Andy Murray has revealed that he was invited to train with Rangers FC as a teenager (Image: Getty)
has revealed that he could’ve played for Rangers FC after being asked to join the club for training.
The three-time Grand Slam champion was forced to choose between tennis and football as a teenager.
While he clearly made the right decision, going on to have a Hall of Fame-worthy tennis career, Murray admitted he had one regret about leaving football behind.
Murray achieved almost everything possible in tennis during his two-decade career. He won three Major titles, two Olympic gold medals, the ATP Finals, 14 Masters 1000s and plenty more titles – and reached world No. 1.
The Brit finally hung up his racket at last year’s Olympic Games and has been enjoying plenty of golf ever since, setting himself a goal of becoming a scratch player.
The 37-year-old has now revealed that there was another sport he excelled at as a youngster. Murray enjoyed playing football and was even scouted by Rangers during a training session as a teenager.
But it wasn’t to be, and the retired star has now explained why he chose tennis over football.
“I think it was about 13, 14. One of the teams that I played for was a feeder team for Rangers, and we went and did trials at the Rangers School of Excellence,” Murray said during an appearance on Chris Hoy’s Sporting Misadventures podcast.
Andy Murray chose to stick with tennis and went on to have a Hall of Fame-worthy career (Image: Getty)
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“And I got asked to go to train with Rangers after that. And that was kind of when I had to make a decision.”
Murray had already started competing on the junior tennis circuit and knew it was a safer bet. He continued: “With tennis at that age, it was really helpful because I played tournaments all over the world by that stage.
“So I played in America, I played in France, Italy. And there’s like a ranking system for under 14s in Europe. And at that stage, I was ranked No. 2 or 3 in Europe as a 14-year-old.
“Whereas with football, I was good for my local Central Scotland team that I was playing for. But you don’t really know what that means. You know, like, how good is that really?”
It wasn’t long before Murray gave football up entirely. “One day I was doing a tennis session. It was supposed to be like an hour and a half long. And after an hour, my dad came to get me because I had to go to football training,” he explained.
“And I was walking to the car and I said to my dad, ‘Dad, no, like, I don’t want to go to football. Like I want to go back and finish my tennis’.
“And that was kind of when I made the decision that I was going to pursue tennis as my career, like 14, 15 years old, really.”
Asked whether he had any regrets, Murray admitted there was just one. He replied: “I guess if you could have offered me a career as a footballer, I love the team aspects of football.
“I really like that. And in tennis, we only got to experience that a few times in our careers. At the Olympics was one, which I was fortunate to be part of a few of them, and also in our Davis Cups.”