One month after parting ways with Robert Page, last week the FAW appointed Craig Bellamy as the new manager of Wales men’s football team. A former international himself, and widely popular with Welsh supporters, what could this latest change offer a squad in transition? David James takes a look.
Most Wales fans will know of Craig Bellamy through his playing career, which ended a decade ago, and as the character which has been portrayed in the media. He is Welsh, of course; passionate, famously; and a winner, with medals to prove it. But to think that he is just these things would be doing him a great disservice.
In Bellamy’s first interview as Wales boss, he stated, “It’s an incredible honour for me to be given the opportunity to lead my country and it’s the proudest moment of my career. It was always my ultimate dream to become Cymru head coach and I am ready for the challenge.” This is someone with a tattoo of Owain Glyndwr, the last native-born Welshman to claim the title Prince Of Wales: he gets what it means to represent the nation.
Bellamy, whose club career included spells at Liverpool, Manchester City, Newcastle and Cardiff City, played 78 times for Wales between 1998 and 2013, scoring 19 goals – most memorably in an infamous 2-1 win against Italy at the Millennium Stadium in 2002. As a player, he always had a fiery passion and a will to win; to get the best out of the players around him, and to lead. Opinionated and demanding, at times this led to spikey disagreements with teammates.
This will be Bellamy’s first ever managerial position: Wales are said to have also sounded out Willy Sagnol of Georgia and France’s Thierry Henry regarding the role. Yet the obvious reason Bellamy has been appointed over other contenders – beyond mere passion – is how he has developed and applied himself in recent coaching roles.
He began his coaching career at Cardiff City’s academy in 2016, before moving to Belgium with Anderlecht; there, as with his most recent role at Burnley, he’s worked under Vincent Kompany, who has since been appointed manager of Bayern Munich. Kompany, it’s said, wanted Bellamy to join him in Germany; Burnley, too, wanted him to stay as part of incoming manager Scott Parker’s backroom staff.
Bellamy is an avid learner of the game, and a fan of Johan Cruyff; Burnley played some of the best football when promoted from the Championship in 2023, and if Wales play half as swashbuckling a game it will be something to behold. The ex-Man City forward stated what he wants from his team in a recent Wales Online interview.
“Playing-wise, having that type of attitude and open-mindedness. I do like front-foot football. I like pressing. The team comes first so we’re difficult to break through. We build from the back. We commit. Everyone commits to it. Everything’s to score. Everything we do is to score goals. I know you guys might want to talk about formations, but I think you might need to look away from that. We don’t play formations, we play shapes. It’s 2 v1s, looking to create those areas in every part of the football pitch.”
This ideology of the game is progressive, and should allow the likes of Brennan Johnson to thrive. Bellamy is highly analytical – no surprise, maybe, having worked alongside Vincent Kompany who in turn absorbed ideas from Pep Guardiola – and you can bet he is already examining the Turkey squad ahead of the Nations League encounter in September.
Moving from his coaching philosophy to his personal challenges, Bellamy’s journey has been anything but ordinary. His story is one of courage and perseverance. In an interview with Gary Neville, he spoke of how, aged 15, he needed to leave Cardiff when Norwich offered him a contract as a player. Distancing himself from parts of his friendship group from that time, it was an early example of the singlemindedness that led him to carve out a stellar playing career.
Bellamy has also struggled with depression, and his story today is a great lesson in prosperity in the face of difficulties. At Burnley, he supported Lyle Foster when depression led the young forward to take a break from playing. Sometimes a reputation can precede you, but Bellamy has undoubtedly grown, and comes across as extremely likable in his first interview as Wales boss.
There is no reticence in talking about important issues surrounding mental health, and Bellamy has it in him to create a unity and togetherness within the Wales squad and its supporters, reigniting the team and living up to that ‘Together Stronger’ motto. Set to take charge of Wales for the first time on Fri 6 Sept, when they host Turkey at the Cardiff City Stadium, the fervour is clear amongst supporters and this game can’t come soon enough.
words DAVID JAMES
