Woodgate seeks happy end to career littered with regrets
The injury-ravaged defender is painfully honest but content after coming home to Boro
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Your support makes all the difference.Ten years ago, Jonathan Woodgate was sat in the Cleveland Tontine restaurant with his friend. Close by was Steve Gibson, the chairman of Middlesbrough Football Club. Woodgate, then 22 and a bit more impetuous, scribbled down his name, number and "Is there any chance of signing me?" on a napkin. He put it on Gibson's table.
No one quite knows for certain where the note ended up – for the sake of this tale, let us imagine not in a bin – but last week, as Woodgate prepared to go out for a run, his phone rang with an unknown number.
"I didn't know who it was so I nearly didn't answer it," he revealed. "He just said, 'It's me, Steve Gibson, do you want to come and play for Middlesbrough again?'
"Maybe he had just found the serviette and that is why he rang!
"I had to think about it because it wasn't an easy decision to make and he understood where I was coming from. I rang him back later and said 'Let's meet up.' I could have stayed in the Premier League but coming back to Boro was a big pull for me. I want to try and get them back in the Premier League. I will just be a normal player, one of the lads, grafting on the training pitch and trying to win games on a Saturday, and I will be back close to my family."
It is a good story with a happy ending, told amid much laughter as Woodgate was unveiled yesterday at the club's Hurworth training ground after signing a three-year contract. And it is time there was one of those in his career.
The 32-year-old was coveted by Manchester United, Middlesbrough and Leeds when he was a youngster at Marton FC.
He chose Leeds and looked the kind of central defender England had needed for years. He moved to Newcastle for £9m when the Elland Road dream was unravelling but from there injury took hold. It has ravaged his career, at Real Madrid, Spurs and for his country, and, amid the good mood and genuine humour, is a well of regret.
"The club where there is the biggest 'what if' is obviously Real Madrid but I cannot dwell on that and I have to put that out of my mind," he added.
He was sent off on his debut at the Santiago Bernabeu after scoring an own goal. It was a highlight.
"What was worse than that [game] was being injured, the recurrence of injuries was the real killer. There are a lot of what-ifs, so I don't really look back on my career because of that."
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