Andy Murray has revealed that he could’ve played for Rangers FC after being asked to join the club for training.
The three-time Grand Slam champion was forced to choose between tennis and football as a teenager.
While he clearly made the right decision, going on to have a Hall of Fame-worthy tennis career, Murray admitted he had one regret about leaving football behind.
Murray achieved almost everything possible in tennis during his two-decade career. He won three Major titles, two Olympic gold medals, the ATP Finals, 14 Masters 1000s and plenty more titles – and reached world No. 1.
The Brit finally hung up his racket at last year’s Olympic Games and has been enjoying plenty of golf ever since, setting himself a goal of becoming a scratch player.
The 37-year-old has now revealed that there was another sport he excelled at as a youngster. Murray enjoyed playing football and was even scouted by Rangers during a training session as a teenager.
But it wasn’t to be, and the retired star has now explained why he chose tennis over football.
“I think it was about 13, 14. One of the teams that I played for was a feeder team for Rangers, and we went and did trials at the Rangers School of Excellence,” Murray said during an appearance on Chris Hoy’s Sporting Misadventures podcast.
“And I got asked to go to train with Rangers after that. And that was kind of when I had to make a decision.”
Murray had already started competing on the junior tennis circuit and knew it was a safer bet. He continued: “With tennis at that age, it was really helpful because I played tournaments all over the world by that stage.
“So I played in America, I played in France, Italy. And there’s like a ranking system for under 14s in Europe. And at that stage, I was ranked No. 2 or 3 in Europe as a 14-year-old.
“Whereas with football, I was good for my local Central Scotland team that I was playing for. But you don’t really know what that means. You know, like, how good is that really?”
It wasn’t long before Murray gave football up entirely. “One day I was doing a tennis session. It was supposed to be like an hour and a half long. And after an hour, my dad came to get me because I had to go to football training,” he explained.
“And I was walking to the car and I said to my dad, ‘Dad, no, like, I don’t want to go to football. Like I want to go back and finish my tennis’.
“And that was kind of when I made the decision that I was going to pursue tennis as my career, like 14, 15 years old, really.”
Asked whether he had any regrets, Murray admitted there was just one. He replied: “I guess if you could have offered me a career as a footballer, I love the team aspects of football.
“I really like that. And in tennis, we only got to experience that a few times in our careers. At the Olympics was one, which I was fortunate to be part of a few of them, and also in our Davis Cups.”
Content Source: www.express.co.uk