Lambert Ricky is a footballer who, from his first year in sport, has shown everything he was capable of. It took him many years to reach the highest level, and only faith in himself and hard work helped him achieve his goal. He started in one of the lower leagues of England and for a long time did not even think about the fact that he would ever be able to put on a national team shirt or fight for the championship in the Premier League. But in the end, he used all the chances that fell to him to achieve an excellent result. Lambert Ricky deserved what he eventually got, and now he can calmly finish his career - maybe then he will become a coach, since such a spirit that cannot be broken is very necessary for many teams.
Carier start
Lambert Ricky was born in 1982 in the English city of Liverpool, and, of course, like almost all the people living in this city, he was a fan of the local club of the same name. Given the fact that he was fond of football, Ricky entered the club’s football academy at the age of ten in the hope that he would someday put on a Merseyside shirt. For five years he was in the structure of the club and played for various youth teams, until in 1998 Liverpool refused him as a hopeless one. As a result, the 16-year-old ended up in Blackpool, who saw great talent in Lambert. Already at the age of 17, he made his debut for an adult team, but he never spent there more than three matches. As a result, Lambert Ricky signed a professional contract not with Blackpool, but with the Maxlefield Town club.
Lower divisions
In 2000, Lambert signed a professional contract with Maxlesfield, which he immediately began to speak for. In one season, he became a full-fledged player in the main team, playing in forty games and scoring ten goals. The result was impressive, therefore, already in 2002, the twenty-year-old Englishman moved to a higher league in the Stockport club, where he stayed for a longer period of time. The club paid for it an impressive amount for that time and the division - 450 thousand euros, and Ricky completely worked out this amount. For three years, he played in 110 matches, scoring 19 goals. Of course, for the attacker this result is not very impressive, but the player coped with its tasks. In 2005, when “Stockport” rose to a higher level, Lambert was not so much needed by the club, so the contract with him was not renewed. The 23-year-old striker had to move to Rochdale, where he spent only one year, but showed an excellent result - he scored 28 goals in 68 matches, which attracted the attention of other clubs. It was then that Lambert Ricky, a footballer who so far only played at the lowest level, began to show that football, which in the future will allow him to rise much higher. “Bristol Rovers” paid three hundred thousand euros for him, and over the next three years he played 155 matches in the form of this club, scoring 59 goals. Thanks to his efforts, Bristol was able to rise to the Third Division and gain a foothold there. And in 2009, a fateful event happened that changed the player’s life.
The heyday at Southampton
In 2009, Lambert Ricky, whose sports career developed quietly and did not portend anything special. Southampton, who also played in the Third Division at the time, did not spare 1.2 million euros to buy the 27-year-old striker. And already in the first two years he showed what he was capable of - in 110 matches he scored 57 goals, became one of the main reasons why the club got into the Second Division. But there, “Southampton” did not stop - the next year the club got into the Premier League, and again Lambert made his contribution, scoring 31 goals in 48 matches. Naturally, in the Premier League it was not so easy to score, and Ricky scored only 29 goals in 77 matches, but this was enough to fulfill his dream. Lambert became interested in his childhood club, Liverpool, which in 2014 paid five and a half million euros for a 32-year-old striker.
Rest of career
At Liverpool, Lambert spent just one year, playing 36 matches and scoring three goals. But he did not console himself with the hope that he would become a star there. He just fulfilled his dream - and a year later quietly went to West Bromwich for 4 million euros. There he spent another season, which became his last in the Higher League - he played in 26 matches and scored only one goal. In 2016, for two million euros, 34-year-old Ricky left West Bromwich, moving to Cardiff City, for which he now stands. He has already entered the field in five matches, but so far has not scored a single goal.
Team appearances
Ricky Lambert is an astounding footballer who received a call to the England national team at only 31 years old. In August 2013, when he already shone in the Southampton Premier League, he first played for the national team in a friendly match against Scotland - and in the 23 minutes that were allotted to him, he managed to score a goal, snatching a victory for his team 3 : 2 already three minutes after entering the field. In the second match with Moldova, he scored a goal and gave two assists, after which he began to periodically fall into the application team and even in the starting lineup. The peak of his career was a trip to the 2014 World Cup, where he replaced the match against Uruguay. He spent the last match for the England national team in November 2014 - again against the Scottish national team, but this time he didn’t take any effective action. In total, Lambert played 11 matches, scoring 3 goals and giving 4 assists.