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 early days Dean was a striker, scoring a remarkable 1 goal in 134 appearances. He plays primarily as a centreback, although he is currently being used as a defensive midfielder, and is of Barbadian descent.

Career

Fulham

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 August 10 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.

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