He’s the footballer whose skills went viral in an era before social media was even a thing.
He’s the player who the term ‘showboating’ could have been invented for.
And he’s the striker still revered by fans of both Swansea and Wrexham, the two Welsh clubs with celebrity owners who this Friday go head-to-head for the first time in the second tier since the early 1980s.
“It’s great when people from different clubs come up to say how they loved the way I played,” says Lee Trundle, whose wide array of outrageous skills and stellar goals gave him a profile in the 2000s more befitting a top Premier League star, rather than someone who only turned professional at the age of 24 and never played at the highest level.
“For me, that’s brilliant. I didn’t get to the Premier League, but I’m proud to have made my mark.”
He certainly did that. After having his skills first showcased to a wider audience by Sky Sports’ iconic Saturday morning show Soccer AM, Trundle quickly became a byword for flamboyant trickery despite playing in League Two for Swansea at the time.
Viewers would lap up clips of his latest goals or freestyle skills, such as the ‘shoulder roll’ at the old Vetch Field that so incensed opponents Huddersfield Town that two players were sent off for hacking down the Liverpudlian.
Trundle was part of the Swansea side that won the 2006 Football League Trophy (John Walton/Getty Images)
“The thing that helped me was (Soccer AM presenter) Tim Lovejoy’s wife at the time was from Swansea,” adds the 49-year-old, still playing for Pure Swansea in the Ardal Southern League (South West).
“Her family would be at the game and saying to Tim, ‘You should see what this lad is doing for Swansea’. Once Soccer AM got hold of it and saw the tricks I was doing, they started to watch out for it.
“That took things to a whole new level. Beforehand, it would have just been Wrexham and Swansea fans who knew about me.”
Trundle’s skills, usually shown in a segment of the show called ‘Showboat’, became such a regular staple of Soccer AM that the production team eventually got in touch to ask for his help.
Could he message after each Swansea game and give a rough time for each of the skills he’d pulled off? That way, they said, it would save one member of the production team having to sit through the entire 90 minutes to unearth any gold.
“It sounds crazy today,” adds Trundle. “If someone does something on a Saturday afternoon now, five minutes later, it is all over social media. It’s just out there. Whereas before Soccer AM, I’d do things in games, even at Swansea, that have never been seen.
“Same with Wrexham, who gave me my Football League debut. I played the same for them as I did Swansea. It’s how I’ve always played, wanting to put a smile on people’s faces.
“I didn’t learn any new tricks after leaving Wrexham, but what I did there just wasn’t caught on camera. The TV just focused on goals back then. You’d have to search for the clips. That only changed with Soccer AM.”
Trundle celebrates scoring for Wrexham at Northampton in 2002 (Barrington Coombs/Getty Images)
“It was part of the Saturday-morning ritual. Whether playing grassroots, amateur, or you were a pro, everyone settled down to watch the show and then went to the match in the afternoon.
“The only difference, as a pro player, is you’d be away watching Soccer AM in the hotel. For me, it was exactly what football should be. They wanted to have a bit of fun, do things differently with the sketches and have a laugh.
“Don’t forget I’m in League Two when all this started. ‘Showboat’ would have me, then Ronaldinho and a few others. They’d be doing their tricks and I’d be doing mine. Brilliant.”
Trundle may be so synonymous with Swansea these days that the club ambassador even has a hospitality lounge named ‘LT10’ in his honour, but Friday’s visitors to the Swansea.com Stadium are where it all really began for the striker.
Spotted by Wrexham manager Brian Flynn playing for Rhyl in the Welsh League, he moved to The Racecourse Ground in February 2001. Trundle was 24 and the first to admit a lack of professionalism had held him back.
There’d been interest before Wrexham finally offered a route to the Football League, including David Moyes when in charge at Preston North End, but a refusal to take life too seriously meant these opportunities would quickly pass by.
Things only changed after his then partner fell pregnant with daughter Brooke. Trundle was playing for Rhyl, his sixth non-League club after previous spells with Burscough, Chorley, Stalybridge Celtic, Southport, and Bamber Bridge.
“It was the first time I knuckled down and started training,” he says. “Started taking things seriously. That’s the reason I was 24 when I turned professional. Never about ability, as I’d always been the same player. It was attitude and how I applied myself.
“I went from the League of Wales to League One, but scored seven goals in my first four games. I settled so quickly.”
An overhead kick on his full debut sparked a Wrexham comeback from two goals down at Walsall; his part in that 3-2 victory was a great way to announce himself.
A REMINDER:
Lee Trundle (@LeeTrundle10) scored this brilliant overhead kick as Wrexham fought back to beat Walsall 3-2 in 2001 🙌⚽️ pic.twitter.com/lCHpsCmC1E
— Football Remind ⚽️ (@FootballRemind) February 2, 2021
By the end of those first few months, Trundle had nine goals from 16 starts. Another 11 goals followed in the 2001-02 season that saw Wrexham relegated from League One, but Trundle and his team-mates bounced straight back in style 12 months later.
His partnership with Andy Morrell, now part of the club’s live match coverage as an expert summariser alongside commentator Mark Griffiths and former player Mia Roberts, was deadly in what proved to be the pair’s final season in north Wales.
“We worked really well together,” adds Trundle, who netted 11 times as his partner bagged a staggering 34 goals. “Andy loved to play on the defender’s shoulders and had the legs to get in behind, whereas I’d drop into what people call a No 10 role.
“Assist-wise, I got loads. I also won nine or 10 penalties as well.”
This, of course, was a very different Wrexham from today, with money tight despite bouncing straight back into League One under Denis Smith.
Trundle adds: “We both ended up leaving on free transfers after winning promotion. If you’ve just gone up to the league above, how do you let the two strikers who scored nearly 50 goals between them leave?
“It goes to show where the club was at that time. Wrexham just had no money.”
As Morrell headed to Coventry City and then Blackpool, Trundle dropped back to League Two after Flynn, fresh from keeping Swansea in the league on a dramatic final day of the 2002-03 season, came calling.
A debut goal against Bury was followed by a hat-trick at Cheltenham Town a week later. He would go on to score 78 goals in 146 appearances before moving to Bristol City for £1million in 2007, two years after helping Swansea to promotion from League Two.
Many of those goals inevitably found their way onto Soccer AM, including his own personal favourite: a stunning volley against Carlisle United in the 2006 LDV Vans Trophy final triumph at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium.
“It was a cup final,” explains Trundle, who returned to Swansea for a second spell on loan in 2009. “That adds a lot.”
We ask if any other goals come close. “There was a hat-trick for Wrexham against Oxford in only my third game,” he replies. “I scored with a chip from about 30 yards and then another with the outside of my foot.”
Lee Trundle with one of the best Wrexham hat-tricks you’ll ever see.
Made even better by the United vs Panathinaikos team news at the bottom, with Paul Rachubka in for Raimond van der Gouw #mufc pic.twitter.com/ZyKp4aeiYm
— Rich Fay (@RichFay) April 13, 2020
“There was also one for Bristol City in the (2008) play-off semi-final against Crystal Palace. Luckily enough, there are a few contenders in there among my goals catalogue and I’m fond of them all.
“But I’d say probably the Carlisle one, though I did score a chest-and-volley in the first night game (at the Liberty) against Yeovil.”
Mention of a stadium that started life as the Liberty in 2005 before switching sponsors 16 years later brings us neatly on to Wrexham’s maiden visit this coming Friday.
Phil Parkinson’s side head south as Wales’ highest-placed EFL team, with Swansea five points and five places lower in the table and Cardiff City in League One. Newport County are propping up the basement division.
“I’ve always followed Wrexham’s results,” says Trundle, who tasted victory for both teams in this north-south clash during his own playing career. “Ever since I left all those years ago.
“I look at Wrexham’s owners and how they’ve delivered everything they said they would. That’s all a fan wants. Someone who cares about their football club. It’s the same at Swansea now with Luka Modric coming in. And Snoop Dogg. Who could have predicted that?”
As for Friday night’s all-Wales clash, Trundle is “expecting a really good game” between his old clubs. Whether that includes the sort of skills that could drive the opposition to distraction — and, in Huddersfield’s case, after the infamous ‘shoulder roll’ in September 2003, red cards for Ian Hughes and Paul Scott — remains to be seen.
The cause of such Yorkshire ire chuckles at the memory. “One got sent off for flying into me and the other kicked me in the back after his mate had tripped me,” adds Trundle, who backed up his skills that afternoon with a goal and an assist in a 2-0 win.
“They thought I was taking the mickey. But it was never like that. Never intended to be a slight on your opponent. That’s just how I played football. I was enjoying myself, having a great game.
“So, when the ball came out of the sky, I thought, ‘Why not roll it around my shoulders?’. Not about disrespect. But me expressing myself and the fans enjoyed it, which is what football should be all about.”