Jamie Ashdown

Reading

Born in Reading, Berkshire, Ashdown began his career at Reading when he was eight years old. Ashdown then established a reputation as an exciting prospect for the club. He signed his professional contract with Reading in February 1998. On 12 September 2000, Ashdown made his league debut for the club, coming on as a 74th-minute substitute for Phil Whitehead, and played the rest of the game, as he kept a clean in a 5–0 win against Oldham Athletic. This turns out to be his only appearance of the 2000–01 season. Ashdown made his first appearance of the 2001–02 season against Colchester United in the Football League Trophy and helped them win 2–1. Following this, he was offered a new contract by Reading. After Whitehead suffered an injury, Ashdown started in goal once again, coming against Chesterfield on 1 December 2001, as the club lost 1–0. Following this, he signed a contract extension with Reading, keeping him until 2004. Ashdown appeared in the next two matches before the arrival of Marcus Hahnemann and the recovery of Whitehead saw him return to the substitute bench. At the end of the 2001–02 season, he made four appearances in all competitions. Following his loan spell at AFC Bournemouth came to an end, Ashdown returned as the club's second choice goalkeeper for the rest of the 2002–03 season. But he made his an appearance against Grimsby Town on 5 October 2002 and kept a clean sheet, in a 3–0 win. The start of the 2003–04 season saw Ashdown remain as…

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A year later after announcing his retirement, Ashdown revealed that he went on a trial at his former club, Portsmouth after learning that John Keeley returned as the club's goalkeeper coach but was turned away and ignored by manager Paul Cook. In September 2018, Ashdown joined Ascot United as one of their new goalkeeping coaches. During the 2022–23 season, Ashdown made 32 appearances for Ascot in all competitions as the club won the Combined Counties League Premier Division North and the FA Vase.

In the summer of 2005, Ashdown married his girlfriend, Zoe. Together, they have three children. Ashdown endorses goalkeeping gloves made by The One Glove Company, who are donating proceeds to the charity Jack's First Steps. The charity partnership first launched on 16 December 2014 with the release of the "Pulse" goalkeeper glove. In 2013, Ashdown set up an online business, Trusted Pro Supplements, supplying and offering information to athletes about nutritional supplements that do not feature on banned substance lists and are believed not to be harmful. In a November 2020 interview with The News, Ashdown later revealed that his cafe business, which he opened in October 2019 after its success over four years, was closed down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and he has since worked for his father's hardware store business.