“Bristol was okay, but I didn’t really go out there
much. Every chance I got, I went back to Liverpool
and I think that reflects on my time there. It was a
place where I worked and had to be in training, but
when I had the chance, I’d get away. I wasn’t really
enjoying my football there or anything, and I think
that reflects on your life.
“The truth is, the playing side wasn’t great but also I
really missed living in Swansea. That was always on
my mind because it’s a lovely place to live. I enjoyed
my best years here, not just with football, but with
life as well. I love the area, I love the people and
that was something that I missed.
“A few of the lads I know play golf, but I don’t really
have any hobbies or anything like that. The football
is the main thing I enjoy. That’s why at Bristol I
wasn’t happy. I just wasn’t enjoying my football and
that affects your life and you’re feeling down every
day.”
To go from being one of Swansea’s key players to
keeping the bench warm in Bristol was tough to
take for a man who thrives on crowd interaction.
But in Lee’s characteristically upbeat manner, he
looks back positively on an experience that could
have seen some quitting the game.
“Things like that happen in football and I’ve just put
it down to experience,” he says. “There are lots of
times where players go places and it doesn’t work
for them. It doesn’t mean they’re a bad player. I
still believe in my own ability, and I believe that
Swansea is the place I can bring it out again.”
A new maturity
But it’s not just Lee’s more mature attitude to
football that separates him from the player who left
Swansea in 2007. It seems he is also set on ridding
himself of his reputation as a bit of a party animal.
Like many footballers, Lee admits the girls were
throwing themselves at him here. But now in a
serious relationship, Lee says he’s glad that lifestyle
Priorities And resPonsibilities
is in the past. “When you’re a single lad you want to
enjoy yourself, but there will be a stop to that now,
While Lee Trundle’s fan base in Swansea is has had a kid and split up from the partner
definitely,” he says.
again growing by the day, his biggest fan is a will know it’s hard to live away, even though
nine-year-old who lives hundreds of miles from I speak to my daughter every night on the
It’s stopping because Lee met girlfriend Charlotte,
the Liberty Stadium. phone.
a model and business owner, while living in Bristol.
They have been dating for a year and it seems she
His daughter Brooke, who lives in Liverpool, “Obviously, when I see her I spoil her that little
could be responsible for the more mature, focused
regularly visits Lee and has taken up football bit more because I don’t see her as much.
Lee Swansea is welcoming back.
as a hobby. She enjoys spending time with me and coming
down, so I’d say I was a good dad.
“Instead of going on a night out with the lads, it’ll
“She’s signed for Liverpool girls this season,
be a nice meal with my girlfriend, a couple of drinks
so she plays for the under-10s. She’s been “We go bowling, to the pictures, she likes to do
and then off home. I’ve settled down a lot more
interested in football seeing me play over the things like that. Or maybe the museum. Or she
now,” he says.
years and now she’s got into it herself,” Lee might get her kit on and we’ll go to the park
says. and have a kick around.
“As a footballer, it’s great to go out less and she’s
the same as me. She doesn’t want to go out
“She’s just doing it for fun and it’s something “But being a dad is hard because she’s in
drinking every weekend — she prefers to have a
she enjoys. But they run it as a professional Liverpool and I don’t get to see her as much
quiet night in or go for a meal. So she’s helped me
club. The kids have to get their body fat tested, as I’d like. In summer holidays she was down
in that sense.
they get weighed and have to watch their diet. in Bristol, and when I wasn’t playing football
we all went on holiday together — me, my
“When you’re in a relationship, you’re a lot different
“So even on that side of it, even if she’s just
girlfriend, her niece and my daughter.
from when you’re single. If you’re on your own, you
enjoying it as a hobby, it’s helping on the
don’t want to be sitting in the house. So you tend
healthy eating side. So there are other things “My mum brings her down when she gets the
to find yourself out more — no-one wants to be in
she can take out of it.” chance. The idea of having more children is
alone. But this lifestyle suits me and I’m happy with
something that I’d like to look at in the future.
the way my life’s going.”
While few Swans fans might be aware of Lee’s
I’d wait until I was married next time though.”
role as a parent, it is clear that it’s something
So while his playing career took a turn for the worse
he takes very seriously. It’s no wonder he So it seems the player who entertains
during his time in Bristol, it seems his personal life
seems such a natural with the countless young thousands on the pitch is rather more serious
benefitted.
fans who approach him every time he leaves behind closed doors. Not only is he taking
the house. fatherhood seriously, it is clear he has
“I’d say probably if it wasn’t for my girlfriend being
never been more focused in reaching his
in Bristol, I would have gone mad ages ago,”
“I enjoy being a dad,” he says. “Anyone who
potential professionally.
says Lee. “That was one thing that kept me going
28 swansealife October 2009
LeeTrundle2.indd 28 21/09/2009 18:18:25
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