A lot of athletes play multiple sports growing up before choosing to settle on one in which they hope to go professional. After that, only a select few are able to make it, and even fewer reach the highest levels in any sport. But it looks like one Celtic player likes to think that he could have been better than Andy Murray if he would have stuck to tennis instead of playing football.
The player we are talking about is James Forrest. Of course, he has gone on to have a legendary career at Parkhead
Forrest has been at Celtic since the start of his career. For a few years, it had looked like his time at Parkhead was coming to an end as he was dealing with constant injury problems and struggling to get into the team.
Forrest has enjoyed a career revival following the appointment of Brendan Rodgers as manager for a second stint at Parkhead. He is not a regular starter for Celtic but is getting regular minutes off the bench, and the occasional starts as well. Let's get back to the tennis story though.
Celtic player claims he could've been better than Andy Murray
As reported by the Daily Record, Alistair Johnston said while speaking on the My Sporting Life podcast:
"James Forrest always tells me that he thinks he could’ve broken into the big four, that he could’ve replaced Andy Murray if he’d stuck to tennis. I said, ‘I’m not sure there are too many tennis players at the heights of 5 foot 8.’ I take that with a pinch of salt, and he always brings it up. It winds me up a little bit, it’s hard for me not to nibble on that one."
One has to wonder whether Forrest really believes that or whether he is just hoping to get a reaction out of his teammate. He certainly seems to be getting the latter.
Of course, it is hard to see Forrest be a success story in tennis. We would like to think that he chose the correct sport and has had a remarkable career in it. But anything is possible. Perhaps he could have been the next Roger Federer if he had chosen the racquet over the football boots.