Wolves stopper John Ruddy spreads a moving message
John Ruddy has played more than 400 games in his football career, won trophies and been capped by his country.
But in a parallel universe he could have played netball.
Well, maybe not quite, but the big shot-stopper revealed he enjoyed a short-lived netball career, among a few other sports, when he was growing up.
Ruddy told the Express & Star: “I was an active child. I wasn’t the most academic at school, sport was my outlet. Anything – tennis, cricket, rugby, hockey, I even played netball once.
“I had one game and one victory so I thought that was a good way to finish!
“Two or three boys played in the team, it was interesting!
“It was just trying to do things to keep me ticking over so I could have that release of energy that I didn’t really focus on in the classroom.
“I wish I’d paid more attention in class, then I might be a bit cleverer!”
Ruddy was speaking at St Luke’s Primary School in Blakenhall, which was of course the original birthplace of what we now know as Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club.
He, as well as sports presenter Gabby Logan, Blue Peter’s Radzi Chinyanganya and football presenter Emma Saunders, were at the school to promote exercise among youngsters as part of the BBC Sport Personality of the Year ‘Super Movers’ initiative.
“It’s very important to spread the message, particularly these days when kids are probably more bothered about what level they’re on on Fortnite, or how many coins they’ve got on FIFA,” Ruddy added.
“It’s massive as parents, role models, athletes and people of the community to encourage as much activity as we can to show the kids that it’s better to be active as a couch potato.”
Ruddy actually started his football life a striker – and only became a keeper aged 14. Three years later he was in the Cambridge first-team.
“I’d always been interested in football as a fan,” Ruddy added. “Like most kids you watch it on TV and it’s the most accessible sport in the country. You can play on grass, concrete, a mud patch – all you need is a ball, you don’t even need another person, you can just kick it against a wall.
“I probably started playing in a team aged eight or nine, enjoyed that and was quite good because I was bigger than every other kid!
“At 14 I became a goalkeeper and the rest is history. My team folded – a friend of my dad’s suggested I try in goal, because of my size. I did that and three years later I was making my first-team debut.
“Before that I played everywhere. I started up front and got further back until the net stopped me!”
