crewe Alexandra on 5 April 1999 which West Bromwich Albion lost 5-1 due to a misunderstanding over the fact he thought the game was an evening kick-off. The club got through to him by phone at 2.20 PM and he arrived at The Hawthorns just before the 3.00 PM kick-off and by then the team sheet had already been handed in.

Personal life

De Freitas now lives in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

and works in property.

Honours

Bolton Wanderers * 1995

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...

play-offs

References

External links

* * 1972 births Living people Sportspeople from Paramaribo Dutch footballers Surinamese emigrants to the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Spain Dutch expatriate footballers Association football forwards Bolton Wanderers F.C. players West Bromwich Albion F.C. players Premier League players Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players La Liga players CA Osasuna players FC Den Bosch players {{netherlands-footy-forward-stub