The Wales forward has spent his career toiling up and down the divisions but is finally at his peak and defences at the World Cup best be prepared
Some 831 players have made it to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 but very few have had to fight for their place there quite like Kieffer Moore.
The Wales striker, who is set to lead the line against USA on Monday in the nation’s first World Cup match for 64 years, has played for no less than 12 clubs in a 10-year career, taking him from England’s non-league system, via Norway, all the way to the Premier League.
Moore’s journey contrasts with that of some of his Wales team-mates such as Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey but he is immensely proud of the route he has taken.
“I slowly made my way up, slowly made my way down and slowly made my way back up again,” said Moore, now in the Premier League with Bournemouth. “I spent a lot of time in non-league. My path has been very different to a lot of players. It has been a very special journey.”
Moore, who at 6 ft 5 is one of the tallest players at the World Cup, began his career in 2012 with semi-professional Truro City in the sixth level of English football. Despite being only 20 in a physically demanding and unforgiving league, he scored 13 goals in 22 games.
“He was a specimen. He was ripped, he worked in a gym at the time and he was in unbelievable shape,” former Truro team-mate Stewart Yetton told FIFA+. “It’s easy to get bullied at that level but he was physically dominating at that age. It’s quite easy for some talented youngsters to believe their own hype but he wasn’t like that, he was very grounded.
“He was someone who would get his head down, listen and work hard. You could see that was ingrained in him. You need a bit of luck in football but I’m not surprised by where he is now, he had something a little bit different.”
Moore’s performances for Truro and then Dorchester Town led to him climbing four divisions up the football pyramid to sign for Yeovil Town in the Championship in 2013 but he departed in 2015. He went to try his luck with Viking in the Norwegian top flight but his season abroad was a disappointment and soon he was back in non-professional football.
“Before that point of returning, I was thinking, ‘I don’t really know where I go from here.’ I knew I had to go to a team where I had to shine. For me, personally, going away and not experiencing great times and being away from my family, it re-lit the fire in my belly that I wanted to get everything out of football,” Moore told Wales Online. (Fifa.com)
