'All those goals yet I let the Millers down,' says Rotherham United legend Adam Le Fondre

Adam Le Fondre's record of 58 goals in 105 games gives him very elevated status in Rotherham United circles yet he left in the summer of 2011 with a sense of unfulfillment that still nags at him to this day.

“I didn't achieve something like Revs did – scoring at Wembley and winning a play-off final,” he says. “I scored a lot of goals but I felt like I let the club down in the fact that I didn't get them promoted.

“Personally, it was great – I got in the Team of the Year and scored all those goals – but if you don't get team success as well it's not the best thing. You want the acclaim that comes with that, too.

“I'm touched that Rotherham fans feel so fondly about me because I feel a little bit disappointed that I didn't help them to go up. All the goals I scored, I would trade them all to have got promoted.”

We're talking at AESSEAL New York Stadium late last month after he'd driven from his home in Stockport for a Legends Night. Also on the panel are Nigel Jemson, Matt Derbyshire and Will Hoskins. They're all worthy guests but it's Le Fondre who's the headline act in front of a sell-out audience.

He likes New York, a far cry from the Millers' home he used to grace: the cold, open wind tunnel of Don Valley Stadium.

“It's the third time I've been here,” he says. “I was a guest at the final match of last season and I was in the Wolves side in 2015. That's the only time I've played against Rotherham since I left.

“The stadium is fantastic. It benefits Rotherham a lot more than the stadium I played in! The pitch is perfect, it's like a bowling green. I wish I'd had the opportunity to play on it when I was here. I'm glad it's here for the club now.”

The striker, who joined League Two Rotherham in 2009 following prolific bursts at hometown club Stockport County and Rochdale, didn't realise just how highly he was thought of in S60 until that 2-1 win for Wolves.

“I got an amazing reception,” he says. “I'd had a good time here and thought I would get a good welcome but it surpassed anything I was expecting. I was in a little bit of a bad spell with Wolves at the time so I really appreciated it. It was a good pick-me-up.”

Le Fondre was signed by Mark Robins, who soon departed for Barnsley, and played under Ronnie Moore and then Andy Scott in an unforgettable stay that lasted just over two seasons.

Play-off-final defeat scarred his first year and in the second the Millers faded away late on in the campaign after looking poised to make the top six.

From there, he headed to Reading for £300,000, rose to the Premier League and became the top flight's most lethal ever substitute before, eventually, moving to the other side of the world to play in Australia and India.

“The point of me coming to Rotherham was to establish myself as an out-and-out ‘9’ who played every game,” he says. “They gave me a platform for that and the goals repaid that. I got 30 in that first year

“The best moments for me? The Aldershot away game when I scored a 90th-minute winner in the first leg of the play-off semi-final. Obviously the home match when we booked our place at Wembley was another amazing match for me. I scored in that one as well.

“Considering the stadium we were in, we still created a great atmosphere. It was magnificent. Everyone was on the pitch.

“Obviously, scoring four against Cheltenham the following season is up there. Going into my third season, I sort of knew it was going to be my last one.

“I started that season really well. Andy Scott came in and changed a lot of things in the way I thought about football. It opened me up to new ideas in the way he used me. He didn't just use me as a ‘9’, he used me a little bit as a ‘10’, he used me a little bit out wide.

“He opened up my mind. He used me a bit more as a football player rather than as just a poacher. I scored four goals before I left so it worked. I really enjoyed working with him for the short time we were together.”

I confess to him that I'm not sure what to call him. Is it ‘Adam’ or the nickname that will forever reverberate in Rotherham folklore?

“‘Alfie’ is football," he smiles. As soon as I hear ‘Alfie’, it's just football. When I hear ‘Adam’, I think I'm going to be told off! I never get called ‘Adam’ unless my missus says it. Even then, she seldom uses it.

“‘Alfie’ is synonymous with me playing football. I don't think I've ever been ‘Adam Le Fondre’ unless it's the stadium announcer saying it. With teammates, it's always been ‘Alfie’.”

A decade and a half on from his Millers exploits, Le Fondre is still playing and hasn't put on a shred of weight. Casually dressed in T-shirt, chinos and trainers, he's engaging company and looks younger than his 38 years.

It's early evening and proceedings have yet to get under way. Derbyshire arrives as we're chatting outside the first-floor banqueting suite and the pair share a warm embrace.

The end came on a late-August Saturday and typically the attacker signed off with a goal in a 2-2 Don Valley draw with Barnet when a number of clubs – including the Millers' derby rivals from S6 – were jostling for his signature

“I think it was the right time to leave,” he says. “It was about personal ambition at that point in my career. We'd had two near-misses. We'd fallen away and out of the play-offs in that second season when I scored another 25 goals.

“I knew a lot of clubs were interested in me that summer. I worked hard in pre-season and went into the third season. There were bids rejected. I always knew that the football would do the talking. I'd scored more than 100 goals by then. I'm thinking: ‘I need to go now or I'm never going to get out of League Two.’

“When I moved to the Championship, it felt like a bit of success for me. The Premier League, I never knew that was going to happen, but the Championship was something I was aiming for.

“I wanted to go and play higher, I wanted to test myself, I wanted to prove myself that I was good enough to play at that level. I got the opportunity. I'll always be grateful to Rotherham for giving me the platform to showcase my abilities. That's why I love the kinship I have with them.

“Reading came in and there wasn't much conversation. They met all the parameters that Rotherham set and the rest is history.

“There are teams not too far away from here who wanted to do things on the cheap, which Rotherham rebuffed. I never really said anything about them. I wasn't going to start throwing my toys out of the pram.

“If someone wanted me, they had to pay the money. When Sheffield Wednesday came in for me, they tried to get me for peanuts, really, and Rotherham were having none of it.

“Wednesday wanted me to refuse this, refuse that and I was never that sort of person. I was like: ‘If you want me, just pay for me.’

“It wasn't a lot of money Rotherham were asking for. If you think I'm good enough, you come in and pay it, don't you? Don't think you can just bully Rotherham. That's sort of how it went.

“It was towards the end of the transfer window. Reading came in, there was a quick phone call and I was on the motorway. It was done in an instant and I never really looked back after that.”

After the Royals, came Cardiff City, Wolves, Wigan Athletic and Bolton Wanderers. Then, in 2018, at the age of 31, Le Fondre started a new life with his missus and three children Down Under.

Two spells at Sydney FC followed, with a season at Indian side Mumbai City sandwiched between.

“It was incredible, I loved it,” he says. “It was a bit of a coin-flip situation really. I started the season at Bolton in the Championship. My wife and I were sitting there after a game one weekend and just said: ‘Should we do it then?’

“The pros outweighed the cons and we were gone. Two days later, I was on a plane. Sydney was amazing. It was an amazing place for the kids. It's such a family-orientated club there. I had a fantastic time and did some great things: played in the Asian Champions League, finished second all-time leading scorer for Sydney.

“I actually wish I'd moved out of England a little bit earlier and maybe gone to America beforehand; just tried something different. I was 28/29 when I had the chance to go to the MLS and I was sort of scared to do it.

“A lot of players are conditioned to believe England is the be all and end all. It isn't. You find that out when you go somewhere else. I'm pleased to see a lot more players doing it now.

“There were a lot of tears when we came back. We loved it so much that leaving Sydney was emotional. It was a hard thing for me to do. I felt part of the furniture there and entwined with the club's success. We won ‘the double’, we won the A League in my first season there. I had a mint time. It was such a good group of people.”

He also had a pretty mint time with Rotherham, but that 3-2 loss and his own goalless display in the play-off final to Dagenham & Redbridge continues to rankle.

“We should have been in the top three and gone up automatically," he says. “No disrespect to Dagenham – it's all in the past now – but in the two league games we played against them we beat them home and away and I scored in both matches.

“I'm going into the final thinking: ‘Just put another one down for me and hopefully we'll get the result.’ It didn't quite work out like that.

“I've played for some really good teams and Rotherham are right up there for me. I've got a great relationship with their fans and also the ones at Stockport, Rochdale, Reading and Bolton. Then I've got Sydney's fanbase and Mumbai's. I won things with both of those teams.

“When I look back, I've done reasonably well in my career and supporters like me for doing the business. Rotherham fans helped me along the way.”

Nowadays, the veteran is turning out in the top division of the Northern Premier League with FC United of Manchester whom he joined in 2024.

He has more than 290 career goals to his name and, after one more season on the pitch, will consider a new role back in the pro ranks.

“One-hundred per cent I want to stay in the game,” he says. “I feel like I've got too much knowledge to share to walk away. I think I can have a really positive impact on certain things in football.”

Already, he's scouting for Manchester City and holding one-to-one striker sessions as well.

“I'm not far off 800 games so that's a target for me,” he says. “I'm with FC United for this season. I've not put a time or date on it but it probably will be my last year.”

Then he pauses to consider what he does best, what has been his lifeblood for so long, what makes the Revell comparison legitimate.

What makes him ‘Alfie’ rather than ‘Adam’ …

“I'd like to think that by the time I hang up my boots I've got 300 goals.”