Not because it is a move never seen before, but rather because he is an important player both in the club he is leaving, Gloucester, and in the Welsh national team, Louis Rees-Zammit surprised everyone by announcing this Tuesday that he is leaving rugby for pursue a career in the NFL, the American football league.
The 22-year-old Penarth flanker broke the news just minutes after Wales’ squad for the upcoming Six Nations was revealed, the tournament in which he made his name a few years ago. Effective immediately, he will join the NFL International Player Pathway, the program with which the organization tracks and hones talent available outside of US borders.
“I found out about an hour ago. There is no quiet moment in Welsh rugby. I spoke to him half an hour ago. It’s a bit shocking. Things have happened very quickly in the last 24 hours,” Warren Gatland, Leek’s coach, said sadly in a press conference this Tuesday. The New Zealander, who took office with an intense swell, with the principality’s rugby mired in an existential crisis that has been reflected in the results of his men’s team, will now have to face the loss of an important player in a position, the wing, in which there are not many options.
“Louis told me that he was recently approached to do tests at an NFL training camp. He called me to tell me that and thank me for his call for the World Cup. He told me that he has always dreamed of trying in the NFL and feels that if it is not now he may never have the opportunity again,” Gatland confessed.
“It’s not about rugby, but about my ambition to fulfill my dream and play in the NFL. When I was little my father got me into that world. He played and it is the sport that I grew up loving,” Rees-Zammit assured the Gloucester website. “I have had the incredible honor of representing my country, something I have never done as a proud Welshman. Right now I think it is the right time to achieve another of my goals. “These opportunities don’t come along very often,” he added.
Of course, his height (1.91 and 98 kilos, powerful stride) suggests that he could have a place in a sport as physical as American football. If he joins the roster of one of the league’s 32 franchises, he would be the second Welshman to do so after Alan Watson, who was a kicker in four games for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1970. He will have until April to prove his worth in Miami. If he is chosen for any of the training rosters, his NFL career will begin in August. With Wales he has played 31 games, with 70 points scored, and in 2021 he received the call from the British & Irish Lions, at 20 years and 93 days old, the youngest player to be selected by the team since 1959.
Follow the Diario AS channel on WhatsAppwhere you will find all the sports keys of the day.
2024-01-17 15:17:04
#ReesZammit #quits #rugby #pursue #NFL #career
