Scoring in all of England’s top four divisions, playing abroad and winning titles – Adam Le Fondre has done it all, and now he is enjoying life in non-league football.
Le Fondre shot to prominence at Stockport County, where he came through the club’s youth system. He scored on his professional debut coming off the bench in a 3-1 win over Bury in the Football League Trophy. The prolific goalscorer is perhaps best remembered for his season of toying with Premier League defenders for Reading, scoring 12 goals in 2012/13.
Those goals, ultimately, were not enough to keep the Royals afloat, and that would be Le Fondre’s only campaign in the top division of English football. Fast-forward more than a decade, ‘Alfie’ has just finished his first year of non-league football for FC United of Manchester.
Sixteen goals for the Northern Premier League side serve as evidence that Le Fondre, now 38, still has plenty to offer the game, even if he does have one eye on life once he does eventually hang his boots up.
“The demands of non-league football sit well with the way I wanted my life to go,” Le Fondre told Fen Regis Trophies. “I am looking at what I do after football, and going into part-time football helped me to become a little freer and expand myself into different things.
“That’s what I was looking for, and FC United are a fantastic club with a great setup, especially for non-league. They have a good fanbase and you can’t want for more, because they try to do things the right way.”
Playing Abroad
Spells at Cardiff City, Bolton Wanderers, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Wigan Athletic followed, leaving Reading in 2014 before a life-changing move to Australian A-League side Sydney FC in 2018. It was a move that many players, especially those with young families, may have hesitated at, but it was perfect timing for Le Fondre.
“I became a little bit disillusioned with English football,” he admitted. “I felt like I needed a change, and it presented a great opportunity for me to go and reinvigorate myself, both as a player and a person.
“There were a lot of conversations between my wife and me about how it was going to impact our family life and the children.”
A huge gamble, not just for his career but also for his family, paid off. Le Fondre won football trophies aplenty with back-to-back A-League championships in 2019 and 2020, as well as an Indian Super League title in 2021 during a loan spell at Mumbai City.
“Going to Sydney was one of the best decisions I ever made,” said the former Rotherham United forward. “It was an amazing time.
“My family loved it out there, and the football was great as well…the standard over there doesn’t get the credit it deserves. I wish I had moved away younger. I think there is so much more opportunity for people to go abroad.
“I had a great four-and-a-half years, made a lot of good friends, and my family loved it, which for me was a key thing as my family are integral in everything I do.”
Coming Home
2023 marked the end of Le Fondre’s Australian adventure when he moved back to British shores with Scottish side Hibernian. The move also saw him reunite with his old Reading manager Brian McDermott, who was appointed as the club’s director of football in May that year.
“Leaving Australia wasn’t really what I wanted,” confided Le Fondre. “Ideally, I wanted one more season there, but we couldn’t agree.
“Brian McDermott had been talking to me in the last three or four games of the season. I had just come back from a hamstring injury, got myself scoring again, and he was being complimentary.
“I toyed with the idea, and Hibs is a massive club with a great infrastructure. It felt like it was a great opportunity…I had chances to play in Scotland when I was younger, flirting with Rangers and Celtic.”
At Hibernian, Le Fondre featured in the club’s Europa Conference League campaign, which came to an end at the hands of Aston Villa at the play-off stage.
“It was a great opportunity to go and play in Europe,” he admitted. “I couldn’t afford to say no to something like that.”
FC United of Manchester
Now, the boyhood Manchester United fan is very much back at home. Before the start of the 2024/25 season, Fondre signed with the club spawned from the discontent of Malcolm Glazer’s takeover of the Old Trafford club, FC United of Manchester.
“FC United have a great foundation of good people,” he said of the Step 3 football club. “I’m not retiring at the end of this season, so I will be playing again next season and, ideally, it will be with FC United as I have enjoyed my time there.
“The club is fantastic, it has great staff, the management team is really good, open and honest, and it fits well with what I want in football, creating standards and driving towards those standards all the time.”
Life After Football
Nearing his forties, Le Fondre knows that the end of his playing career is just around the corner. That is partly why he has chosen to ply his trade in non-league football to allow him to concentrate on setting himself up for once he does hang up his boots.
Though his long-term ambitions lie away from the day-to-day hustle of the training pitch, the business of football is where he sees his future, working as part of the City Football Group, the parent company of Manchester City, as a scout.
“I’m in the City Group,” Le Fondre said. “Doing the recruitment for Man City…or for United…would be the pinnacle of what I want to do.
“Head of recruitment or sporting director roles are where I see myself. I understand that becoming a sporting director requires hard work and progression, similar to my football career.”
For now, Le Fondre is focusing on making the most of what time he has left on the football pitch and is doing so while thoroughly enjoying the non-league experience.
By Aaron Gratton
