After months of trying to track him down for an consultation, Rungratsamee is opening up about his report for the beginning time.
ad 10 The former Pompey candidate was tipped by scouts behind the Championship Manager serial to become a king, capable of breaking records but here we are, reminiscing about his glory days at young person level and the barbarous circumstances that followed.
As a adolescent, the name Rungratsamee was plastered across internet message boards, accompanied by tales of how he helped third base division teams to european glory. In fact, such was his popularity at the time, person decided to graffiti his name across a storage whole in a local play field. The popular striker was a family name in the residential district. A pacey striker with 20 finish and Filippo Inzaghi-like intelligence, he soon ripped up the virtual world of football but in real life, he would disappear without a trace. What happened ?
In years gone by, many have questioned his whereabouts. Some still believe he is n’t a real person ; a datum error by those who created Championship Manager. That plainly is n’t true. now aged 29, Rungratsamee distillery lives in the UK and he has a floor to tell. mention 10
Has to be Supat Rungratsamee!! Absolute goal machine for @Pompey on championship manager! @Pompey was he even a real person?? pic.twitter.com/ww8ivQY8oI
– Jamie Loftus (@9jloftus) July 19, 2019
Born in Suphan Buri, a town stopping point to Thailand ‘s capital city Bangkok, Rungratsamee became obsessed with football. Doy, a nickname he picked up as a child, played barefoot on annoy pitches near his home and was often seen running rings around older children. At the historic period of 10, his family decided to move to the UK, which gave him the prospect to showcase his ability to a wide-eyed audience. In the quad of a few months, a drive Supat was given the nickname RoboCop by his teammates [ and their parents ] because of his incredible might, endurance and dedication. From an early old age, he would wake up early each dawn before educate so he could lift weights and do press-ups. mention 10 “ The parents used to watch me getting tackled but I just would n’t go down and carry on, ” he tells SPORTbible. “ I gave it 100 % effort when I played football. I used to train for two or three hours a day. When I finished school, I would run base to improve my fitness. ” Supat ‘s chief school in Paulsgrove soon took note of his alone talents and would put him ahead for the Portsmouth schoolboy trials. It was hera where Neil Hider, a half-time coach at Portsmouth U11 ‘s, spotted Runratsamee in action. “ Doy was around 10 when he attended his first base trial, ” Hider tells us. “ cipher had ever seen him ahead but he scored six or seven goals in the trials and ripped the centre-halves to pieces with his pure pace and might. You could n’t hurt him. “ He ragged one of the best portsmouth players to pieces that day. He was a powerhouse and would run through the middle and knock people over. It was bizarre. It was like watching a little serviceman fun. People used to barely bounce off him. He scored some surly goals but kids were trailing off his back about. ” attend 10
Rungratsamee has kept this news clipping from his days at Portsmouth. Doy impressed on his initial schoolboy test and Hider put in a full news to Portsmouth ‘s head of youth development, Dave Hurst, who had already heard about the highly-rated kid scoring goals for fun. “ He asked me about Doy and I told him they had to sign him before person else does, ” Hider says. He was immediately strutting his material for Portsmouth and it did n’t take him long to make an impression. “ When we first base had Supat in, coaches at the time were raving about him, ” Hurst tells us. “ They were saying what a great player he was and what a great player he was going to be. ” Rungratsamee was scoring on a weekly footing against some of the most highly-rated youngsters in the nation. In fact, he would bag around 30 goals in his first gear season for Portsmouth. Locals would read about his heroics with intrigue. “ I was in the local anesthetic newspaper closely every week, ” he recalls. Advert
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10 But in the unfold stages of his career, some eyebrows were raised about his age. In a clash against Brentford, the opposition director questioned whether the Thai wonderkid should be sharing a pitch with significantly smaller opponents. “ We were about 4-0 up and I think Doy got three or four or them, ” Hider remembers. “ Their director came about and had a right go for playing him. He was saying he ‘s excessively old and all these unlike things. He was barely excessively knock-down for them. “ A batch of people questioned his age, ” added his former coach. “ When we did those weights, he used to smash them at 11-years-old. The other kids were still lightweight and skinny but he was different. He arrived on the scenery with an absolute bang. People did n’t know what had hit them when this short cub was amongst them. ” One of the defenders who experienced Rungratsamee ‘s physical bearing at youth level was Brighton & Hove Albion captain Lewis Dunk. “ He played against Dunk and would give him major problems, ” Hider recalls. “ He would give anybody a run for their money. ”
Brighton captain Lewis Dunk struggled to deal with Supat Rungratsamee at youth level. Image credit: PA In the coming years, as those around him started to get bigger and stronger, Supat would struggle to adapt. “ If you played him at any flush, he ‘d have knocked people out the room but as they got older, he did become less effective, ” Hider says. “ The oppositions positional play improved a well, which would have cut him out. ” At this time, questions were once again being raised about his historic period. Portsmouth ‘s head of young person development David Hurst had a find that Rungratsamee was playing in the wrong old age group during his spell at the clubhouse. “ As fourth dimension elapsed, you got the feel it was more strength than ability and I constantly thought he was older than what he was saying. But I never got proof of that, ” he says. “ When you first saw him, you thought he was going to be a king. But then your cognition of football comes into shimmer and you think, hang on a second, this is more because of force than ability. Because he was stronger than the other kids. I had a feeling that his age was n’t as it was. It ‘s one of those situations you do n’t want to be in. “ He may have been 16 or 17 but the age group he was involved in was much younger than that. As I say, I never got any proof. ” Despite questions being raised on the pitch, those behind the scenes at Championship Manager were clearly convinced by his bleak talent. In the beloved 03/04 version of the plot, a 15-year-old Rungratsamee would become one of the populace ‘s best players after several seasons.
“ Yeah, I ‘ve heard of the game, ” Supat laughs. “ My ally used to play it and they used to show me my stats. They used to say I was a good hitter but I ‘ve never actually played the game. I never signed myself. But it ‘s nice to hear that I was well received. ”
To this day, he however receives supporter requests on social media from people around the worldly concern. “ I do n’t know how to reply by rights though, ” he adds. “ I do n’t play football anymore. I ‘m not into it. It ‘s the past. I do n’t normally speak about it. ” Rungratsamee was at Portsmouth for several years before circumstances beyond his control would play out, meaning he could n’t make it to training anymore. He left the club aged 16. “ The thing is, there were quite a few problems at that time, ” Supat explains. “ My parents were n’t able to take me to train anymore because they separated, so I could n’t turn up to prepare or matches, and I left. “ I besides had injury problems. I picked up a serious knee injury when person went in hard. I heard it snap and there was cartilage damage. That was awed and my knee could n’t handle it subsequently. I tried to see the physio but it took a long clock time in the queue and I did n’t end up getting an process. ” It was a barbarous blow to his once-promising career in football but Rungratsamee still loved the game so, after his sudden deviation from Portsmouth, he moved back to Thailand to play for BG Pathum United, who played in the foremost class of Thai football. He trained for six months in their youth team and played two matches but ultimately, the adolescent could n’t carry on because of recurring stifle problems “ It was shaking when I ran excessively a lot, ” Supat says before sighing. “ I was never at 100 % again. ” Rungratsamee hopped on a flight back to the UK when he was 18. “ I went square into work at a Thai restaurant in Portsmouth, ” he says. “ I was besides playing for a local team while working for one season. I was still enjoying football but I was hush frustrated because my knee was still hurting. ” After trying to play through the pain barrier, Supat decided to avoid any far damage and retire from football when he was good 19. now, he is working in the provide clientele as a sou chef in Bishop ‘s Stratford. “ cipher knows where I ‘ve been or what I do because I have n’t been in touch with anyone, ” he says. “ I have decidedly missed football. I inactive want to play for fun but I do n’t know anyone in the area indeed I ca n’t. I ‘d love to go and play football again but I ‘m besides getting old nowadays. I have n’t got a draw of release clock time either. I work a bunch in the kitchens. It can sometimes be six days a workweek. ” Supat ‘s erstwhile coaches have all but good things to say about the early striker. “ He was such a dainty person. He was so civil and becoming. Everyone liked him, ” Hider remembers while Hurst agrees. “ He was such a decent cub. He was very civil. ”
And one thing is for certain, the Thai born ahead loved his time at Pompey. “ I truly enjoyed my prison term at the cabaret, ” he says. “ The club were still playing in Europe at the prison term. I met Peter Crouch, David James and Lomana Lua-Lua. It was big. ” The question remains. What could have been without that knee trouble ? Does he think he could have lived up to expectations and score goals at the very highest tied ? “ I think I could have made it to division one or two without the injury. ” now that would have been a real fairytale narrative .