Born: Brighton, 22 August 1973
Position: Winger; striker
Signed: 4 July 1996 from Gillingham (£15,000)
Fulham debut: Hartlepool United 2-1 Fulham, 24 August 1996
Fulham appearances: 51
Fulham goals: 10
Fulham honours: Division Three runners-up (1996/97)
Sold: 1 July 1998 to Brentford (free)
The £15,000 Micky Adams paid to Gillingham for the services of shaggy-haired Darren Freeman proved to be a bargain. The popular forward quickly became a firm favourite with the Fulham faithful on account of his ability to terrorise defenders, either out wide or through the middle as a conventional centre forward. Injuries robbed Freeman of the chance to make good on his undoubted talented, but he still scored nine goals as the Whites went up from Division Three in 1997 and went on to play for Brentford and Brighton and Hove Albion, scoring the first Football League goal of the new millennium, before forced to retire from professional football with a persistent hernia problem.
Freeman was a successful non-league manager at Whitehawk, Peacehaven and Telscombe and Lewes before becoming an agent in partnership with his former Albion team Dirk Hebel.
