Dean Leacock

Dean Leacock
Personal information
Full name	Dean Leacock
Date of birth	10 June 1984 (1984-06-10) (age 25)
Place of birth	Thornton Heath, England
Height	1.89 m (6 ft 2+1⁄2 in)
Playing position	Centre Back / Right Back
Club information
Current club	Derby County
Number	6
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2001–2006 2004 2005 2006–	Fulham → Coventry City (loan) → Coventry City (loan) Derby County	09 (0) 08 (0) 05 (0) 82 (0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 23:10, 6 November 2009 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

Dean Leacock (born 10 June 1984 in Thornton Heath, London) is an English footballer who currently plays for Derby County. He went to Ashburton Community School in Croydon where he was coached by Peter Yates. In his youth career, Leacock played as a striker. He plays primarily as a centre back, but can also play as a right back or a defensive midfielder, and is of Barbadian descent.

Career

Fulham

Leacock in a match against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium in 2007.

Leacock made his professional debut as an eighteen year old for Fulham in a Worthington Cup defeat against Wigan Athletic. Leacock is an England international at Under-19 level. He was loaned to Coventry City twice, once in September 2004, and once in January 2005, by two separate managers. During both of these loan spells he saw regular first-team action. In July 2006, he was set to join Swansea City in £375,000 deal, but failed a Medical at the League One Side. However on 10 August 2006, it was announced that he would join Derby County in a £375,000 transfer.

Derby County

After a somewhat shaky start, he has gone on to become a firm fans' favourite at Pride Park, as a result of his constantly cool defending under pressure, which has re-generated chants of "Deano" around Pride Park, a chant formerly used to honour Derby favourites Dean Sturridge and Dean Saunders. He achieved promotion with the Rams at the end of his first season having played in the 1–0 play-off final success against West Bromwich Albion. He captained The Rams for the first time in the Boxing Day defeat to Liverpool. He scored an own goal in the 2-2 draw against Fulham.

Following the clubs relegation from the Premier League in 2007/08, manager Paul Jewell told Leacock he would listen to any offers for him. Leacock was out of the first team picture at the start of the 2008/09 Championship campaign but, following Derby's poor start, found himself brought back into the first XI and helped the club to go on a six match unbeaten run to take them from bottom of the table to within reach of the playoffs by the start of October. Leacock formed a key partnership with fellow centreback Martin Albrechtsen during this time and was rewarded with a new 3 and a half year deal to keep him at the club until June 2012 on 18 October 2008.

External links

• Dean Leacock player profile at dcfc.co.uk
• Dean Leacock career stats at Soccerbase