24 March 2023 , 12:42
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Ben Foster has insisted he is only earning "peanuts" at Wrexham after coming out of retirement to join the National League leaders.
The goalkeeper left Watford at the end of last season and went into retirement, despite being linked with moves to Newcastle and Tottenham. But the 39-year-old has now reversed course to join Phil Parkinson's title-chasing side.
The Red Dragons currently sit three points clear of Notts County, but first-choice keeper Rob Lainton will miss the next six weeks with a knee injury. Foster has been brought in to add experience to a goalkeeping department.
There are just eight games remaining of the season, with Foster joining on a short-term deal. Wrexham are owned by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, who have pumped money into the club in a bid to secure promotion to League Two.
But Foster has rubbished suggestions that he was being paid a bumper wage by the Red Dragons. Instead, he insisted that the chance to return to the Racecourse - where he had a loan spell before his move to Manchester United - meant that negotiations were brief.
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“I don’t need much [money]," Foster said on his podcast, 'The Fozcast Podcast'. "To be honest, the negotiations took about five minutes.
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Foster has returned to Wrexham as they mount a promotion push (@Wrexham_AFC/Twitter)"Wages wise, it’s literally peanuts… the part for me is getting the team over the line and getting them promoted. I'm a very low maintenance player. Just wheel me out, I'll do a job."
Co-owner Reynolds appeared to confirm that the keeper was on a modest wage by retweeting a post carrying Foster's comments.
Foster will be hoping to emulate the success he had in his first spell with Wrexham, when he helped them win the 2005 Football League Trophy during a loan spell. The Englishman revealed his delight at returning to North Wales upon his arrival.
“I’m over the moon. I’ve been at the Club an hour this morning and it seems a really nice place. Everyone is down to earth and the manager’s top class," he told Wrexham's club website.
“It’s changed a lot since I was last here, but it’s nice to be back and it’s nice to be back as a player too. It will be interesting to see how my body feels after training today! I’m looking forward to getting started.
“The first time I was here, it was genuinely the springboard to the rest of my career – on the back of the loan move, playing in the LDV Vans Trophy Final at the Millennium Stadium, I got my move to Manchester United at the start of the next season. It was absolutely bonkers!
“If you’d told me 18 years ago that I’d have gone on to have the career that I have had, I probably wouldn’t have believed you to be honest so I do owe a lot to Wrexham.”