“Football isn’t black and white, to operate effectively you’ve got be somewhere in the grey,” says 33-year-old Callum Morris, an individual who is certainly qualified to make that judgment. In a football career that saw him rise through the ranks of the academy at Newcastle United before being released and struggling to land himself a club, Callum worked his way back up the UK footballing pyramid whilst facing a host of challenges such as untimely injury and, at one stage, fears of when his next pay day would be. It’s fair to say that Callum has experienced a wide range of challenges throughout operating in the grey area of professional football, a prime example coming in the shape of how he was released by his boyhood club.
“Everyone in my age group at Newcastle had been told a couple of months prior whether or not they were going to be offered a contract but I had not been told. I remember on a Wednesday, a week or so before the end of the Championship season, I was asked to come to the training ground to have a meeting with the manager Chris Hughton. A couple of the first team lads were telling me that if I needed any help negotiating a contract they would help me out and the physio said to me that he expected me to get a contract, so I was going into that meeting thinking they must have caught wind of something. Instead, the meeting was to say I was getting released by the club, but weirdly the conversation with Chris was one of the most positive conversations I have ever had with a manager in football. At that point in time Newcastle had just won promotion back to the Premier League with a record points tally and he said there was no point in staying at the club as he felt I was ready to go and play first-team games somewhere.”
Whilst Callum left the club feeling a genuine sense of optimism and ready to make a dent in the professional game, the reality of no longer being on the books at a club like Newcastle United and a free agent soon hit.
“I went to Leeds United on trial and got the chance to play at Elland Road in a reserves game. I thought I did well and then after it the club said they were keen to get something sorted, but were unsure if they would be able to even compete with the other clubs they were expecting to also be interested in signing me. It then went totally silent, no communication for a couple of days. It wasn’t until I rang my agent and he spoke to someone at the club that they admitted they were going to sign someone else. I didn’t feel it knocked my confidence at the time, but in hindsight it was probably an early example of something I’ve noticed I do a lot, boxing things off, brushing them to one side and not allowing myself to properly process things.”
Callum and his dad then took matters into their own hands and sent off video clips, a covering letter and his CV to every club in the English football league. Whilst many clubs applauded his proactive efforts, no trials were forthcoming and the optimism gained from the conversation with the Newcastle manager and Leeds United’s comments that they’d have to fight to compete for his signature slowly vanished.
“There was a feeling of being a bit left in the wilderness. I decided to go and drop down to play for Blyth Spartans in the National League North, it was a real shock though. I’d gone from training every day, which I absolutely loved, to training a couple of times a week.”
Playing in the sixth tier of English football less than a year on from captaining Newcastle, he was given a lifeline to return to full-time football in the shape of the Glenn Hoddle Academy.
“My dad found the academy after it had launched in Spain. I went along for a trial in London and I thought I played really well. After the trial, they said that they’d usually ask for a player to go over to Spain to have another trial, but they were happy to just sign me and bring me over to Jerez, just south of Seville. We were given free reign of a gym, a swimming pool and there were pitches nearby. We got to stay in a villa shared between three of us and it was absolutely brilliant. Everyone was so tactically aware, even at the third or fourth tier of Spanish football.”
However, as Callum eventually became accustomed to throughout his career, getting into a nice rhythm of game time and consistency came to an abrupt halt.
“Things ended up quickly going tits up because the investors in the academy decided to help bail out a Spanish club, Industrial Jerez, from financial difficulties. It got to the day in which they were supposed to pay back a loan and they just refused to pay it. We were sat having our dinner and someone told us that the whole thing had been pulled and we had to pack our bags and head back to the UK the next day. We weren’t getting paid and it was entirely self-funded for two years. I came back and thought that at the age of 21 I was ready to walk away from full-time football.”
Acknowledging that perhaps full-time football was not a viable option at that time, Callum spoke to his local club Morpeth Town where he agreed with the owner to sign as a player and be supported by the club to find a steady career that he could get his teeth properly stuck into. Then, a chance phone call re-ignited his full-time aspirations.
“I got a call from a guy who knew Dunfermline Athletic manager Jim Jefferies, who said that they were apparently desperate to bring in another centre-back as the season had already started. I wasn’t sure at first, but I went up on the train and played in a match against Livingston. Before the match I remember ringing my dad and saying to him that I just wanted it out the way. Putting that pressure off myself seemed to help and I played quite well. Jim Jefferies then told me to get into the the kit man’s van, get to East End Park and sign a contract. The fire was back in the belly and it seemed to take off again.”
After a dramatic two years at Dunfermline, one of which saw the club go into administration and experience relegation, the other seeing the club narrowly miss out on promotion back into the Championship via the play-offs, the opportunity to test himself in the Scottish Premiership came in the shape of Dundee United.
“It was a really exciting time at United with all the youngsters they had like Andy Robertson, Ryan Gauld, Stuart Armstrong and John Souttar. Although there was interest from Aberdeen, I felt it would be a really good place for me to grow and develop.
“The environment was so positive and infectious, it had a real emphasis on being expressive. The manager Jackie McNamara wanted everyone to have the confidence to express themselves. Mistakes were seen as part and parcel of the way we wanted to play, pushing the envelope and trying things.
“Jackie had a really good aura about him and a brilliant way with people. He’d take you to one side at training and have a chat one-on-one with you and was so good at putting you at ease. That built up a genuine trust with the players and filtered out into how the team treated each other, there was a real culture of unity and being there for a teammate if they slipped up.”
Given there was a youthful glow to the Tannadice side, even at the age of 25 Callum found himself in the position of being one of the slightly older heads in the team. This saw him build a greater understanding of the importance of communicating effectively with teammates.
“A lot of learning to communicate and speak to people to get the best out of them is trial and error, you build an awareness of which buttons to press for each person. Language, delivery and timing is massive and so intricate. I knew that with Nadir Ciftci you could have a real go at him and he’d have a go back but you’d get a positive reaction and he’d run past three players and score a goal. Whereas a Stuart Armstrong or Gary Mackay Steven, you knew they’d eventually get into the game if you gave them the odd nudge here and there.”
Whilst Callum certainly thrived and embraced the challenge of playing at the highest level of Scottish football, beating Celtic in December 2014 and scoring the winner in the Scottish League Cup semi-final over Aberdeen, his time at Tannadice saw niggling injuries getting in his way of gathering greater momentum, a theme that crept into his career until he hung up his boots.
I’ve came off injured at St Johnstone alone about three times for different clubs! It was a recurring theme throughout my career that when things were going well normally injury would be right around the corner. At Ross County I had to keep getting epidurals to get through games. I’d be flying, getting games under my belt, clubs would show an interest and then an injury would happen. I ruptured both hamstrings on two separate occasions and I went away with the Northern Ireland national side and had the chance to make my debut against Luxembourg, but tore my groin the day before doing a passing drill at Windsor Park. How’s your luck, eh?”
When injuries proved not to be a derailing factor and Callum was feeling fit both physiologically and psychologically, how different did that feel?
“When you’re at your flowing best as a centre-back you feel imperious, the best version of yourself. A lot of the games I thought I played well in though I didn’t really do that much, I just read the game well and felt properly engaged in the game and on the front foot. I’m blowing the trumpet for all the centre-backs out there but to be in flow as a defensive player, it’s almost more challenging in a way because you are trying to pre-empt things that you can’t physically control.
“I definitely had a lot of mental trauma from having so many injuries, but like I said earlier on I was good at boxing it off and didn’t appear to let it bother me but it definitely messed with my head. I got speaking to Don McNaughton (mindset coach) who helped me put a few things in place. One of them was picking two different colours, one positive and one negative. You breathe out all the negative, for example red, and breathe in green and all the positivity. I guess it’s a distraction thing as well and helps centre you a bit. I’d do this in the tunnel before games because by the end of my career, I’d be on a team bus going somewhere and hoping it’d break down because I felt all over the place for the game. I’d sometimes be fine after five minutes or so, but sometimes I’ve felt I’ve walked onto the pitch and had absolutely no energy despite having a great warm up and everything, almost jelly legged going out.”
Still struggling with niggling injuries after spells at Aberdeen and a return to Dunfermline, upon leaving Ross County in 2021 after the end of the behind closed doors COVID-19 season, Callum decided it was time to head back to Morpeth Town playing part-time and get his first opportunity to work behind the scenes of a football club as a Sporting Director. Although he accepted the role with genuine enthusiasm and excitement to see what it would lead to, stepping back to playing part-time was a decision he feels unsure about in hindsight.
“I probably should have stayed in full-time football, as I’d said previously I loved training every day and the routine that came with it. Even now, I don’t really miss matches but I miss the training aspect of it. The chance to go back to Morpeth, play and help behind the scenes was a real eye opener and if I am totally honest I probably wasn’t ready for it. All this stuff I’d packaged up throughout my career I hadn’t really had any time to decompress because I was straight back in playing after my injury rehab. I probably should have taken time to work on myself, reflected and got to the bottom of a few things. It did tick a load of boxes though and was fascinating to learn more and be involved with the inner workings of a football club.”
Now, in his final year of studying Business Management at the Open University, Callum is on the journey of figuring out what his next chapter consists of, but for now is content with helping others write theirs.
“I’m doing a bit of work with Inspiring Excellence, a company owned by my cousin. He played at the highest level of hurling and is now a mindset coach for big businesses and athletes across different sports. I’m involved there and it seemed like a natural progression to go into that kind of thing. Looking into the performance and culture side of things has opened my eyes to loads of different factors that have helped me personally, for example, the negatives of compartmentalising things, shaking off the identity of being a footballer and actively taking myself on a different path.
“I always had a feeling I’d be more successful in sport after I finished playing. I question myself sometimes if I achieved as much as I should have or if all the challenges I experienced with things like injuries and administration led me to learning more and, going forward, onto something which has more meaning afterwards.”
Given Callum experienced such a varied footballing career filled with highs and lows, his natural calming warmth and openness to grow, adapt and develop is the perfect combination of traits that wouldn’t make it a surprise if he makes a huge impact within sport in some shape or form.
Quick-fire Questions:
Describe yourself in three words: Quiet, thoughtful and resilient.
How would your family and friends describe yourself in three words: Selfless, caring and a joker.
Are you more introverted or extroverted? I’d probably say a mix, it depends on the environment really.
What is your biggest personality strength? I am good at taking things in my stride and not losing my cool. I’d say overall I’m pretty level-headed.
What is your biggest personality weakness? I can lack confidence in myself.
Best moment of your career/life? Best moment in my life has to be my daughter being born. In terms of footballing career, it has to be scoring at Hampden in the League Cup Semi-Final against Aberdeen. I remember scoring and looking up at the screen and seeing my name on it after and getting a bit chocked up. It was just the manner of how it happened, going down 1–0 and scoring two late goals to win it.
What is your death row meal?
Starter: Calamari.
Main: You can’t beat a proper thin crust pizza with pepperoni or just full on veg, depends if I’m on a diet or not.
Dessert: Banoffee pie or tiramisu, but a good one is hard to come by.
Drink: Bit boring but lime and soda. I’d say a Guinness, but I wouldn’t have that with a full meal because that’s a meal in itself”
What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given? Never lie to anyone because if you tell the truth you never forget it, if you tell a lie you’ll forget it and tangle yourself up.
