Playing Career
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Simek played soccer as a child in the United States, but did not think of the game as a career until his family moved to London after his father was assigned to a position at the English office of Anheuser-Busch when Frank was 12. He was signed by Arsenal to a development contract, but decided to move back to St. Louis, where he played at Saint Louis University High School, as well as Metro F.C., then under the direction of Dave Fernandez and Dale Schilly. However, during this time Arsenal called him back to play on the youth team.
While at Arsenal he rose to assume the captaincy of the reserve side, but had difficulty breaking into the first team; he found himself behind Lauren, Kolo Touré, Emmanuel Eboué and Justin Hoyte in the pecking order. He played a single match for Arsenal, in the League Cup against Wolverhampton Wanderers on December 2, 2003.
Read more about this topic: Frank Simek
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