Two minutes and 43 seconds was all it took for Rickie Lambert to attain on his England debut in August 2013, the striker heading within the successful objective in a 3-2 victory in opposition to Scotland along with his first contact of the match.
Whereas solely a pleasant recreation, set-up as a part of the Soccer Affiliation’s one hundred and fiftieth anniversary celebrations, Lambert expresses his emotion in vivid element to FourFourTwo when remembering the end.
“My entire profession was about proving individuals incorrect,” Lambert tells FFT. “I wished to indicate I deserved to be within the squad.
“Mentally, I used to be on all of it week in coaching and I feel the opposite England gamers have been stunned by my technical capacity and contact. I used to be pondering, ‘Please give me recreation time’. After the match, my face was twitching – I couldn’t consider what had simply occurred.”
Lambert continued the superb type that earned him his first England callup in the course of the 2013/14 Premier League season with Southampton, scoring 13 objectives in 37 matches. Roy Hodgson chosen him for the 2014 World Cup squad in consequence, the fruits of a journeyed profession by means of the decrease tiers of English soccer.
Earlier than leaving for Brazil, Liverpool paid £4 million to signal him from Southampton. After being launched by the membership as a teen, Lambert wished to take the chance with each fingers after coming back from the World Cup.
Wanting again now, although, he says he pushed himself too laborious bodily for a 32-year-old coming back from the 2014 World Cup.
“Brendan Rodgers provided me 4 weeks off after the World Cup,” he defined to FFT, “however I wished to get as match as I might be, so after two weeks I went again with the youth crew to essentially push myself.
“After just a few weeks, I felt drained. We skilled very laborious when [Mauricio] Pochettino was Saints’ supervisor however by now I used to be in my thirties. Because the marketing campaign started, I used to be going backwards.
“I wished to take action properly for Liverpool, but it surely didn’t occur. I’d all the time had again issues; at Saints they’d a approach of taking care of my physique, but it surely was totally different at Liverpool with European soccer added to the combination as properly. I had a number of epidurals in my backbone, and I knew I’d pay a worth later in life.”
A transfer to West Brom in the summertime of 2015 adopted that season at Liverpool, and, as he explains, the bodily stress he put himself below got here again to hang-out him.
“At West Brom I had blood cells injected into my backbone to deal with an harm, which decreased my motion. I wasn’t at Premier League stage any extra. I moved to Cardiff they usually provided me out on mortgage. I knew it was throughout.
“Reflecting now, my head wasn’t proper once I left Liverpool – and once I retired, I wished to get away from soccer. Now the mud has settled, I look again on my profession with delight.”
