[1][2][3] Freeman was born in Handsworth, which was then in Staffordshire, and attended Gower Street School in Aston, where he started to make a name for himself as a prolific goal-scorer.

With Freeman unable to hold a regular place down, new manager George Morrell, in an effort to alleviate the club's debts, allowed him to join Everton in April 1908.

They did, however, have a good run in the FA Cup, with Freeman scoring four goals, including two against Coventry City in Round Four,[12] as Everton reached the semi-final where they were put out 3–0 by Barnsley after a replay.

The following season started poorly for Freeman, and by mid-November he had lost his place in the Everton team to George Beare who had recently arrived from Blackpool.

Freeman was recruited to Burnley for a fee of £800, by John Haworth who had taken over the managerial reins at Turf Moor the previous September, having been one of the founders of Accrington Stanley.

However, a good run in the FA Cup had helped to improve the club's finances and Haworth was able to persuade the directors to depart from their policy of only recruiting local players in an effort to alleviate the team's goal scoring problem.

By the end of March, Freeman's goals had helped Burnley to the top of the table with a seven-point margin over third placed Derby County with five games to play and promotion seemed secured.

He was selected for all three matches in the 1912 British Home Championship, the first of which came against Ireland on 10 February 1912 in which Freeman scored England's fourth goal in a 6–1 victory (with a hat-trick from Harold Fleming).

By mid-February, Burnley were top of the table and Freeman scored twice to defeat First Division Middlesbrough in the third round of the cup to set up a tie at local rivals Blackburn Rovers, where a single goal from Boyle saw them through to a semi-final against Sunderland.

They were able to hold onto the runners-up position and Freeman was again the league's top scorer with 31 goals from 37 appearances[1] as Burnley eventually secured their return to the topflight after an absence of 13 years, finishing second in the table behind Preston North End.

[18] A fierce shot on 58 minutes by Freeman gave Burnley "a narrow victory in an otherwise undistinguished match in which two teams with low positions in the League slogged it out in midfield, neither set of forwards being capable of mounting a sustained attack".

By the end of the year, however, Freeman's goalscoring touch had deserted him and manager John Haworth even tried playing him the wing in an unsuccessful attempt to rekindle some kind of form.

By now, league football had been interrupted by the First World War, but Freeman was to return to Turf Moor for two further seasons after the cessation of hostilities.

He made one final appearance as a replacement for Anderson in a 3–0 FA Cup defeat at Hull City on 19 February 1921, and he joined Wigan Borough at the end of the season.

In his ten years with Burnley, he scored a total of 115 goals in 189 appearances, having helped the club achieve topflight promotion and win the only FA Cup in its history.

Shortly before he left Turf Moor, a local newspaper published this tribute:[4] Freeman may justly be described as one of the most remarkable players of the past 20 years, a centre-forward who was a leader in deed as well as name.

He has been with the Turf Moor club for 11 years and has taken part in 300 games for them in which he has scored 174 goals – a wonderful record for a player supposed to be at the end of his career.