Union sign Homegrown Goalkeeper to new contract guaranteed through 2022 with team options for 2023 and 2024 seasons

CHESTER, Pa. (March 16, 2021) – Philadelphia Union announced today that the club has signed goalkeeper Matt Freese to a new contract. Recently named to the final 20-player Olympic Qualifiers bound U-23 National Team squad and catching the eye of Gregg Berhalter to earn his first senior team call up, Freese is ensured to be under contract with the Union through the 2022 season, with club options for 2023 and 2024.

“Matt has proven to be a valuable member of our goalkeeper unit and the team as a whole,” said Ernst Tanner, Union Sporting Director. “Matt has demonstrated time and again he is ready whenever he is called upon and has been vital in some of the team’s most important games.”

Freese, 22, has made seven regular-season appearances for the Union, starting six of those. In seven games played, he has recorded 14 saves and one shutout. His shutout came in a 2-0 victory against New England in the Union’s 2020 regular season finale that secured the club’s first-ever Supporters’ Shield.

A Homegrown who featured for the Union Academy, Freese played collegiately at Harvard for two seasons, where he earned Second-Team All-Ivy League honors, before signing with the Union in 2018. Internationally, Freese has received multiple call ups to the U-19 and U-23 squads. In March 2020, he was selected to the U-23 final roster for the Concacaf Olympic Qualifying Tournament, that was ultimately postponed due to health and safety concerns. In January 2021 he was called up to a U-23 camp where he went on to earn his first USMNT call up and dressed for a friendly vs. Trinidad & Tobago on Jan. 31. Most recently, he once again joined a select U-23 squad for a training camp in Guadalajara ahead of the Concacaf Men’s Olympic Qualifying Championship, before being named to the final 20-man roster of the Olympic qualifiers team.

COURTESY PHILADELPHIA UNION COMMUNICATIONS