Wales’ Rees-Zammit joins NFL worldwide participant pathway

One in all rugby union’s brightest stars, Louis Rees-Zammit, has determined to go away the game and pursue a profession within the NFL, becoming a member of the league’s worldwide participant pathway, it was introduced on Tuesday.

The announcement got here simply minutes earlier than Wales introduced their squad for the forthcoming Six Nations, one which Rees-Zammit would normally be a key a part of. However moments earlier than Warren Gatland introduced his squad, Rees-Zammit introduced on his Instagram account that he was stepping again from the game to pursue his NFL dream.

Rees-Zammit, 22, is by far the largest rugby star to attempt to crack NFL through the pathway, and he’ll journey to Florida on the finish of the week to hitch this system.

“Gloucester Rugby has been an enormous a part of my life,” Rees-Zammit mentioned on Instagram. “From the beginning at Hartpury School and my first skilled rugby contract with Gloucester in 2020, to my Wales and Lions caps; the membership has been central to my improvement as a participant, and I am so grateful for his or her help.

“I’ll all the time be very happy with my time at Kingsholm and need to significantly thank the unbelievable followers who make the membership so particular. Additionally, to my teammates, to [coach] George Skivington and [CEO] Alex Brown, thanks for giving me such particular reminiscences and for supporting this subsequent stage of my profession.

“I’ve had the unbelievable honour of taking part in rugby for my nation which, as a proud Welshman, I’ve by no means taken without any consideration. Nonetheless, I consider that that is the precise time for me to grasp one other skilled aim of taking part in American soccer within the US. These alternatives do not come round fairly often.”

Rees-Zammit, who performed on the wing and at fullback, received 31 Check caps for Wales, scoring 14 tries, and in 2021 was a part of the British & Irish Lions’ tour of South Africa, the place he was the youngest to be chosen for that tour since 1959. He was some of the deadly wingers within the Gallagher Premiership with Gloucester, however along with his contract up on the finish of the season, he has completed his time there, with the membership agreeing to launch him early.

A number of different rugby gamers have tried to interrupt into the NFL. Christian Wade, Alex Grey and Christian Scotland-Williamson have all tried it. The NFL’s worldwide participant pathway started in 2017, with success tales akin to Philadelphia Eagles sort out Jordan Mailata (Australia) and Las Vegas Raiders fullback Jakob Johnson (Germany) carving out locations on NFL rosters.

The information will come as a blow for Gloucester, however they’ve given Rees-Zammit their blessing to attempt to obtain his dream of taking part in within the NFL.

“We perceive the scale of the chance earlier than Zam and his lifelong ambition to play within the NFL,” Gloucester CEO Brown mentioned. “While we’re naturally unhappy to see him go away, in the end, we’re not in a position to dissuade him from taking a possibility of this magnitude with the NFL.

“We stay very happy with the function Gloucester Rugby has performed in serving to to develop him into the world class participant he has turn out to be, and we want him the perfect within the US. He’ll all the time be welcome at Kingsholm.”