Ramsey Dismisses Retirement Rumour, Eyes 2026 World Cup

Wales captain Aaron Ramsey, 33, says he never considered retiring from international football after the disappointment of missing out on Euro 2024. Instead, he’s focused on continuing his career through to the 2026 World Cup.

Ramsey was an unused substitute during Wales’ Euro play-off final loss to Poland in March, leading to criticism of then-manager Rob Page for not bringing him on. The Cardiff City midfielder admits the experience “eaten away” at him, but with Craig Bellamy now at the helm as Wales’ new boss, Ramsey is excited about the team’s future.

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“It never entered my mind about stopping. If anything, it excites me what this team are capable of,” said Ramsey.

“It was difficult for me not to get on and hopefully try to help the team to qualify. That was the thing that was eating away at me and I felt like there was some unfinished business there.

“That is definitely an aim of mine, to help this team qualify for the next World Cup. The potential in this team, the age, it’s all positive and puts us in a great position to do that.”

Bellamy’s first match as Wales head coach will be a home game against Turkey in the Nations League on Friday.

When announcing his squad for the Turkey match and the away fixture in Montenegro three days later, Bellamy confirmed that Ramsey would retain the captaincy.

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Bellamy expressed confidence in Ramsey’s potential, noting that there’s still “a lot” to come from his former Wales and Cardiff teammate, despite the injury setbacks that have plagued Ramsey’s career.

Ramsey and the rest of the Wales squad began training under Bellamy for the first time this week, and there is a strong, positive sentiment among the players about the new head coach’s meticulous approach and shift towards a more progressive, attacking style of play.

“I think the way that he’s come in and handled himself has been so impressive,” said Ramsey.

“There’s been a lot of information given in the first few days but the boys have done really well to absorb as much as they can so far.

“It’s definitely going to be a process in these next six games before the World Cup qualifiers start [in March]. It’s really aggressive, high-intensity without the ball, the non-negotiable stuff. The way he sees the game is new to a lot of us – only Connor [Roberts, who worked with Bellamy at Burnley] has experienced that before.

“We’re all pretty impressed and hopefully we can implement the things we’ve been working on in these first few games.”

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