After two spells at the club he supported as a boy, former Liverpool striker Craig Bellamy has called time on his playing career. The journeyman striker has plied his trade at more clubs than anyone can say in a single breath, but Merseyside is where his heart — and his respect — continues to lie.
“I’m proud of the club I support, I really am,” enthused the Welshman before squaring off against the Reds for Cardiff City. “A lot of my beliefs in football and life are what Bill Shankly led, how he conducted the club and changed the club. He was years ahead of his time.” We’ve heard more than one player evoke the great man’s name to serve their own ends in the past, but with Bellamy, you know the gesture is sincere.
With a playing career than spans almost two decades, the Cardiff born striker has seen it all; amazing cup runs, relegation battles, title tilts, highs and lows with the Welsh national team and even European nights at the Camp Nou, but it took him until February 2012 to win his first and only major piece of silverware in the English game when he played a key role as Reds legend Kenny Dalglish steered Liverpool to their eighth league cup triumph.
Despite making the switch to home town club Cardiff City in the summer of 2013 to be closer to his family, Bellamy remains a firm fan favourite — and he, in turn, remains a fan of the club he’s supported since he was a boy. “The way Liverpool run and how they are as a football club – the professionalism, how they look to the fans and how they treat people – is something I’m really proud to be associated with” he continued. “I’m proud to support them.”
And we’re happy to count you among our ranks…
