Sorba Thomas credits Craig Bellamy with rescuing his Wales career

Sorba Thomas has revealed how Craig Bellamy rescued his Wales career by recognising them as “very similar people” and gaining his trust.

Stoke winger Thomas went from playing at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to falling out of favour under previous Wales manager Rob Page and felt that his international career was over.

But Bellamy named Thomas in his first line-up against Turkey last September, and the 26-year-old has been one of Wales’ stand-out players over the past 12 months.

“It’s been crazy, I’ve proven a lot of people wrong,” Thomas said ahead of Wales’ World Cup qualifier in Kazakhstan on Thursday.

“The people who doubted me, I’d love to see all their faces now.

“It’s exciting when you have a manager who believes in you, who plays to your strengths, and was an ex-winger himself.

“You can learn from it as well. I watched him many times in the Premier League – and he said he saw a lot of him in myself, very misunderstood.

“I feel he’s got to know me very early, not just as a footballer but as an actual person, and I feel that’s helped me trust him.

“I think my performances have gained a lot of his trust, and there is no better feeling than when you have a manager who truly believes in you.”

Nantes 

Thomas was sitting on his sofa in Nantes last year, where he was on loan from Huddersfield at the time, when Bellamy called.

He said: ” It was just a shock. I had a pre-warning someone was going to call me and that I had to answer.

“When I got the call I weirdly thought I recognised the voice. Then he said who he was and I thought ‘wow’.

“A couple of weeks later I saw my name in the Welsh squad, and I just called everyone to tell them I was back.

“Everyone told me to think of it as a fresh start and anything that has happened before is done.

“He understands me as a person and he has said to me ‘we’re very similar people’ and that I just need to keep performing.”