Simon Church
Personal information
Full name	Simon Richard Church
Date of birth	10 December 1988 (1988-12-10) (age 20)
Place of birth	High Wycombe, England
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.81 m)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Reading
Number	18
Youth career
1998-2003 2003–2007	Wycombe Wanderers Reading
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2007– 2007–2008 2008 2008 2009	Reading → Crewe Alexandra (loan) → Yeovil Town (loan) → Wycombe Wanderers (loan) → Leyton Orient (loan)	14 (3) 12 (1) 06 (0) 09 (0) 13 (4)
National team2
2007– 2009–	Wales U21 Wales	14 (8) 06 (1)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 22:31, 29 November 2009 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 17:00, 18 November 2009 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

Simon Richard Church (born 10 December, 1988 in High Wycombe, England) is a Wales international footballer currently playing for Football League Championship club Reading.

Contents 1 Career 1.1 Club 1.2 International 1.3 International goals 2 References 3 External links

[edit] Career

[edit] Club

Church was spotted as a youngster while playing at a youth tournament and joined hometown club Wycombe Wanderers Centre of Excellence as a nine-year-old upon recommendation from the club scout.^[1] Five years later, he joined Reading's Youth Academy at the age of 14. He was a regular in Reading's reserve side whilst still in the academy.^[2] On 6 July 2007, he signed a one year professional contract with Reading,^[2] but did not make a first team appearance that season due to stiff competition from the likes of Dave Kitson and Irish internationals Kevin Doyle and Shane Long.

Church joined Crewe Alexandra on loan for one month on 19 October 2007,^[3] which was subsequently extended to 19 January 2008 following rave reviews.^[4] He was put into the starting XI for Crewe on 20 October 2007 against Luton Town, where he wore the number 31 shirt and assisted Ryan Lowe for Crewe Alexandra's second goal.^[5]

Church joined Yeovil Town on loan for the remainder of the 2007–08 season on 29 January 2008.^[6] He followed this with a loan move to his hometown club Wycombe Wanderers at the start of the 2008–09 season.^[7] His original month at the club was cut short due to a sending off and subsequent three match ban, but he later rejoined the club for a further two months on 20 October 2008.

On 17 February 2009 Church joined Leyton Orient, initially on a month's loan, but later extended to the end of the season.^[8]

Church made his full first team debut for Reading in the play-off semi-final second leg defeat to Burnley on 12th May 2009. In June 2009, Church told a London newspaper that he would love to play for Leyton Orient F.C. if things doesn't work out at Reading F.C..^[9] With the departures of Doyle and Kitson, he became more of a regular in the first team. On 19 September, he scored his first league goal in only his fourth start in a 3-2 defeat to Peterborough and dedicated it to his father who died earlier that month.^[10]

[edit] International

Despite being born in England, Church qualifies to play for Wales as his grandparents are from Newport.^[11] He made his début for the Wales U21 team^[12] as a substitute in their 4-3 win over Sweden U21 on 21 August 2007.^[13] Church scored a brace for Wales under 21s against England under 21s as they lost 3-2 on 10 October 2008, in the 2009 European Championship play-offs. He also scored Wales's second goal in the first half of the second leg of the playoff against England, neatly lifting the ball over the on rushing Joe Hart but they lost 5-4 on aggregate to England, thus missing out on a spot in the final tournament. In March 2009, he was named captain of the U-21s.^[14]

On 29 May 2009 Church made his debut for the senior Wales international team in the friendly against Estonia. He received call-ups for the match against Italy U21 and a 2010 World Cup qualifier against Russia on 9 September but did not participate due to the death of his father.^[15][16] He scored his first senior goal on 14 November in friendly against Scotland that ended 3-0.^[17]

[edit] International goals

Scores and results list. Wales's goal tally first.

Goal	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	14 November 2009	Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales	Scotland	2–0	3–0	Friendly

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Simon Church profile at readingfc.co.uk
• Simon Church career stats at Soccerbase

v • d • e Reading F.C. – current squad 1 Federici · 3 Armstrong · 4 Cissé · 5 Mills · 6 Gunnarsson · 7 Tabb · 8 Matějovský · 9 Long · 10 Hunt · 11 McAnuff · 14 Kébé · 16 Ingimarsson · 18 Church · 19 Robson-Kanu · 20 Karacan · 21 Hamer · 22 Kelly · 23 Rasiak · 24 Bertrand · 25 Sigurðsson · 26 Pearce · 27 Davies · 32 Vasilev · 33 Bryant · 34 Howard · 35 Cummings · 48 O'Dea · Manager: Rodgers

Persondata
NAME	Church, Simon Richard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Footballer
DATE OF BIRTH	10 December 1988
PLACE OF BIRTH	High Wycombe, England
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH