Wrexham owe it all to Ronaldo!
Clarke chases Cup dream after taste of the high life
WHEN Wrexham’s Joe Clarke leads his non-League team out at Stoke City today, he will give silent thanks to his famous pal Adam Johnson who allowed him to live like a Premier League king rent-free in Cristiano Ronaldo’s mansion when his future as a full-time professional was very much in the balance.
Back in 2011, Clarke’s career was at a crossroads. Having started out at the bottom of the football pyramid with Evesham Town, Redditch United and Solihull Moors, a move up to the Conference with Darlington hadn’t worked out and he was forced to try out at Wrexham with-out a guaranteed salary.
He couldn’t afford to pay the petrol for the daily 160mile-round trip from his home in the west Midlands to north Wales, and was indebted when Johnson, then of Manchester City, invited him to lodge with him in Ronaldo’s palatial five-bedroom home in Alderley Edge, complete with indoor swimming pool, steam room, jacuzzi, gym and wine area.
‘Adam was renting the house and was very generous letting me stay there,’ explains Clarke.
‘I was able to go into training at Wrexham happy and it paid off because I got the contract, I’ve been there four years and now we’ve got this great FA Cup third round game to look forward to.’
Once inside the gates, Clarke says life was pretty normal, though there was one giveaway sign about the identity of the famous owner.
‘All of Ronaldo’s stuff had been moved out. The only way you could tell it was his were the handles of the doorknobs and chests of drawers had the number seven engraved into them.
‘I didn’t pay rent — I wouldn’t have been able to afford to pay the proper going rate — but I helped out in the garden and with other stuff.’
Clarke, 26, got to know “Johnno” through Everton’s Gareth Barry, a mutual friend who was also at City at the time, and the pair hit it off as golf and music enthusiasts.
This afternoon, the spotlight will be on Clarke, who gave up carpentry to play football and believes he may have two or three years to achieve his Football League dream.
‘I’ve got a lot of energy. I try to get in both boxes, break up play and keep it simple, and then go on the occasional crazy run,’ he explains.
‘A lot of Premier League sides don’t fancy going to Stoke but for us it’s a chance to test yourself against top players. They make the game look easy on the telly, so you want to put yourself in the situation and see how you deal with it. ‘We’ve had experience of playing in front of 35,000 at Wembley in the FA Trophy final so we don’t have to feel overawed. There isn’t any pressure on us.’
It’s a huge day for Wrexham, who fell on hard times and were saved from extinction in 2011 when fans raised £127,000 to stop them being kicked out of the Conference.
Now fan-owned, they boast an FA Cup-winner in director of football operations Barry Horne, one of Everton’s Dogs of War who helped beat Manchester United in 1995.
‘I know (Stoke manager) Mark Hughes, he was a Wales team-mate of mine, and he won’t be taking anything for granted,’ Horne says.
Twenty-three years after Wrexham caused an FA Cup sensation by beating league champions Arsenal with Mickey Thomas’s goal, the Red Dragons have the taste for another upset. It might be too much to ask for some of Ronaldo’s magic to rub off on Clarke, but you never know.
‘I’ve seen that Luke Shaw is renting the house now. It was good to see a picture of it on Twitter and think “I stayed there”,’ he smiles.