WestSydneyWanderers

Jack Rodwell’s football journey from England prospect to Sydney outcast | Barry Glendenning

15-Aug-2022 07:00:32 | The Guardian

Attempted career reboots for the footballing pariah have amounted to little with his immense talent unfulfilled

Explaining the thinking behind his move to Australia in an interview last December, Jack Rodwell professed to have been conflicted before agreeing to sign for Western Sydney Wanderers, the A-League side he had just joined following a two-week spell in quarantine at what was once an insalubrious miners’ camp outside Darwin. While the midfielder felt he had more to offer as a player in England or elsewhere in the European big leagues, the impression was conveyed that a lack of alternative options meant relocating to Australia had to be considered.

The decision to move to Sydney was made easier by the fact that his wife is a local girl who Rodwell had met more than a decade previously while on a pre-season tour with his boyhood club Everton. It was a time in his career when he had already been identified as a future England star and the notion of playing out what appears to be his dotage in the obscurity of the A-League could scarcely have been further from his mind.