The retired midfielder’s absence for the semi-final of Euro 2016 was the great ‘what-if’ of Welsh football, but even so his brilliant career managed to transform a footballing public for ever
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f some footballers take time to reach their potential, others seem to be the finished article before they’re able to drive. A teenage Aaron Ramsey was firmly in the latter camp. After only 11 league starts for Cardiff he had made his international debut for Wales against Denmark, turned down Manchester United in favour of Arsenal, and given Cardiff fans one of the great what-ifs of their club’s modern age after Dave Jones chose not to start him in the 2008 FA Cup final against Portsmouth, with Ramsey being the tender age of 17.
Success-starved supporters who should know better will pin their hopes on to the narrowest of young shoulders, and yet it all seemed so easy for the teenager from Caerphilly who was captain of his country by the age of 20, would go on to play in a World Cup and two European Championships and this week retired as an icon of the Welsh game.
It may be over 17 years ago, but the landscape in which Ramsey made his debut for Wales is almost unrecognisable. Years on the periphery of international football had caused a sporting public largely to lose interest, as a painfully young team beset by withdrawals, injuries and retirements under John Toshack made qualification seem a fantasy. During one of Ramsey’s early standout performances, a 3-0 victory against Scotland in front of a sparse crowd in which he scored one and set up the other two, Gary Speed was effusive in his praise for the then 18-year-old, before warning the viewers at home: “If Wales are going to do anything, those players out there need to try their utmost to get to every game and play for Wales.” Less than seven years later, 11 of the players involved that day would make the squad for Euro 2016.
