Jay Rodriguez on joining Wrexham, playing for England and chatting with Ryan Reynolds

Unlike most signings settling in at a new club, Jay Rodriguez didn’t need a crash course in getting to know Wrexham.

As a long-standing fan of the Emmy-award winning documentary that has chronicled the ownership of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, the former England international was already well versed in not only the Welsh club’s rise, but also the local characters.

“I was already willing Wrexham to do well from afar because it is such a great story,” the 35-year-old tells The Athletic. “It’s why I felt really flattered when they came in for me.”

Rodriguez’s arrival from Burnley on January 31 alongside Sam Smith, the club’s first seven-figure transfer, marked a new chapter in the Wrexham story.

Sure, there had been bold statement signings before, most notably Elliot Lee and Paul Mullin in the club’s non-League days. Last season’s capture of Steven Fletcher and James McClean, two hugely experienced former Premier League players and internationals, in League Two also raised more than a few eyebrows.

But by adding Rodriguez and Reading top scorer Smith, Wrexham were moving up a gear in the ambition stakes.

“The time I had at Burnley was like a fairytale,” adds the striker about his two spells at Turf Moor. “A dream for a young lad to represent his hometown club. To then come back like I did was the icing on the cake.

“In my eyes, I was probably going to retire there, but then this opportunity came along. It’s a big family club, like Burnley. The two towns are similar in that they’re working-class and the people get their heads down and work hard. That’s been the basis of life, not just my career, really.”

One aspect that was perhaps a bit different to returning to Burnley for that second spell in 2019 is the welcome phone call he received soon after joining Wrexham from a Hollywood A-lister in Deadpool star Reynolds.

“He said how happy he was at me joining,” adds Rodriguez, whose family on dad Kiko’s side originally hail from Spain. “And how, if I needed anything, he’s just on the end of a phone. He then started explaining how special the club and the area are to him. A really nice chat.”

We are speaking in the main stand at the STōK Cae Ras. Training is over for the day and the ground is empty, apart from groundsman Paul Chaloner and his staff beavering away on the pitch.

It’s clear as Rodriguez, whose career includes 11 seasons in the Premier League, gazes out across his new home that he already feels settled. And that’s even before Brian Flynn, long-time Burnley resident and legendary former Wrexham manager who effectively rebuilt the club in the 1990s, pops up to say hello.

“The support I’ve had from everyone — the lads, the staff, the manager — since I first came in is something I really appreciate,” adds the former Southampton and West Bromwich Albion striker, whose eight starts for Wrexham have yielded 16 points but, as yet, no goals.

Rodriguez scored 76 goals for Burnley across two spells (Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)

“I hope I’m helping the team, that’s my main focus. I haven’t scored yet and as a striker, I’d be lying if I said it didn’t bother me. But I don’t think it affects my game. Or the mental side.

“I’ve had patches like this when I haven’t scored for a while, but it soon ends and you go on a run. The key is to keep doing consistently well the things that you know are right.

“I’m happy just to help the team. For me, the bottom line after a game is whether we have the three points.”

A return of two points per game since Rodriguez and Smith were first paired together in the 2-1 win at Crawley Town is impressive. If maintained over the remaining 10 games of the season, there’s a good chance Wrexham will be in the Championship come August.

Rodriguez has been renowned at his previous clubs for an eclectic taste in music. He even went by the nickname ‘Lighthouse Family’ in those early days at Burnley after performing the band’s hit ‘High’ as his initiation song on joining the first team for the 2007 pre-season trip to Austria.

The teenager’s strong Burnley accent meant his rendition made a lasting impression. Even allowing for such a brave and unusual choice, however, The Athletic is a tad taken aback to learn what tune he and his wife Simone chose for the first dance at their 2015 wedding.

“There is a Light That Never Goes Out by The Smiths,” he says. “Our parents and families weren’t sure about our choice. People were coming up and saying, ‘Is this really your first song?’.

“But we see it as kind of romantic, in a weird way. And everyone started dancing, so it got the night going.”

For those not familiar with the English band from the 1980s and the lyrics of their often melancholic lead singer Morrissey, ‘There Is A Light…’ is a typical mix of the tender and tragic, including the line, ‘And if a double-decker bus crashes into us, to die by your side is such a heavenly way to die’.

This admittedly classic song has cropped up in conversation after featuring on the dressing-room playlist, which is overseen by midfielder Ollie Rathbone, following last month’s win at Mansfield Town. Another reason Rodriguez has felt so at home so quickly.

Rodriguez scoring for Southampton against Chelsea in 2013 (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

“I’ve been really privileged in terms of my whole career due to going into really good dressing rooms,” he says. “Right back to my first one when Burnley got first promoted through the play-offs (in 2009).

“I remember Clarke Carlisle saying afterwards how good this group of lads were and how, if I kept going higher, I might not get the same thing. But I’ve been really lucky as Southampton, West Brom, back at Burnley and now here has been great.

“I could see straight away that everyone wants to work once they’re in. The entire focus is getting those three points on a Saturday. They push each other through. Obviously, there’s frustrations that come with football because everyone wants to play every game, but what I’ve felt here is everyone pulling together.”

Another dressing room Rodriguez shared for a time came with England. His one international cap came in a 2-0 friendly defeat to Chile at Wembley in November 2013.

But for a horrific ACL injury suffered the following April, there was every chance he could have been on the plane to Brazil for the 2014 World Cup after scoring 15 goals for Southampton in 33 Premier League appearances. Only Wayne Rooney and Daniel Sturridge among his fellow countrymen scored more times in that season’s top flight.

Rodriguez played for England alongside huge names like Rooney (Tony Marshall/Getty Images)

“A ‘pinch yourself’ moment,” he says when asked about lining up against Chile. “I was told the night before that me and (Southampton team-mate) Adam Lallana were starting.

“We were like little kids after that, so excited. I couldn’t sleep, which wasn’t ideal in terms of preparation. To be there, singing the national anthem before Chile, I literally could not believe it. So, so special.

“It was a weird one in that, after the game, I was a bit shellshocked. We’d lost 2-0 and I realised this was an altogether new standard. Chile were so good. A top, top team. (Alexis) Sanchez scored twice.

“But I learned so much in those camps, playing alongside top players like Rooney, (Steven) Gerrard, (Frank) Lampard, Ashley Cole. So many, like (Michael) Carrick, who I’m thinking, ‘The way these guys train is how I need to be, they were so aggressive and wanting to win everything’.

“Obviously, I wish I had more (caps), but that’s how life can be. Things don’t always work out.”

Rodriguez missed the entire 2014-15 season recovering from his ruptured ACL. The striker signed a four-year deal on his return but moved to West Brom in 2017 for £12million, double the fee Southampton had paid Burnley five years earlier.

His subsequent return to Burnley for another £10million took his career full circle, back to where almost two decades earlier a now famous photo had been taken of an awe-struck 10-year-old Rodriguez gazing up at Ian Wright as the England striker made his debut for the Lancashire club.

Ian Wright walks out past a young Jay Rodriguez, right (Jamie McDonald/Allsport)

“I remember that so well,” he says. “I was at the Burnley School of Excellence so had the option to be a ball boy for the first team. I didn’t know a photo was being taken, but I remember Ian Wright coming out of the tunnel.

“He was the first big star I’d seen. It was so good to be close up like that. You aspire to things in life, but at that age, you don’t really know what is to come. Despite that, you can see in my face what I’m thinking.

“I’d probably be the same now if I saw Wrighty. Still starstruck. One of those moments you look back on in life and know it made a difference. It really inspired me.”

(Top photo: Malcolm Couzens/Getty Images)