Ruel Adrian Fox (born 14 January 1968) is a former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

and the club chairman of Whitton United. As a player he was

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

who played in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

for

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

and

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

. He also played in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

for

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pla ...

. He was capped twice at England B level, but later despite it being two years since retiring he awarded himself two caps for

Montserrat Montserrat ( ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is part of the Leeward Islands, the northern portion of the Lesser Antilles chain of the West Indies. Montserrat is about long and wide, with r ...

whilst serving as head coach. Following retirement, Fox had a spell as manager of non-league Whitton United, where he has also acted as assistant manager and currently remains as the chairman. He has also worked as a personal trainer and has worked for Suffolk College.

Club career

Norwich City

Fox made his senior debut for Norwich City during the 1986–87 season in a

Full Members Cup The Full Members' Cup was an association football cup competition held in English football from 1985 to 1992. It was also known under its sponsored names of the Simod Cup from 1987 to 1989 and the Zenith Data Systems Cup from 1989 to 1992. The ...

match against

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English footbal ...

and made his league debut against

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and th ...

Carrow Road Carrow Road is an association football stadium located in Norwich, Norfolk, England, and is the home of EFL Championship side Norwich City. The stadium is located toward the east of the city, near Norwich railway station and the River Wensum. N ...

a few days later. After several seasons of being a substitute and finding it difficult to hold down a regular first team spot, he eventually established himself and played an important part in the 1992–93 and 1993–94 campaigns, which were two of the best in the club's history. In 1992–93, they led the inaugural

FA Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

several times before finished a club best third, and in 1993–94 they reached the last 16 of the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

, defeating

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

on the way. He was a fast, tricky winger who was a handful for defenders and provided good crosses. In 2002, Norwich supporters voted Fox an inaugural member of the

Norwich City F.C. Hall of Fame The Norwich City F.C. Hall of Fame honours Norwich City F.C. players, coaches, managers, directors and executives who have "made the greatest contribution to the club in its long history both on and off the pitch." During the club's centenary se ...

Newcastle United

Fox left Norwich on 2 February 1994 to join

for a fee of £2,250,000. Upon signing him, Newcastle manager

Kevin Keegan Joseph Kevin Keegan (born 14 February 1951) is an English former footballer and manager. A forward, he played for several professional clubs from 1968 to 1984. Having begun his career at Scunthorpe United, he moved to Liverpool in 1971 and ...

described him as "the best player in his position in the country". Fox was an early member of the Newcastle teams known as "the Entertainers". He played in Newcastle's final 14 games of the 1993–94 season and scored twice as they finished third in the Premier League and qualified for the

– the first time since the 1970s that the Magpies had competed in Europe. He scored 10 league goals in the 1994–95 season, as the Magpies finished sixth and just missed out on another European campaign having led the league for the first quarter of the season, but the arrival of

David Ginola David Ginola-Ceze (born 25 January 1967) is a French former professional footballer who has also worked as an actor, model and football pundit. A former forward, Ginola played football for ten seasons in France before moving from Paris Saint-Ger ...

in June 1995 left Fox facing a fight for regular first team action. He did, however, play five times for the Magpies the following season.

Tottenham Hotspur

Fox signed for

on 6 October 1995 in a deal worth £4.25 million. His fee made him Tottenham's second most costly player at the time, behind Chris Armstrong whose £4.5 million deal had been concluded just a few months earlier. Despite not being part of Tottenham's squad for the

1999 Football League Cup Final The 1999 Football League Cup Final was played between Tottenham Hotspur and Leicester City, at Wembley on Sunday, 21 March 1999. Tottenham won the game, and their third League Cup, with an injury-time diving header from Allan Nielsen after a cro ...

he made three appearances during their victorious League Cup campaign.

West Bromwich Albion

Fox found it difficult to settle at

White Hart Lane White Hart Lane was a Association football, football stadium in Tottenham, North London and the home of Tottenham Hotspur F.C., Tottenham Hotspur Football Club from 1899 to 2017. Its capacity varied over the years; when changed to all-seater i ...

and he was constantly linked with moves away from

before joining

at the start of the 2000–01 season. He helped them to promotion in 2001–02, before being released at the end of the season. He subsequently retired from playing professionally.

Coaching career

Fox was named head coach of

in October 2004, and despite being two years since he retired from playing he gave himself two international cap and scoring one for his adopted nation in a 5–4 defeat against

Antigua Antigua ( ), also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the native population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua and Bar ...

on 2 November 2004. Upon his return he was named as coach of non-league Whitton United and remained in that role until 2008, where he was replaced by his assistant

Ronnie Mauge Ronald Carlton Mauge (born 10 March 1969) is an English-born Trinidad and Tobago former professional footballer, who played for Fulham, Bury, Manchester City, Plymouth Argyle, and Bristol Rovers. He also won caps for the Trinidad and Tobago na ...

. He has also acted as assistant manager and now is the club's chairman. He also became a coach at Suffolk College.

Personal life

In November 2008, Fox returned to hometown Ipswich and ran his own a restaurant and bar. In 2012, Fox was working as a personal trainer in Ipswich.

References

External links

*
Career information at ex-canaries.co.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fox, Ruel 1968 births Living people Sportspeople from Ipswich Montserratian footballers English footballers Association football midfielders Montserrat international footballers England B international footballers Newcastle United F.C. players Norwich City F.C. players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players West Bromwich Albion F.C. players English Football League players Premier League players English sportspeople of Antigua and Barbuda descent English people of Montserratian descent English football managers Montserratian football managers British sportspeople of Antigua and Barbuda descent Montserrat national football team managers Black British sportspeople