Grass Shroots: It's all about Sunday morning soccer for new Birmingham City signing

Jan 10 2009 By Andy Walker

 London and I like to give a bit back to the community. I was coaching for another club in south London and Balham Blazers approached me and said ‘do you want to join us?’.

“I started coaching for them but they always knew what I wanted to achieve in football. As soon as I rang the chairman and said that Birmingham wanted to offer me a deal he was delighted and said ‘take it’.”

Shroot sees himself as a goal-scoring winger which will be welcome news for Blues who, following the loan acquisition of Chelsea forward Scott Sinclair, now possess an even more lethal attack.

However rather than rank Manchester United’s wing wizard Cristiano Ronaldo as his No1 idol, Shroot instead hails the Brazilian striker Ronaldo as his hero.

“Big Ronaldo was my hero, I try to see myself as a goal-scoring winger. I wouldn’t say I play anything like Ronaldo because he’s a lot quicker than I am but I just love his confidence and the way he just thought that he could do anything he wanted.”

Shroot has spent the last week floating around Wast Hills in a dream world having achieved most young boys’ ambition of playing professional football.

Less than a month ago, the winger was earning £50 a week and playing in