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​The Cult: Craig Bellamy

Craig Bellamy could be volatile both on and off the pitch, but he possesses a humanity missing from many of his contemporaries. The Welshman is our latest inductee to The Cult.
Illustration by Dan Evans

Craig Bellamy could be volatile both on and off the pitch, but he possesses a humanity missing from many of his contemporaries. The Welshman is our latest inductee to The Cult (treat yourself and read previous entries here).

Cult Grade: Obsessive + Impulsive = Disorder

This summer, Wales will play at a major international football tournament for the first time in 58 years. During that long spell wandering the wilderness, many great Welsh players missed out on representing their country on the big stage. Speed, Giggs, Southall, Ratcliffe, Toshack, Rush, Hughes – it will forever be a loss that these and other domestic greats were not able to pull on the red shirt at a World Cup or European Championships.

Given access to a time machine and a sympathetic bureaucrat at UEFA, I think that most Welsh fans would nip back to the mid-nineties and fetch Speed to play this summer. This isn't simply because he was lost young and in painful circumstances: the former Wales captain and manager represents many of the qualities we'd like to see in all footballers, his blend of hard-work, humility, and commitment to the collective above personal glory marking him out among his peers.

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But if Speed was unavailable, given the keys to that time machine and with the bureaucrat sliding a doctored player registration form across the desk, I'd go and fetch Craig Bellamy. Not the undeniably world-class Giggs, nor our most capped player and goalkeeping rock Southall, or domestic title-winning strikers Rush and Hughes. No, I'd grab Bellamy. Obviously you'd want to take a sedative – not sure how he'd react to the kidnapping part, see – but that it would be him there's no doubt. Get him to France this summer and Bellamy would run through walls for Wales, then pick fights with the bricks left lying on the ground.

READ MORE: The Cult – Matt Le Tissier

Few doubted the Cardiff-born player's abilities on a football pitch. He played for big clubs and, though he won very little of note, scored bags of goals and racked up significant career transfer fees. At international level he was a long-term member and eventually captain of a sadly inadequate Wales squad. His total of 78 caps places him behind only Southall (92) and his lost friend Speed (85).

But alongside these achievements, most football fans are also aware of Bellamy's volatile nature, the internal conflict that means his Wikipedia page has a sub-section titled "Alleged Violence". Sir Bobby Robson called Bellamy "the gobbiest footballer I've ever met" after their spell together at Newcastle. Robson was not a man prone to hyperbole, and you can be sure he met a lot of footballers in his long and varied career, so we can settle on the conclusion that Craig has a bit of a mouth on him.

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Bellamy's time at Newcastle also saw him fall out spectacularly with Alan Shearer – the equivalent of pitching up at the Vatican and shouting "arsehole" at the Pope – and he once hurled a chair at John Carver, then a coach at the club, following an argument over airport car parking.

There's more. An excellent Guardian profile from 2009 acknowledges that Bellamy "had his moments in nightclubs"; he has been charged with assault more than once; and he famously went after his then-Liverpool teammate John Arne Risse with a golf club after the Norwegian refused to join in a karaoke session.

And so some people think they have Bellamy worked out: a typical football thug; ill-educated, unable to control his temper; a vulgar man made undeservingly rich because he can kick a ball about.

But I must tell you that such a conclusion would be – to pick a phrase Bellamy might approve of – complete bollocks, pal.

Point of Entry: Medium

The Premier League sells itself on passion, but it's an emotion that seems to be leaking from the many exit points of this self-declared "best league in the world." Billionaires tend to be dispassionate, so it's hardly a surprise that a competition run by and for them feels increasingly soulless.

This is not a descriptor you'd ever use for Bellamy. He brought passion – or perhaps it would be better to call it an all-consuming obsession – to the game. For much of his playing career, his intense focus on football drove him to the brink of madness. It made him rant and rave, act up on the pitch and sometimes off it. It's why he couldn't hold his tongue when asked about John Terry. It's why he looked like a broken man after Wales' gutless 2-0 home defeat to Finland in 2009. Bellamy reckons that, had he been able to control his emotions better, he could have been significantly more successful – then again, it might also have made him more like Michael Owen.

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His obsessive nature also makes him intensely loyal. He remains close to his old mates from Cardiff; there is a story that, a few years ago, he took in a childhood friend who was battling heroin addiction to help the guy get clean. Bellamy is a wealthy man now, but he probably still considers himself to be a working-class lad, at least at heart, the son of a steelworker from Cardiff who speaks with his old accent (so that it becomes "Care-diff") and still drinks down the pub with the boys now and again. An end-of-career spell at his hometown club was the most natural thing in the world, and it wasn't for the glory of being the big star back in the relatively small pond of the Welsh capital; he did it because that's what loyalty meant, dropping down a division to muck in with his team in his city.

READ MORE: The Cult – Dennis Bergkamp

Know what else Bellamy brought a lot of passion to – not to mention a ton of his own money? The Craig Bellamy Foundation. Set up in 2008, it aims to educate young people in Sierra Leone with the help of football. "I was really affected by the devastating social and economic conditions I witnessed for children growing up in Sierra Leone, and just had to do what I could," Bellamy said recently. He's ploughed well over £1.5m of his own money into the foundation, and wrote an autobiography purely to raise extra funds.

Sometimes painted as a thug, Bellamy is in truth an intelligent and sensitive man who understands the socio-political trauma of Sierra Leone, a country he has no links to. Of course, you can't deny that this flies in the face of his more commonly held reputation. The Craig Bellamy supporting a charity 4,000 miles away does not tally with the madman with the golf club, nor the guy sending Alan Shearer an unprovoked text message calling out poor performances.

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In everything he does – good or bad – passion and obsession seems to be at the root. And so perhaps the story of Craig Bellamy is that he cares too much. He cared so much about everyone getting up and singing karaoke that, when Risse said no and disappeared to his room, Bellamy was sufficiently incensed to seek out a golf club and use it to demonstrate the importance of team activities. He cared so much after travelling to Sierra Leone that he put his own money into making life in the country just that little bit better. He cared deeply about his teammate, boss and friend Gary Speed, and his hero's death hurt Bellamy badly. And he cared so much about playing for Wales that when they lost – and they frequently did during the barren years through which Bellamy lived – he was left unable to hide the anger and the tears from his face. Craig Bellamy cares – sometimes too much. But I reckon every football fan would take that over a player who isn't arsed.

The Moment: Wales vs. Costa Rica, February 2012

As his country's captain, Bellamy led Wales out against Costa Rica in February 2012. It was their first game since Speed's death a little over two months earlier and the game felt as much like a wake as a football match. Before kick-off, Bellamy was joined by Speed's two teenage sons – both wearing full Wales kit – and stood with an arm around each during the national anthem. He was visibly shaken, perhaps more than the impressively stoic Speed boys.

Bellamy with Gary Speed's sons, Ed and Tom // PA Images

Of course, any player in this position would be moved, but with Bellamy it was almost painfully clear across his face, and in the weight he carried on his shoulders. There is a humanity about him; Bellamy seems more real and is easier to comprehend than many of his contemporaries. Again, in moments like this, you know that he cares very deeply. And that's why he's the kind of guy any international side would be lucky to have at a major tournament.

Closing Statements

On his first league appearance after Speed's death: "There was a minute's applause for Speedo before the game. I stood in the line with the rest of the Liverpool players. I felt okay. The Liverpool fans started singing his name. It was real to me then and I started crying. I'm a man's man. I'm not supposed to cry. 'I'm going to play fucking well tonight,' I thought. And Chelsea couldn't get near me. It was one of the best games I have ever played. We won 2-0 and I set up both goals."––Craig Bellamy

Words @Jim_Weeks / Illustration @Dan_Draws