Ben Foster could be still playing in the Premier League, he could have started this season’s Carabao Cup final for Newcastle or he could have started a new adventure in Major League Soccer. The veteran goalkeeper said no to them all, but a debt of gratitude towards Wrexham was one he felt should be repaid.
Foster’s decision to come out of retirement and join the National League side last month was rewarded in spectacular style on Monday when his injury-time penalty save secured a 3-2 win against their title rivals, Notts County.
It was, said a keeper who has represented England, Manchester United, Birmingham, West Brom and Watford in a career spanning more than 500 games, one of two moments he wished he could bottle to preserve the feeling for ever. It gave Phil Parkinson’s team a three-point lead over Notts County in the race to secure automatic promotion to the Football League, with a game in hand and four to play.
Foster, who turned 40 last week, resisted several offers to return to the game when retiring after Watford’s relegation from the top flight last season. He rejected Newcastle because he did not want to live apart from his family in the Midlands. Foster, not Loris Karius, would have deputised for Nick Pope in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley had he accepted the offer from Eddie Howe. Tottenham, seeking back-up for the injured Hugo Lloris, were also politely turned down. But not Wrexham.
A cynical take on his decision was that it would be good for Fozcast – The Ben Foster Podcast, with its 191,000 subscribers on YouTube, to join a club with its own successful documentary series and Hollywood owners in Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. Foster’s reasoning is more straightforward.
It was Wrexham who gave him a first taste of senior league football when taking him on loan from Stoke 18 years ago. It was his appearance for Wrexham in the 2005 LDV Vans Trophy final, a 2-0 win against Southend at the Millennium Stadium, that prompted the watching Sir Alex Ferguson to sign him for Manchester United. Lending a strong hand to Wrexham’s attempt to return to the Football League after a 15-year absence is Foster’s way of completing the circle.
“It’s the club I owe a lot to,” he says. “If it was anybody else there would have been a question mark. I had so many offers earlier in the season. I had the big one from Newcastle, I had a couple from other Premier League teams, other teams around the world, in America, and nothing really fitted me. There was nothing I was really interested in, but this stuck out like a sore thumb.
“They’ve welcomed me back so well. I didn’t want to come and be a bit of a circus. I didn’t want it to be all: ‘Oh, he played in the Premier League last year and he does his YouTube and it’s all about getting content.’ It’s not about that, I promise you. It’s about playing good football and wanting to win.
“When the manager Phil said to me: ‘Do you want it? Do you really want to come back and do it again?’ I knew what he was getting at. I promised Phil I wanted to do it and I have shown the younger lads here that I want it too.”
Foster’s passion for the game has been rekindled in four appearances for Wrexham. He admits it had faded towards the end of his four-year spell at Watford, hence the decision to retire.
“For the past 10 years or so I’ve always just been a game player,” says the keeper, who may have only another four games to enjoy with his short-term contract due to expire at the end of the season. “I enjoy that kick-off; when that 3pm kick-off comes I get an adrenaline buzz. I was just hoping that would come back and it does feel that way because when the whistle goes I get that adrenaline boost.
“Towards the end of the season for Watford, the reason I did retire was that I wasn’t feeling that so much. Even when the games had kicked off I was thinking: ‘This doesn’t feel like it used to feel.’ Or: ‘I’m not really enjoying it so much.’ I hoped that feeling would come back. I hoped it would be there again and every game I’ve played so far I’ve been buzzing off it. You get that adrenaline rush and you think: ‘It’s work time again.’”
Wrexham have not only reignited the buzz for Foster. His family have been swept up in the promotion chase and rediscovered an enthusiasm that had been lost in the Premier League. “Wrexham was my first taste of playing football – it is my first 20 league games in football,” he says.
“When I started my football journey my family, brothers, sisters and friends would get a coach over or car share to come and watch me and now they are getting to do it 18 years later.
“They’re coming to all the games now, more than they did at Watford. Towards the end at Watford they could probably feel I wasn’t as interested in it or as invested in it as I was when I was younger. But they’re coming back here now and it is home to them as well.”
