Craig Bellamy’s enthusiasm offers hope of bright future for Wales

New manager stresses the importance of players enjoying representing their country more than he did himself

It is Sunday afternoon in the Cowbridge Suite of the Vale Resort on the outskirts of Cardiff, base camp for Wales, and the pre-Montenegro press conference is 23 minutes old when the last question, about playing long, is put to Craig Bellamy. Most managers would be minded to wrap things up. Then again, Bellamy is not a most-managers kind of character. “I like to give you a fair fight,” he says, his words lingering for a second or two. And he is only getting started, a five-minute soliloquy providing an absorbing insight into his deep and complex psyche.

“I don’t want people coming off feeling like I did, and that’s the honest truth,” says the 45-year-old. “I want you to love this [playing for Wales], I want you to come away thinking: ‘I can’t wait to play again. It might not have been our day but I felt like I had a chance of scoring, I had so much of the ball.’ So many times when I came off it was so difficult. Against the Republic of Ireland [in 2007], I cried. I touched the ball three times. I’m at Croke Park. No one came and spoke to me and said: ‘Sorry for leaving you on your own up there [in attack].’ I never want anyone to feel that way. I believe we should give everybody a chance at being able to show their true talent.”

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