The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Paler Ruddy complexion Under-21s: Goalkeeper who gave up Spanish sun looks for shade of Scots cap
Jack Ruddy gave up the Spanish sunshine to further his goalkeeping career at Bury and hopes to take the next step with a Scotland under-21 cap.
The Glaswegian started off on the books at Rangers before his family relocated to Spain.
Real Murcia signed him after spotting his potential before he made the switch to the English League One Shakers at the age of 16 and, in the summer of 2016, Wolves signed him ona two-year deal with the club having an extra year’s option.
Ruddy has played for Scotland under-19s and is hoping coach Scot Gemmill hands him his debut at the next level in the
“I just told my dad that I wanted to be a footballer in England”
challenge match against Estonia at Paisley tonight.
The 19-year-old told said: “Ihadfour years at Rangers before I moved to Spain at 12. Iwasat RealMurciaand moved to England on my own when I was 16 tomake a career and signed for Bury.
“I did pretty well and mademy debut when Iwas 17 and Wolves signed me last summer.
“I just toldmy dad that I wanted to be a footballer in England and he didn’t stand in my way, he let me get on with it.
“I was in digs just outside Manchester. I got used to it. I don’t get homesick, I am used to being away now.
“I just had to learn as I went along. It has been a great experience. It matures you quite a bit so it has been great for me as a person and a player.”
The match against Estonia is preparation for the next under-21 European championship qualifiers which begin in September.
Gemmill’s players have been drawn in a tough group which includes Engl a n d , Ne t h e r l a n d s , Ukraine, Latvia and Andorra. The Scots start their campaign against the Dutch before a trip to England.
Ruddy said: “In the first place, I want to show Scot what I can do and impress and hopefully that will Northern Ireland attacker Jamie Ward predicts their previous qualification experience will pay dividends in the second half of their quest to make the World Cup finals.
Sunday’s 2-0 win against Norway at Windsor Park kept Michael O’Neill’s team second in Group C and on course for a playoff berth that would determine whether they can reach Russia in 2018.
For a nation that went 30 years without an appearance at a major tournament, the Green and WhiteArmy could be travelling to two in three summers thanks to the transformation O’Neill has overseen. stand me in good stead. There are a lot of big games coming up like the Euros against England and Holland.
“Iamlooking to push on. I worked with Scot at under-19s so it is good to have a familiar face. He is really good, quite relaxed, easy to work with and likes his teams to get the ball down and play.”
They have already shown they can get over the line when it comes to qualifying having advanced to Euro 2016 and Ward thinks such prior knowledge will be pivotal for their final five games this time around.
“We are not getting carried away, we have been in this position before with the Euros so we have the experience of dealing with these type of pressurised games,” he said.
“We are just extremely confident going into every game and we are not worrying about what the other teams in the group do. We have made a good start, we have 10 pointsandwejusthave to focus like we did in the Euros.”
Their ticket to France was booked with a table-toppingcampaign, though the presence of world champions Germany in their World Cup group means second place and a likely play-off berth is realistically the only attainable prize on offer.
The Norwegians consider themselves virtually out of the running already given they now trail the Northern Irish by seven points, and a win against Azerbaijan in June would see O’Neill’s side move six clear of them.
That leaves the Czechs, just two behind at this stage, as Northern Ireland’s biggest threat to claiming second and they still need to visit Belfast where the Windsor Park tenants last lost a competitive game in 2013.
“I don’t think we can worry about other teams – just concentrate on what we can control and that is ourselves,” added Ward.
“We have to go away now and play our club football, play well andmake surewecomeback into the squad in great form and high in confidence come the game against Azerbaijan.”
It was Ward and Conor Washington whose goals laid the foundations for Sunday’s win and, with a defence marshalled by Gareth McAuley and Jonny Evans, the hosts once again proved unbreakable in keeping a fourth clean sheet.