AARON RAMSEY EXCLUSIVE: I dreamed of playing rugby for Wales, I just love being in a battle! Arsenal's 'complete sportsman' reveals all about injury problems, leadership qualities, and a title challenge...



Aaron Ramsey is discussing the art of playing as a mercurial No 10. Of the vision required to run the game from midfield. Of seeing a pass.

Only we’re not just talking football here. We’re talking rugby and in particular the ability he once possessed with a rugby ball before he was forced, in his teens, to make a choice between the two sports.

Born in Caerphilly, the Arsenal midfielder sounds like he once saw himself trying to emulate the great Welsh fly-halves of the past — Barry John, Phil Bennett. Men with skill and flair as well as tremendous athleticism.

My time: Arsenal's Aaron Ramsey has been the name on everybody's lips so far this season - he speaks exclusively to Sportsmail's Matt Lawton

‘I like to think I would have made it if I’d chosen rugby,’ he says, and the fact he was invited for trials with Newport Gwent Dragons — not to mention St Helens from rugby league — suggests he did have talent.

‘I started off playing rugby league as well as union. I switched between fly-half and wing but I preferred to play fly-half. I liked to be at the heart of everything. I liked to be involved.

‘I was a good reader of a rugby match. I could kick, too. Playing football obviously helped me with striking a ball, and I enjoyed the physical side of it. I think that has helped me overcome my injury problems but out there on the rugby pitch I liked things to come through me.’

That vision, that ability to see clearly in the chaos of the midfield battle zone, is something Ramsey was born with and something he has been able to use to his considerable advantage as a footballer. Never more so, it has to be said, than with Arsenal this season, in which he has scored a staggering 15 goals for club and country.

‘As a midfielder you have to have vision,’ he says. ‘If you see an opening that might create an opportunity, you have to believe in yourself and go for it; a 40-yard pass or an eye-of-the-needle ball. You have to feel you are going to make it. That’s the way I play. I have a picture in my mind and I go for it.’



Comfortable: Ramsey, wearing the Adidas adiZero F50 (left) felt he had the talent to make it as a rugby player if a football career didn't come off



Midfield maestro: But it is on the Emirates turf - and beyond - he has been impressing this season, even dwarfing the impact of £42.5m summer signing Mesut Ozil (left)

Playmaker: Ramsey posses the vision to pick out a pass, stamina to drive a midfield, plus toughness, both mental and physical...

Now that he has overcome those aforementioned injury problems, he has proved rather successful when going for it at Arsenal this season.

It has taken time, understandably, given the severity of the injury. He says two years. Arsene Wenger, Arsenal’s manager thinks it was probably nearer three. But a return to the peak of his powers after suffering a double fracture of his lower right leg — more specifically a broken tibia and fibula — was never going to happen overnight.

Only last week, legendary jump jockey AP McCoy was reflecting on the many injuries he has suffered falling off horses and nothing, he said, was more traumatic than breaking his ‘tib and fib’ at 18.

‘The worst pain I’ve ever experienced,’ said McCoy.

Ramsey was 19 when a tackle by Stoke’s Ryan Shawcross left him in agony in February 2010, and McCoy would be the first to appreciate how gruelling a journey the young footballer has been on since.

Agony: A horror tackle from Stoke's Ryan Shawcross at the Britannia Stadium in 2010 left the youngster with a broken leg

Long road back: He was out for several months, and has only just returned to form after a difficult mental process

Back to his best: A combination of a sports psychologist and most importantly, time, helped him through it

‘The mental side was the biggest factor,’ says Ramsey. ‘It might take just a few games to get back into it physically but mentally it takes a lot longer to overcome what I went through.

‘It definitely took a couple of years; to go into tackles full-hearted. Things go through your mind on the pitch.

The mental side was the biggest factor. I feel I've achieved something, coming back the way I have.

‘When you go into a tackle you wouldn’t go in 100 per cent, and it affects your whole game. It certainly affected my game.’

He says he simply needed time, and the assistance of a sports psychologist. ‘It was definitely a combination of the two,’ he says, ‘but time was a big factor... and knowing that my leg was fine; of going into the tackle and coming out of it. I wasn’t afraid of the pain.

‘I guess my concern was suffering another setback. I feel I’ve achieved something, coming back the way I have.

‘As soon as I overcame the mental barrier and rediscovered my confidence, I was fine.’ His physical attributes would have helped him too, of course. When Wenger signed him from Cardiff City in 2008 he spoke of Ramsey’s tremendous athletic prowess; a combination of impressive physical strength and an engine that enables him to run huge distances on a football pitch.

Multi-talented: Ramsey has turned into a goalscorer, and tops the charts from midfield so far this season

Trophy hunt: The 22-year-old won the Premier League's player of the month for September, while Arsene Wenger won the manager's award

Early promise: The Frenchman signed Ramsey after some encouraging performances in a Cardiff shirt, including the FA Cup final (above)

It is a combination, beyond the goals, that has made him one of the finest players in the Barclays Premier League this season. It seems Ramsey is one of those annoyingly gifted sportsmen. He gives this interview after being measured for a new set of TaylorMade golf clubs down at Wentworth and, time after time, he strikes the ball beautifully on the range.

At school, in addition to his success on a pitch, he was also rather good at track and field. He was a Welsh schools’ champion at pentathlon — not horses and fencing but a mini-version of the decathlon — and in 2006 was ranked fourth in the UK at Under 17 level.

‘When I won the Welsh schools I went into the final event, the 800 metres, needing to beat the leader by quite a few seconds,’ he says. ‘But I did it fairly comfortably.’

That would certainly explain why Jack Wilshere recently told this newspaper how Ramsey covers more ground than any other Arsenal player. Though that did not stop a rampant Manchester City scoring six goals against Ramsey and his Arsenal colleagues at the Etihad last weekend.

Has it shaken their confidence? Perhaps. More crucially, might it affect Arsenal ahead of Monday’s encounter with Chelsea?

HE STOOD OUT...AT SIX: Gary Lewis, the man who first spotted Ramsey's talent

Gary Lewis (right) is the man who first spotted Aaron Ramsey’s talent:

‘I was working as a sports development officer for the Urdd Welsh language movement in Caerphilly when I first saw Aaron.

‘We used to run an hour-long skills session on a Monday at Caerphilly Leisure Centre. Aaron came along one evening.

‘You could see straight away that he stood out. He was just so busy. He was always on the ball, always calling for the ball.

‘At the end of the session I asked his mum, who was there with him, if he could come play with our Under 11 team but she said he was six!

‘Our Urdd team became a centre of excellence for Cardiff and we went to Brentford for an Under 9s tournament at their training ground.

‘There was QPR, Watford, Brentford and us — we went undefeated. Aaron was fundamental in that.

‘He was shy but a nice kid. He would express himself on the pitch. In the Cardiff junior teams we used to play big sides in friendlies, like Everton and he would stand out even against them.

‘At Cardiff I used to recommend players to a man called Gavin Tait. He used to have a saying: “Is he better than what we have got? If not I don’t want him”. With Aaron, I said: “He is a lot better”.’

RIATH AL-SAMARRAI

Gunner get you: Ramsey, dressed as Rambo on Arsenal's raucous Christmas party, insists the spirit hasn't taken a hit

Having dressed as Rambo at the Arsenal Christmas party the previous evening, it would appear not in Ramsey’s case.

‘I don’t think it has shaken us,’ he says. ‘To concede that many goals was disappointing for the team, especially when we’ve defended so well this season. We still created a lot of opportunities and we could have had six goals as well.

‘We’re also still top of the league, and therefore in a great position. We’ve dropped a few points in the past couple of games and we are still top, and that just shows what a good start we’ve had. Hopefully we’ll learn from this little blip and put it right as soon as possible.’

If one criticism is still being levelled at Arsenal, it is the apparent shortage of natural leaders in the team. Patrick Vieira, the former Arsenal captain, recently made such an observation in that marvellous ITV documentary with Roy Keane.

Vieira, every inch a leader in his own playing days, is not alone with his view but Ramsey disagrees.

Belief: Arsenal were thumped 6-3 by Manchester City last weekend, but still sit top of the table

Spirit: The Gunners showed their friendship on a Christmas party in the week

For the future: Ramsey disagreed with comments by Patrick Vieira, and said along with himself and Per Mertesacker, Jack Wilshere possesses leadership qualities

‘We have those kind of players,’ he says. ‘We are still a young team but we have some young players who are quite experienced. I feel like there are leaders in this team. (Per) Mertesacker, myself, Jack...

‘Everyone wants to win. The players are very passionate. They give their all in every game. That’s definitely an area where we have improved over the past couple of seasons.

‘Martin Keown told me the main difference this season is the fact that he can see more leaders on the pitch.

‘Teams will drop points at City this season, so we can’t get too down about that. And we play them at home later in the season so we need to make sure we beat them then.

‘I did an interview with Martin Keown not so long ago and he told me the main difference this season is the fact that he can see more leaders on the pitch. He obviously felt there was room for improvement there and he has noticed that. He can see the players are more demanding of each other on the pitch.’

I make the point that he and Wilshere are still very young — Ramsey is 23 on Boxing Day and his team-mate is 22 on January 1.

But Ramsey says he does see himself as a leader and we should perhaps recall that someone else once did, too.

Honour: Ramsey was made captain of Wales at just 20, after the late Gary Speed (below, right) trusted him

Back in March 2011, Gary Speed appointed Ramsey captain of Wales. It was quite a call, and not just because Ramsey was just 20 years and 90 days old. Speed made the decision in time for a European Championship qualifier against England. Like so many who had the pleasure of knowing him, Ramsey remembers the late Wales manager with great fondness.

‘It came about after Gary had a meeting with Craig Bellamy,’ says Ramsey. ‘Bellamy didn’t want the captaincy any more. He felt it was time for someone younger to try to take the team through to the World Cup in Brazil... a captain for the future, if you like.

‘So Gary asked Bellamy who he thought should be captain and he said me. Then Gary flipped over a piece of paper and on it he’d already written my name. So Gary then saw me and asked me if I wanted to be captain, if I was ready for that. He felt I would be the Welsh captain one day so why not do it now and start building towards Brazil?

‘It was a great moment because it showed the belief he had in me. That meant a lot. It was massive for my family, too, particularly with the first game against England.

‘Gary knew I wouldn’t be a shouter. I would try to lead by example, by the way I played, but that was what he wanted as the manager. I feel it definitely worked. After a couple of tough results we were moving in the right direction. We shot up the rankings playing some really good football.’

Big task: He even lead his country out for the crucial Euro qualifier against England at Cardiff

Fan favourite: The banner after his comeback from injury says it all about his status on the terraces

Speed’s death two years ago would change things, of course. Chris Coleman, called upon to replace Speed, would perhaps feel the captaincy had become too great a burden for a player of that age in those circumstances and he turned to Ashley Williams instead. But the experience has only helped Ramsey’s development.

‘I am young but I’ve experienced quite a lot,’ he says. ‘I was playing first-team football at Cardiff at 16.

‘I’ve had the injury. Other things have happened. It’s been similar for Jack, too. We’ve both matured as footballers because of it.’

‘The manager has always believed in me... I’m glad I’m now paying him back

Throughout they have also both enjoyed the constant support of Wenger, a manager Ramsey still appreciates for having gone to such efforts to lure him to Arsenal from Cardiff in the first place.

‘I had options,’ he says.

‘Manchester United was one. But Arsenal flew us (Ramsey and his family) to Switzerland privately, to Basle where he was doing commentary for the Euros. We went to his hotel room. He talked us through everything. And he said he wanted to take me straight into the first team.

‘I think United wanted to loan me back to Cardiff.

‘The manager has always believed in me. When I was injured he gave me a contract. That says it all, really, and I’m glad I’m now paying him back.’ With interest.

Wanted: Before signing for the Gunners, Ramsey was wanted by Manchester United amongst others

In it for the long haul: That was because of the faith from Arsene Wenger, and he has commited his long-term future at the Emirates now