Ex-Sunderland attacker reveals Australia offers but doesn't want return to football after non-league stint

Ex-Sunderland youth team player Rees Greenwood has revealed offers to play in Australia but maintains he has little desire to return to football.

The 28-year-old former winger joined Sunderland aged just eight but now looks to have hung up his boots. Greenwood, a two-time England youth international, last played during a stint with non-league club Ryton back in 2022.

“Nah, I don’t think I would,” Greenwood responded when asked if he sees himself making a return to football at any level in the future. “I get people all the time asking me to come and play here and there. I think I would maybe go back abroad but it would have to be fairly close to home. I’ve had offers from Australia but that’s too far away for me.

“The last time I played was for Ryton but that was only for my mate’s dad. We used to play for Ryton when we were kids, really young kids. I only went in because he was really desperate for me to come in and play for six games but I haven’t enjoyed football and I don’t play anymore. I haven’t got the love for it anymore.

“Once I left Sunderland, I went into Gateshead. Even for the last six months at Sunderland, I wasn’t enjoying it. I was waking up to go to training and I was thinking, ‘I can’t be bothered here.’ I don’t know what it was but I just completely lost the love for it. I went to Gateshead and it was a different world to Sunderland. The travelling ages on busses and getting back at four in the morning, I wasn’t enjoying it.”

One thing Greenwood does retain a passion for is coaching the next generation of young footballers in the North East. The Whinlaton-born former player has linked up with a previous teammate at the club, Carl Lawson, with the duo now teaching budding starlets locally.

“I spoke to him about a month ago when he put up some flyers about getting another coach in so I thought I would give him a little ring,” Greenwood said of his link-up with Lawson. “Within 45 minutes, he said, ‘Come and join me, I think we can do well together with both of our knowledge’. That was it really, just the one phone call and it was sorted. Now we speak every day, I reckon he’s sick of me now! He rings me every day, I reckon I speak to him more than I speak to my own missus.

“It is something that I have been thinking about doing for a while but never got around to it. With Carl already having his own business, with me going in there I’m getting a head start. Carl is helping me out a massive amount and obviously, I can learn off him. The more I get into it, the more ideas I can bring to him and we can bounce off each other. I’m excited to see where it goes.”