It is easy in a recession to become an inverted snob and damn all footballers as being big on blacked-out BMWs and small on grey matter. The fans are in the red and the players are in the pink, but then you meet the record-breaking goalkeeper who says that he is inspired by Victorian philanthropy rather than Versace and Armani.

Brad Friedel will surpass Frank Lampard’s mark of 164 consecutive Premier League appearances when Aston Villa play Arsenal tomorrow, but his most important work is being done back home in Ohio. The American has invested in a £4.2 million academy in Lorain to provide free football for an area blighted by the closure of the local Ford factory.

As the depression bites, Friedel also wants to create jobs in the area by developing a retail park on his 24-acre site. “I don’t think a footballer should flaunt his wealth no matter what’s going on in the world, just as I don’t think a businessman in the City should,” he said.

Friedel has neither a watch nor an agent, but does have a set of what he terms “positivity principles” based upon the tools of the goalkeeper’s trade; hence, the crossbar represents personal limitation and the goal symbolises targets. He is the self-help DIY footballer, negotiating the terms of his contract when he moved from Blackburn Rovers for £2.5 million last summer, but accepts that footballers are different.

“People might perceive Robbie Savage as flaunting his money, but he doesn’t,” he said of his erstwhile team-mate. “His personality is to like a nice car. He’d be exactly the same if he had no money. Wanting a Lamborghini does not make him a bad person.”

At 37, Friedel is enjoying a protracted Indian summer to a career that got off to a staccato start in England when work permit problems meant that a move to Newcastle United after the 1994 World Cup fell through. So he went to Galatasaray, Columbus Crew and, in 1997, to Liverpool, where he was immortalised in a song by the band Half Man Half Biscuit, who claimed: “I heard a girl saying to a tall balding guest, ‘So you’re Brad Friedel — I’m mildly impressed.’ ”

People have been more impressed in recent times and his longevity is a reflection of his professionalism, which is why he backs the “whereabouts” system belatedly introduced to football to catch drug cheats.

The Professional Players’ Federation says that placing players under “house arrest” for an hour a day is “offensive”. Nonsense, counters Friedel. “I do envisage problems with players forgetting but there is a three-strike rule,” he said. “It’s good because it makes everyone aware. You should not be taking drugs, whether recreational or performance-enhancing.”

He does not believe, however, that drugs are a significant issue. “I have never known a team-mate take performance-enhancing drugs,” he said. “I’m not saying they haven’t, but I’m saying I never knew. You read about cocaine and cannabis but that’s not rampant, either.”

Is it a continental problem, then, given the positive tests of players such as Jaap Stam, Edgar Davids and Josep Guardiola, the Barcelona coach. “You have to look at their club doctors,” he said. “It was a lack of good judgment by the doctors, physios and, yes, ultimately the players themselves.”

He is concerned for the jobless and those with tough jobs. “I voted for [Barack] Obama,” he said. “I’m not a staunch Democrat and have voted Republican. I go for the candidate I feel is best. The best thing about the American election was the number of voters who took time and pride in their decision, whether they were for Obama or [John] McCain. A lot of the time people are flying by the seat of their pants and don’t know the issues, but this time people were focused.”

In England, according to the Respect campaign, the most thankless job going is that of a Barclays Premier League referee. “They do have the hardest job in football but at the same time I’m a hypocrite,” Friedel said. “When you’ve worked so hard for something and it’s taken away by a bad decision, it is hard to keep your mouth shut. Take the Watford-Reading game [in which a goal was awarded when the ball blatantly never entered the net]. Everyone’s human, though, and referees apologise. It happens all the time.” And vice versa? “I’d like to think players say sorry but I’m not sure they do,” he said.

Friedel insists that all the Premier League’s millionaires are aware of the recession, but few have restructured their business plans to account for the onset of the new depression. Friedel has done that with his academy, focusing on Ohio locals rather than foreign talent. “Wealth is fantastic if you have it, and if it’s used in the right manner,” he said.