Adam Le Fondre explains what persuaded him to sign for 7th tier club after training with them to keep himself fit during pre-season.
The 37 year old has signed for FC United of Manchester, with the Northern Premier League Premier Division club expressing their excitement about the signing.
It was on the 10th of June 2024 when Le Fondre was on the released list for Hibernian, after one season in Leith, in which he made 29 appearances and scored five goals.
He then confirmed on social media that he has been training, but many expected it just to be for a short period until he finds a new permanent side.
But after scoring and making a number of appearances, he feels FC United is perfect fit for him.
This makes it his 12th different club of his career, having previously played for Stockport, Rochdale, Rotherham, Reading, Cardiff, Bolton, Wolves, Wigan, Bolton, Sydney, Mumbai City and Hibernian.
Delighted to announce I’ve joined @FCUnitedMcr looking forward to the season starting 😀😀 don’t worry about where my eyes are 🤣🤣🤣 I’ll have them on match days pic.twitter.com/2dglh2tFYR
— Adam Le Fondre (@A1F1E9) August 2, 2024
⚽ Goal for FC #9 Adam Le Fondre
We’d kept the pressure on and a ball looped over the area came to ALF who was perfectly placed to plant a precision header low down to the keepers right
’32⬜⬜⬜1-3 🟥⬜⬛ pic.twitter.com/GV9htwWJpg
— FC United of Manchester 🟥⬜⬛ (@FCUnitedMcr) July 23, 2024
Interviewer: Hi Alfie, and welcome to FC United. Obviously we saw you in pre-season training earlier on, and we thought’ oh great basically Adam Le Fondre has come down to so get get some match fitness with us’, you’ve actually signed for the club
Le Fondre: Yeah you know pre-season has been you know quite strange for me really obviously I’ve left to Hibernian and sort of not in the wilderness but just you know sort of waiting for opportunities to arrive something that sort of fit in what I want to do next and um as I was you know sort of speaking to clubs and spoken to a couple league clubs and a couple non league clubs as well nothing really sort of spoke out to me you know project wise and stuff and obviously my one of my best friends here is the captain you know Charlie Ennis so you know for me it was one of the main reasons was can play with him and you know it’s something we’ve not been able to do we were kids at Stockport when you know we sort of came through obviously I’m a tad older than Charlie um but we we knew from back then obviously we’re young and I you know this has given me the opportunity now to go and play on league and obviously have the opportunity to play with him as well and obviously represent FC at the same time which is you know obviously FC are a historic club now you know with even though short history but you know a lot of people know about them and the noise they’ve made since they’ve been around so um you know I’m proud to be here
Interviewer: Yeah I mean obviously with your experience I mean you’ve had a career that 99.9% of the population would kill for it’s your first forward into non league what was it about FC United that you thought actually this could work well
Le Fondre: Yeah obviously the you know I met Neil Reynolds at Charlie’s wedding and you know we had a brief joke and about about similar sort of things and you know it come to pre season where I’ve been speaking to a few clubs and nothing really was like I say tickling my fancy on what I wanted to do and where I want to end up I asked obviously Charlie you know of come in and train and obviously seeing the stature of the club and and how they try to do things right and stuff you know it sort of draw me into the club and obviously got a good rapport with the group obviously with the the management staff as well and um you know that was a big draw for me as well the familiarity of it and you know I’m looking forward to obviously you know making amends for last season obviously the the it was well you know documented from you know the gap for that they didn’t do well last season and hopefully I can you know alleviate some of the problem that they had last season
Interviewer: Yeah well I mean I think it’s uh I mean as signing go base this is you know what is in a marquee signing basically, we’ll be on to Fabrizio Romano very shortly to let him know the news but yeah it just I think just as I said the excitement I think you brought to the club already, you know we’ve not announced it just yet but we’re going to announce it very shortly and I think it’s going to go mad so delighted to see you here thank you welcome to FC United cheers
Interviewer to Neil Reynolds: So um it’s fair say we’re on the eve of the new season and I think probably one of the biggest signing we’ve ever made
Neil: Yeah Adam Le Fondre got it over the line you know with delighted there been a lot of conversations a lot of hard work behind the scenes a lot of people pulling together and delighted tonight that you know Alfie went on to the pitch and and signed the deal for the for the coming season so we said that we wanted to bring quality to this football club, keep the quality already had and I think the statement of intent signing Adam Le Fondre is is for all to see and we’ve got that nine that we believe will will score goals, you know in return of that we hope it’ll put more people through the terraces and through the gates and and and just add to that attractive football that we try and play so like I said big thank you to everyone that’s worked tirelessly behind the scenes and and I need to stress that’s not from a financial point of view that’s round about the football call and what it can bring and what it can add to to Alfie’s career at this stage and you know we’ve like I said through these conversations we might to do it so he’s part of the group he’s trained all he looked fit he looked sharp and you know we want to welcome him to the group
Yeah, apparently so… https://t.co/1BKpCsZHA3 pic.twitter.com/2vbk9SlCyQ
— FC United of Manchester 🟥⬜⬛ (@FCUnitedMcr) August 1, 2024
HIS CAREER:
Youth career
–2004 – Stockport County
Senior career
2004–2007 – Stockport County – 73 games (20 goals)
2007–2009 – Rochdale – 105 games (38 goals)
2009–2011 – Rotherham United – 105 games (58 goals)
2011–2014 – Reading – 110 games (41 goals)
2014–2017 – Cardiff City – 25 games (3 goals)
2015 → Bolton Wanderers (loan) – 17 games (8 goals)
2015–2016 → Wolverhampton Wanderers (loan) – 30 games (3 goals)
2016–2017 → Wigan Athletic (loan) – 13 games (1 goal)
2017–2018 – Bolton Wanderers – 39 games (7 goals)
2018–2023 – Sydney FC – 128 games (73 goals)
2020–2021 → Mumbai City (loan) – 23 games (11 goals)
2023–2024 – Hibernian – 29 games (5 goals)
Honours
Reading
Football League Championship: 2011–12
Bolton Wanderers
EFL League One runner-up: 2016–17
Sydney FC
A-League Championship: 2018–19, 2019–20
A-League Premiership: 2019–20
Mumbai City FC
Indian Super League: 2020–21
Indian Super League League Winners Shield: 2020–21
Individual
PFA Team of the Year: 2009–10 League Two
Premier League Player of the Month: January 2013
Reading Player of the Season: 2012–13
A-League Team of the Season: 2018–19, 2019–20
This is how fans reacted as Adam Le Fondre explains what persuaded him to sign for the 7th tier club after training with them…
@dannysmithlaaa: Great signing 👏🏻
@flintworks: Le fondre is a royal la la la la. Best of luck @A1F1E9 give em a bit of that old Reading magic, it was a pleasure to see.
@PrincelyRoyalty: What a player! Good luck, @A1F1E9!
@connor_FCUM: Amazing 🇾🇪⚽️
@PoolieSilkman: Superb signing 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
@SkyBlueStories: Let him cook 🌭
@Martind97352736: Absolute goal machine. Good luck Alfie
@TomGale91: Gets him out the house something for him to do ⚽️
@CallumMonty077: Take care of him
@_jacobeckooo: Welcome Alfie!!!
@HatterSteely: Make sure they pay you up front Alf 😉
@JonnyMartone: Excellent signing! 😄Can’t wait for the new season now! Get those season tickets purchased Reds… 🇾🇪⚽
@H0W3Y: Good luck Alf. Top bloke and player
@mattk8703: Fucking hell 😂😂😂. How the fuck did you guys do that! Brilliant!
@UKFDFC: Stick this on the incredible signings list!
@robbowwfc: Jesus… that’s an insane signing for this level of football…
@ginger_michael: What a signing. Even funnier to see the piss boiling it’s caused from people assuming we’ve broken our wage budget to sign him.
@adianbraidwood: This isn’t a knock on the non league side but genuinely shocked he didn’t get an offer higher up the pyramid.
@connor_ctfc: Adam Le Fondre at FC United, and Charlie Austin at AFC Totton, ace
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