At 44 years old, the tricky forward refuses to retire, still applying his trade for Ammanford AFC in the Cymru south, the second tier of Welsh football. A forward known for his tricks and skills he became a club legend at Swansea, winning the Football League trophy in the 2006/06 season and promotion to League One in 2004/05.
Although known for his football in Wales, Trundle is not actually Welsh he was born in Liverpool and began playing for Non-League clubs Burscough, Chorley, Stalybridge Celtic, Southport and Bamber Bridge were he produced an impressive 55 goals in 161 games for all the clubs combined.
A move to Welsh Premier League club Rhyl in 2000 began his career in Wales and he got off with a great start with 15 goals in 18 games earning him a move to Wrexham under Brian Flynn - still in Wales but Wrexham competed in the English Leagues and were in Division Two. He opened his goalscoring account with a spectacular overhead kick against Walsall to make it 2-1 and Wrexham went on to win 3-2. He played 97 games in the league for Wrexham, scoring 27 goals in three years.
Flynn signed him on a free transfer when he became the Swansea manager, were Trundle became most known for playing. His goals and tricks made him a fan favourite at the Vetch and even got a taste of stardom and cult status - regularly featuring on Soccer AM 'showboat section'. He is believed to be the fist player to be outside of the Premier League to sign an Image Rights contract which offered him a portion of revenue from his image being sold on Merchandise by the club. Between 2005 and 2007 Trundle was partnered up front with another striker with cult icon status Adebayo Akinfenwa. Akinfenwa had the strength and Trundle had the skills, it is no wonder why they were successful during their time at the Swans.
His fine form for Swansea led him to a move to Championship club Bristol City, but he could not find his form there after that and a loan move back to Swansea when they were now in 2009/10 at the age of 33 still could not return the form he once had and he could not earn a permanent deal after his release from Bristol City.
At 34 and without a club a lot of footballers would have called it a day but Trundle is not like other footballers he returned to the Welsh Premier Division with Neath and scored 26 in 59 and even played his first European games. Two legs against Aalesund, which Neath both lost but he scored Neath's only goal in Europe in the 4-1 defeat. Financial troubles for the club meant the spell only lasted for two seasons. He briefly returned to England with then League One club Preston North End - but only played twice and returned to the North West with spells at Non-league clubs Chester and Marine but that was short lived and he decided to hang up his boots. He began to work as a club ambassador for Swasnea.
His career really got interesting at the age of 40 he came out of retirement and signed for Welsh Football League Division Two side Llanelli Town scoring his first of nine hat tricks that season on his debut and ended up with 53 goals in 31 games as he won promotion to Division One and the Welsh Football League Challenge cup. The next season it was more of the same and Trundle win another promotion with Llanelli scoring 33 goals in 28 games. But, due to his work commitments with Swansea he could not commit any more time as Llanelli climbed up the divisions and he left the club at the end of the 2017/18 season.
He moved to Haverfordwest County, then Trefelin BGC and Ammanford were he kept up a great scoring record and at the age of 44 Trundle is still playing, albeit the current pandemic has staggered the lower leagues of football over the course of the last two seasons. The Magic Man refuses to retire his love of goals and skills has kept his love for playing even at 44 and we are thankful for it. Check out this video of some of his great skills over the years.
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