2 months ago
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AARON RAMSEY wants to succeed Craig Bellamy as Wales manager.
The Dragons captain, 33, completed his Uefa A licence last month and is set to enrol on the pro licence course.
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RexStar midfielder Ramsey, who has won 86 Welsh caps, has set his sights on becoming a boss one day and fancies taking charge of his country.
The ex-Arsenal and Juventus ace said: “It would be a very proud moment for me one day. Hopefully that is a few years away yet but it would definitely interest me one day.
“I’ve done my A licence now so I will be starting my pro soon. It’s definitely something I am interested in.”
Ramsey is currently on the sidelines with a hamstring injury so the Cardiff star has been helping out on the coaching side and picking up tips along the way.
He added: “It’s addictive. I’ve been around the u18s at Cardiff. I’ve been lucky enough to coach them.
“I watch games differently now. You do get addicted and you want to try something new. Hopefully one day I will have the opportunity to do that.”
Ramsey was a guest on Sky’s Monday Night Football and did not pick boss Bellamy in his all-time team, selecting close pal Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo as his wideman.
The Welsh great joked his national manager may not like the snub or his comments on eyeing up his job in the future despite planning to play on for many more years.
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Ramsey said: “He’s not going to be happy with me, is he?”
However, Ramsey says he remains troubled by the horrific double leg break he suffered at Stoke 14 years ago that sidelined the then teenager for an initial nine months.
He still has the metal rod and screws in his right leg following the sickening challenge from Ryan Shawcross which snapped him in half and fractured both his tibia and fibula.
Ramsey has rarely spoken about the horror tackle, but concedes one of the Premier League’s most shocking incidents has had a major impact on his career with feelings of what might have been.
He said: “The injury was a massive setback because of the way I was going at the time. I was in the team, playing regularly and feeling good. I was really asserting myself at that level.
“Then the injury happened. All kinds of things went through my mind. Was I going to play again? Was I going to walk again? It wasn’t a nice time.
“I did have some really good people around me. I had a lot of messages from people who had suffered similar injuries.”
Ramsey was a £5million signing from Cardiff back in 2008 after he rejected Prem giants Manchester United, Liverpool and Everton for Arsene Wenger‘s Arsenal.
Following the brutal injury, he went on loan at Nottingham Forest and then boyhood club Cardiff to boost his fitness before returning to the Emirates.
Then the injury happened. All kinds of things went through my mind. Was I going to play again? Was I going to walk again? It wasn’t a nice time.
Aaron RamseyYet Ramsey reckons the mental trauma of the injury and the lengthy layoff stayed with him as he recalled the rough house treatment dished out to the Gunners.
Ramsey added: “The way that Stoke played back then was to try and be aggressive against Arsenal (who were seen as) being soft. They tried to play on that a little bit more.
“That was probably driven by the manager at the time. I don’t think anybody goes out there to break someone’s leg, no, but there was definitely a feeling that they wanted to leave a bit on the players.
“I have suffered a load of injuries and maybe it has had an impact on me on the way I move differently and my body has had to adapt to certain things.
“Beforehand I never really got injured. I was still pretty young but I could play all day, every day. Definitely, after the injury, it has had a bit of an impact. I still have the metal in my leg as well. That can have an effect on the body as well.
“Anything can happen throughout your career. But, of course, from an injury point of view, I wish that never happened and I could have seen how I would have been injury-free throughout my career and what that would have looked like.”
Ramsey returned from the injury but admitted he had to overcome psychological battles to tackle again. He scored Arsenal’s winner against United at the Emirates in May 2011 as he took a big step on the road to recovery.
Ramsey was sidelined for nine months after a horror leg break against StokeNews Group Newspapers LtdHe said: “That was a huge moment. Psychologically to go into tackles again, it has an effect.
“You do go into them half-hearted or thinking, ‘Am I going to be alright doing this?’ It took time after the injury to overcome that.”
Ramsey won the FA Cup three times with Arsenal, win Serie A at Juventus and represented Wales at two Euros and the 2022 World Cup before returning to his homeland.
He told Sky’s Monday Night Football: “I’m proud of what I have done in my career. To come back from that and still get to the level and play is something I’m proud of.”
But he was most disappointed at his Arsenal exit in 2019 when his 11-year association ended as the club made a U-turn on a contract. He then joined Juventus as a free agent on a lucrative £400,000-a-week deal.
Ramsey, who scored two FA Cup final match-winning goals at Wembley, added: “It was a weird time. I wanted to commit my future to Arsenal. They had just gone through a change of manager.
“I said I’m happy, let’s go and sign it but then it all went quiet. I imagine it went quiet because of the new manager coming in and maybe he wanted to see the squad before.
“It was disappointing because I didn’t see anything beyond it. I was Arsenal through and through until I hung up my boots and went back to Cardiff eventually.
“I had to make a decision. You can start talking to foreign clubs in January so a few discussions went on.”
PA:Empics Sport
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