Ricardo Rees – Cult Hero by Louis
It’s June 2022, I’m standing in Singleton Park waiting for Gerry Cinnamon to come on stage. It’s the day before Wales take on Ukraine in the World Cup Play-Off final in Cardiff so you already know that this weekend has got the potential to be generational. Singleton Park is heaving and there’s a good few of my fellow Merthyr Town fans in the crowd too – I’m even wearing my retro Merthyr shirt for the occasion since football shirts at music events has become the in-thing!
My phone goes off, it’s Twitter (this is pre-Musk takeover), it’s pre-season and the Martyrs have announced another new signing..
“New club. New colours. New Beginnings. Merthyr Town Football Club are pleased to announce the signing of Ricardo Rees from Yate Town. Welcome, Ricardo.”
It’s another signing from Yate, it’s a forward and it’s another signing from our new gaffer Paul Michael’s old team oh and he’s from Newport.. but most importantly WHAT A NAME THAT IS BY THE WAY!
Within seconds, Pingu, one of my good mates from Merthyr replies to the tweet with a chant he’s made up “Ricardo woaaah, Ricardo woaah, he came to Merthyr Town, to score the goals for fun!” – needless to say, this one didn’t really take off but with a name like that, you knew we were going to have some fun on the terraces.
The season starts and Ric’s becomes a key figure in the Merthyr Town team, scoring his first goal in a defeat at home to Bracknell, cutting in from the left like a prime Thierry Henry before stepping up to score a late penalty in front of a packed Tuesday night crowd at Penydarren Park as we defeat Tiverton.
The goals keep coming for the Newport Neymar as the Martyrs move their way up the table and into the 1st round of the FA Cup – a feat that’s not been achieved since 2005.
We end up losing to Buxton who go on to face Ipswich Town in the next round – made worse by the fact our keeper Will Fuller was born and raised in Ipswich.
At this point, Ric is well in amongst the goals and the fans adore him so much so that when Boxing Day comes along and we’re set to face Yate Town away, it’s dubbed as “Ricardo Day” – oh and it’s fancy dress!
Due to Ricardo’s name being chanted to the tune of “Tequila” by The Champs, we’ve decided to dress as Mexicans – I’m not sure Ric has any connection to Mexico but it goes down a storm much like the bottle of Tequila which is shared around the away end. In awe of the away following, Ric decides to don one of our sombreros and jumps on the supporters’ bus, leading the chants as we drop him back home to Newport. Cult Hero status cemented.
He ends the season with 21 goals and 15 assists with most of the goals being set up by the Aberdare Aimar, Frazer Thomas as they strike up a golden partnership on the pitch as well as off it as they spend their Saturday nights in The Kirkhouse Nightclub aka Koolers – another icon of Merthyr Tydfil. One of the boys, James said “I saw him in Koolers one night after a game and it felt like I’d met Jesus”.
As the season ends, in the club after the game Ric and Frazer (on the wind-up) say to us “we’ve got some bad news boys, we’re not coming back next season, we might sign for Barry or Ponty!”
They were joking of course, but a few years ago that seemed to be the norm and if it wasn’t one of those pair, it most definitely would’ve been Penybont!
The 2023/24 season starts and Ricardo’s back – to celebrate our new cult-hero, with a little help from the more creative lads of the “Dial M for Merthyr” group, we end up designing a “Ricardo” t-shirt in the style of the “Nintendo” logo.
The Martyrs start the season on fire, winning their first 6 games to top the Southern League – the fans are in ecstasy. None more so than our very own, Pingu who drunkenly confesses his love of Ricardo to Rob Phillips after we call Radio Wales after another win - “we love Ricardo, oh my god, if we could afford to pay him £70million, we’d all be working flat out for him. Because Ricardo, a handsome man, he’s a very handsome man but my god what a player he is, he’s a club legend up here. If I could afford to make a statue for him, it’d be outside Penydarren Park now!” – this immediately after comparing Merthyr Town to E.T. when he’s “dead in that river”.
Later on that season, Ricardo joined our “Dial M for Merthyr” Podcast alongside Fraze to talk about their careers as youngsters at Bristol City and Cardiff City respectively, namedropping Antoine Semenyo as the best player he’s played with as the pair spoke of their love for the club and the fans. One thing about that episode that really stuck out was Ric’s confidence – not just in his self but also in his team-mates – whilst some fans can be pessimistic, Ricardo’s belief was that we can beat anyone and we should be winning the league.
Ricardo’s second season becomes even more fruitful than the first – topping the Southern League scoring charts despite the Martyrs missing out on the play-offs on the penultimate game of the season. Ricardo ends up netting 5 goals on the last game to secure the golden boot. He’s also got a few more chants with a few ABBA bangers being introduced to the terraces.
The season ends and you can’t help think that it’s going to be tricky for Merthyr to keep hold of their star man but to our delight, Ric announces he’s staying for a third season – calling it “unfinished business”.
He starts the season on fire, scoring 19 goals in 12 games as the Martyrs surge to the top of the league with AFC Totton just behind them in a real “tale of two clubs” scenario due to the contrasts between the clubs.
The March away fixture to Totton is the biggest of the season, with the Martyrs taking around 500 fans to the South coast – the game is tight but Ricardo opens the scoring with an absolute screamer which will go down as one of the most iconic goals in Merthyr Town FC history. The game ends 1-1 but proves to be one of the deciding factors as the season progresses. The Martyrs go on to win the league with almost two games to spare – partly due to superior goal difference over their rivals as they beat Sholing 3-0 away on one of the best days of my life and there was only one place fans and players were going to end up after that – Koolers!
Following an Easter Monday victory at home to Hungerford which officially sealed the league in front of a packed Penydarren Park, we got to see a pitch invasion as fans mobbed the players in celebration.
The season ends, Merthyr are Champions but you get the feeling Ricardo Rees’ business is officially finished.. or is it?
Resigned to losing the Newport Neymar, the summer drags on but just before the season starts, a video is posted by the Martyrs.. Ric’s staying!
He takes to the National League North like a duck to water, quickly becoming the top scorer in the division – if we thought it was hard to keep him before, we knew it was going to be a lot harder now but he’s still got time to make another appearance on the podcast and gives us the details of his very peculiar email address which I will not be commenting any further on.
The rumours of a departure circled for months and after scoring 25 goals for the Martyrs in the first half of the season, we were dealt the crushing blow on New Year’s Eve that Ricardo was officially leaving Merthyr to join Robbie Savage’s Forest Green Rovers.
It was over. The day we’d all dreaded had finally arrived. It was bittersweet, we were gutted to see him go, but we’ve also never been so happy to see someone get a full-time contract in football and if anyone deserves it, it’s Ric.
I drop him a message to tell him I’m devasted but delighted for him only to get a reply saying “Gonna miss you brother” and that hit me right in the feels and I’m sure I’m not the only Merthyr fan who received that response but it sums up why so many are invested in Non-League football - Ric was our superstar but he was also one of us!
Going back to June 2022, that Gerry Cinnamon gig was outstanding, Wales did go on to beat Ukraine to reach the World Cup for the first time in over 60 years but for me, Ricardo Rees joining Merthyr Town FC that weekend was the best part of all!
Louis
This article first appeared on Alternative Wales.
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