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 ...
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 Fo ...
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 and
Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...
. He also played in the
Football League 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 pl ...
. He was capped twice at
England B level, but later despite it being two years since retiring he awarded himself two caps for
Montserrat 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.
Th ...
match against
Coventry City
Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed t ...
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 t ...
at
Carrow Road 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 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 solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...
, defeating
Bayern Munich 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.
Newcastle United
Fox left Norwich on 2 February 1994 to join
Newcastle United for a fee of £2,250,000. Upon signing him, Newcastle manager
Kevin Keegan 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
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 solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...
– 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-G ...
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
Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...
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 cr ...
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 football stadium in Tottenham, North London and the home of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club from 1899 to 2017. Its capacity varied over the years; when changed to all-seater it had a capacity of 36,284 before demolition. ...
and he was constantly linked with moves away from
Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...
before joining
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 pl ...
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
Montserrat 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 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. 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
sportspeople of Antigua and Barbuda descent">British sportspeople of Antigua and Barbuda descent
Montserrat national football team managers
Black British sportspeople