I WANT MORE AND MORE AND MOORE
Kieffer won promotion to Prem and the heart of his fiancée... now he fancies landing a hat-trick by winning Wales a World Cup ticket
KIEFFER MOORE plans to complete the best hattrick of his life in sunbaked Qatar – six years on from fearing his career had permanently frozen.
The Wales striker is about to become a Premier League player with Bournemouth, has got engaged to fiancée Charlotte Russell, and now just needs a place at the World Cup finals to make 2022 the year that made Moore merrier.
Yet in 2016, the 6ft-5in hitman returned from a stint in Stavanger, Norway where he had failed to break the ice with even a single goal for Norwegian club Viking.
It was a numbing spell that has left Moore feeling blessed to now be one qualifier play-off match away from the heat of an Arabian World Cup adventure.
Wales, who face Poland in the Nations League on Wednesday, will play either Scotland or Ukraine next Sunday for a place in this winter’s
World Cup. Moore recalled: “The polar opposite of hoping to be at a World Cup was coming back from Norway. I came back to sign for Forest Green Rovers.
“Before returning, I was thinking, ‘I don’t really know where I go from here’. I knew I needed to go to a team where I had to shine.
“Going away and not experiencing great times, being away from my family, it all reignited the fire in my belly that I wanted to get everything out of football.
“I’ve always had that faith and confidence in myself.
“I felt I had a chance in the EFL, then played in the Championship, played in League One, but then I went to Norway and found myself out of the Football League.
“At that point I felt I still had a chance, albeit a second chance. But I was determined that if I did get a second chance I wouldn’t let it slip like I did the first time.”
Moore’s football journey took him from Truro to Dorchester Town, and Yeovil before he went to Norway. After Forest Green, he rose steadily via Rotherham, Barnsley, Wigan and Cardiff until he joined Bournemouth in January.
Even the last hike to the summit of promotion to the
Premier League with the Cherries was a struggle – he broke a bone in his foot just days after joining the club.
But he hit four goals in his three appearances in the Cherries’ final four fixtures to help seal promotion – and his value to Wales is underlined by eight goals in 24 caps.
“I’ve done a lot of work on the mental side of the game,” says the 29-year-old former lifeguard. “I’ve read countless books, studied mental approaches and tried to improve myself in that way.”
If he gets some minutes under his belt against the Poles, then Wales manager Rob Page is likely to combine Moore with Gareth Bale and Dan James in a threepronged attack in Cardiff a week today.
Moore added: “It would mean everything to get to Qatar. Playing at a World Cup is the pinnacle of football.
“If I could do that in the same year as playing in the Premier League then it’s an amazing achievement – a pinch-myself moment.”