Bullied Wood bullies Wolves
Reading Time: 3min | Sun. 25.04.21. | 15:55
New Zealand international Chris Wood scored an impressive first-half hat-trick as Burnley ran riot in Wolverhampton
It takes a special kind of personality for a player to reach England from New Zealand. Actually, it takes a lot of resolve to leave New Zealand in any way. Tho isolated islands in the Pacific Ocean are far from everything and anything. And if you’re a boy who loves football, it might feel even more remote.
Such was the childhood of now-Burnley star Chris Wood, who grew up a football lover in a country where rugby is number one. To become a professional footballer at the highest level, you really have to care about the game. And Chris cared a lot. So much so, that he was even targeted by bullies for choosing the ‘wrong’ sport.
"If you are in England and you play some other sport, you get bullied not playing football. Back in New Zealand, if you don't play rugby, you get bullied. I got bullied for playing football when I was a kid. I was a big lad, so I decided I wasn’t going to allow it. So, I knocked a few of them about and then a bit of respect came back. From then on, they were not messing with me!"
Wood - now 1.91m in his claret and blue stockinged feet - said he was "just lucky" he was very tall by the age of 13.
"I was big for my age. I was playing men's football by the time I was 14 and a half or 15, and of course my career took off from there."
After playing for three local clubs in his native country, then-18-year-old Chris was recommended to West Bromwich Albion by a scout and it’s where the youngster’s career really took off. He moved to the Albion’s youth academy in 2009 and signed his first professional contract with the Midlands side at the end of the 2008/09 season.
West Bromwich were to send Wood out on various loan spells to gain experience and ended up selling him to Leicester City in January 2013. In his second season with the Foxes, Wood earned a promotion to the Premier League, but Wood didn’t feature much in the top flight and opted to drop down to the Championship again with Leeds United. This is where Wood really hit the ground running as he bagged 30 goals in the 2016/17 season with the Elland Road club.
Burnley paid around $20 million to sign Chris Wood in January 2018 and bring him to Premier League again. It was a great deal for all parties, as Leeds made a huge profit on the player that they’d bought for just $3million in 2015.
Now in his fourth season as a first-team regular, Wood put Wolverhampton Wanderers to the sword as he scored an impressive hat-trick in the first half and gave Burnley a much-needed win after a bumpy period in the league.
Wood represented Neww Zealand in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa (©AFP)Ashley Westwood scored the fourth late on to inflict a painful 4-0 defeat for the Nuno Espirito Santo’s club.
Chris Wood will rightfully grab all the headlines after his Molineux heroics. Not bad for a kid that was once bullied for even thinking of playing football.
PREMIER LEAGUE - Round 33
Friday
Arsenal - Everton 0-1 (0-1)
/Leno 76 og/
Saturday
Liverpool - Newcastle United 1-1 (1-0)
/Salah 3 - Willock 90+5/
West Ham United - Chelsea 0-1 (0-1)
/Werner 43/
Sheffield United - Brighton and Hove Albion 1-0 (1-0)
/McGoldrick 19/
Sunday
Wolverhampton Wanderers - Burnley 0-4 (0-3)
/Wood 15, 21, 44, Westwood 85/
16.00: Leeds United - Manchester United
21.00: Aston Villa - West Bromwich Albion
Monday
22.00: Leicester City - Crystal Palace
