If you hear laughing at West Ham United’s Rush Green training ground – when the players are not isolating at home due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak – Robert Snodgrass is never far away.
The Hammers’ Scottish midfielder may be 32, but he has lost none of his love for the game, and he still possesses the sense of humour that has made him hugely popular at every club he has represented.
Most often found bantering with captain Mark Noble and Aaron Cresswell, Snodgrass believes he could have been performing on stage as a comedian, rather than performing on a pitch as a footballer, had things turned out differently!
What would I have been if I were not a footballer? I think I probably would have gone into stand-up
Robert Snodgrass
“What would I have been if I were not a footballer? That’s a difficult one, I don’t know. I think I probably would have gone into stand-up,” the No11 told Sky Sports.
Thankfully for West Ham, for Scotland and for Livingston, Stirling Albion, Leeds United, Norwich City, Hull City and Aston Villa, Snodgrass opted for football over comedy.
The result has been a career spanning 17 years, 552 senior appearances, 109 senior goals, and 28 caps and seven goals for his country.
At present, those statistics are on hold as Snodgrass and tens of thousands of footballers across the world wait patiently for the pandemic to end and competitive sport to return.
When it does, West Ham will have nine games to secure Premier League safety under the management of his fellow Glaswegian David Moyes – a man Snodgrass respects for his honesty, and his accent!
“He speaks my language which is good, it’s always a bonus,” the midfielder smiled. “He came in and he’s been straight with the boys. He said: ‘Imagine you were the fan paying the money to go and watch. That’s the level of work that I want, and they need to be seeing it’.
“That’s exactly the way that we’ve been brought up.”
