Monday, 1 February 2021

Fred, Fredd, and Freddy

Just when it seemed that the 2021 senior men's squad was settled, the club pops up with a surprise signing an "excitement machine" named Freddie Sey.

Apart from his pro forma remarks about being glad to be playing for South, his introductory video offers only fleeting, and sometimes grainy, clues to the kind of the player Sey is. He's an attacking player, that much is clear, looking to take shoots and take on players. Clearly Sey likes to dribble, though I suspect his ambition outweighs his proficiency on that front. He's also probably the type of dribbler who likes to kick and chase, burning his direct opponent with pure speed. That might not work so well in this league and especially some of its smaller grounds, but it worked for Andy Brennan for enough weeks in 2015 to get Brennan an A-League contract, so it might now work for Sey in 2021.

As for everything else about Sey, South fans were left scrounging. A New South Wales 'African Cup of Nations' appearance in 2020 was easy enough to find. But did he actually play for any clubs? His public Facebook profile offers little in the way of soccer content. Friend of the blog Paul Hunt noted that Sey has gone under the name Freddy Ankumah-Sey, which helps us to track him to NSW NPL2 side North Shore Mariners, where Sey played at in 2017 and 2018.

That led to a prompt from another reader, suggesting one search for Frederick Ankumah-Sey. That reveals a few more results, mainly that Sey played for Rydalmere Lions and Bonnyrigg White Eagles in 2019. Assuming that all these names are the same person of course!

No one wants to harshly judge a player they've never seen, let alone never heard of. But one does automatically wonder about a left-field signing like this.

1 comment:

  1. Apparently he played for Northern Tigers in NSW2 in 2014

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