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Louis Rees-Zammit
Louis Rees-Zammit (/ˈluːɪs/ LOO-iss; born 2 February 2001) is a Welsh professional American football player who plays as a wide receiver in the practice squad for Jacksonville Jaguars, a team of the National Football League (NFL). From 2018, Rees-Zammit played as a winger for the English rugby union side Gloucester in the English Premiership, between 2020 and 2023 at international level for Wales, and in 2021 for British & Irish Lions. In January 2024, Rees-Zammit said he wanted to move from rugby to American football in an attempt to play in the NFL. In March 2024, he trained and competed in the NFL's International Player Pathway Program (IPPP), after which he was signed to Kansas City Chiefs as a running back and trained as a return specialist but he was not chosen for the Chiefs' final 53-player team roster for the 2024 NFL season. He subsequently signed for the Florida-based side Jacksonville Jaguars as part of their practice squad as a wide receiver. Early and personal lifeLouis Rees-Zammit was born in Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales;[1] his paternal grandfather had emigrated from Malta. Rees-Zammit's parents were athletes and his brother played rugby union for Llandaff RFC, while his uncle Paul Rees played as a full-back for Cardiff RFC, Pontypool RFC and the Wales B team. Louis' father Joe played American football for Cardiff Bay Tigers and inspired Louis to follow the US National Football League (NFL) from a young age.[2][3] The family supported Washington Redskins (now Washington Commanders), and Louis' favourite NFL player was DeSean Jackson.[4][5][6] Rees-Zammit attended The Cathedral School, Llandaff, for which he played rugby.[7] After secondary school, he dated the social-media influencer and YouTube content creator Saffron Barker,[8] but in March 2024, Barker announced the relationship had ended.[9] In 2021, due to Rees-Zammit's success on the rugby field, he was chosen as the official patron for the British charity Sporting Minds UK, with which he had worked since 2019. He also did sponsorship work for the telecommunications firm Vodafone during the 2021 Lions tour of South Africa.[10] Youth rugbyIn his youth, Rees-Zammit played rugby at the Cardiff Blues academy and was named in the Cardiff Schools Team of the Decade for the 2020s. He was also a regular player in the Wales under-18s team, and qualified for the equivalent England team due to residency. In 2017, Rees-Zammit transferred to Hartpury College, the academy of Gloucester Rugby, in the AASE Championship, winning consecutive trophies. After leaving the college, he played for Gloucester United in 2019 before his promotion to the Gloucester professional team. As part of the Gloucester youth team, Rees-Zammit played in two consecutive Premiership Rugby U18 Academy League finals.[11][12] Rugby union careerClub careerLouis Rees-Zammit debuted in the Gloucester senior team in the 2019–2020 season, becoming the club's youngest ever English Premiership player at 18 years and 70 days.[13] He also became Gloucester's youngest European player,[14] and youngest European try scorer in the pool stage of the Champions Cup in his debut season.[15] In December 2019, he scored two tries against Worcester Warriors during a 36–3 win. Later the same month, at 18, he became the youngest player to score a hat-trick of tries in the Premiership during a 33–26 loss to Northampton, and his performances won him the Premiership Player of the Month Award for that month.[16][17] On 13 January 2020, Rees-Zammit signed his first professional contract with Gloucester, securing him a long-term deal.[18] He ended his debut season in the 2019–20 Premiership with 15 appearances for the side. Rees-Zammit was awarded Gloucester's young player of the year award for 2019–2020, scoring ten Premiership tries and three in the pool stage of the European Champions Cup.[19][20] With continued form at Gloucester, British and Irish Lions coach Warren Gatland chose Rees-Zammit for the Lions' 2021 South African tour. In the game following the call-up, in May that year, he scored two tries against Premiership rivals Northampton Saints. Gloucester ended the season as the second-from-the-bottom team in the table for the 2020–21 Premiership Rugby year.[21][22] In the 2021–2022 Premiership, in his first appearance of the season, Rees-Zammit scored two tries in the Round Four win over Sale Sharks. Gloucester reached the quarter-finals of the 2022 European Challenge Cup, with Rees-Zammit scoring a try during the match, which they lost to Saracens.[21][23][24] Gloucester also reached to the semi-finals of the 2021–22 Premiership Rugby Cup, losing to Worcester Warriors.[25] During the 2022–23 Premiership Rugby season, his final full season with Gloucester, Rees-Zammit sustained an ankle injury and could not play for eight weeks until mid February 2023. On his return to fitness, he scored a try in a 28–26 home win over Harlequins.[26] In this season, Rees-Zammit played 13 league games, started in 12 of those, and scored four tries, as well as one try in a single appearance in the European Rugby Champions Cup.[27] In January 2024, Rees-Zammit decided to leave Gloucester, by which time he had made 77 club appearances and scored 210 points. He was in the last season of his £225,000 ($285,000)-a-year contract, which Gloucester was due to renew. Rees-Zammit had attracted interest from the French Top 14 rugby union league; Bordeaux and Montpellier offered him lucrative contracts to play in France, like some other British and Irish international rugby union players.[5][28][27] International career.jpg) As a Welsh national, Rees-Zammit initially represented Wales under-18s youth-system team.[11] He received his first full call-up to the senior Wales squad under coach Wayne Pivac on 15 January 2020 as a potential replacement for the 2020 Six Nations Championship.[29] He made his test debut for Wales from the bench against France at the Stade de France in Paris in October 2020.[30][31] In continued form, Rees-Zammit scored his first test try against Georgia on 21 November 2020.[32] During the 2021 full season, on 7 February 2021, Rees-Zammit scored his first 2021 Six Nations try on his full European international debut in a Round 1 match against Ireland.[33] On 13 February 2021, in the Six Nations match against Scotland, he scored two tries, including the winning try, and was named the man of the match.[34][a] Wales won the 2021 championship the next weekend, giving Rees-Zammit his first Six Nations Championship title. During the tournament, he also won the Try of the Championship award.[36] At the end of the 2021 rugby season, Rees-Zammit was nominated for the World Rugby Men's 15s Breakthrough Player of the Year award, which instead went to the New Zealand youngster Will Jordan.[37][38] After four successful seasons for his club and country, Rees-Zammit had more-injury-prone years in 2022 and 2023. He played in three of the five of Wales' matches for the 2022 Six Nations Championship, having been dropped for the match against England. His success with Gloucester qualified him for Wales' 2022 mid-year tour of South Africa, which Wales lost. Rees-Zammit missed two of the five games Wales played in the 2023 Six Nations Championship. He was selected for Wales' squad for the 2023 Rugby World Cup competition in France, scoring five tries in five appearances, although he started only two of those matches.[39] In total, Rees-Zammit scored 14 tries at international level for Wales.[40][21] As part of the Wales first team, Rees-Zammit appeared in the first season of the Netflix documentary Six Nations: Full Contact for the 2023 Six Nations Championship.[41] Wales international tries
British & Irish Lions 2021On 6 May 2021, Rees-Zammit was named in the squad for the British & Irish Lions tour of South Africa.[42] His inclusion at the age of 20 years and 93 days made him the youngest player to be selected since the 1959 Lions tour to Australia and New Zealand.[6][43] He then made his full-test and Lions debut appearance in the tour's opening provincial game against the club Lions, scoring the opening try after three minutes.[44] He was selected to play against Sharks in the following game, again scoring a try as the Lions won the match, finishing 54–7.[45] For the Lions' team game against the South Africa A team, he was chosen as a starter in a winning match for the host's second team.[46] On 17 July, for the final provincial game of the tour, Rees-Zammit scored as a substitute during the game against the Stormers. His final tally for the tour was three tries in four appearances. The Lions lost the test series against the Springboks.[47][48] American football careerIPPP Pro DayOn 16 January 2024, Rees-Zammit announced he would retire from rugby union to train in American football through the National Football League's (NFL) International Player Pathway Program (IPPP). His training camp took place in the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, and the pro day took place on 20 March. Rees-Zammit has compared his playing style to that of the NFL players Deebo Samuel and Christian McCaffrey of the San Francisco 49ers.[6][49] Draft statistics
Speed comparisonsPrior to Rees-Zammit's professional NFL debut, he was already considered one of the league's fastest athletes alongside John Ross and Chris Johnson. Rees-Zammit's top speed was 24.2 miles per hour (38.9 km/h) during a rugby game, which is fast enough to rank him as an all-time fastest non-league player (NLP) player.[6][53][54] At the IPPP Pro day event, it was noted since 2013, 14 players have run a sub-4.30-second 40-yard (37 m) dash. Rees-Zammit's secured times of 4.50 and 4.43 seconds in the 40-yard (37 m) dash. The NFL writer Robert Maadi of AP News, who was covering the trials, wrote about Rees-Zammit's disappointment with his dash times, saying he was capable of going more quickly into the 4.2 seconds, which is the NFL record pace.[52][55][56] Debut NFL seasonOn 29 March 2024, Rees-Zammit signed a contract with Kansas City Chiefs to play as running back.[57] He made his NFL preseason debut for the Chiefs on 11 August 2024 in a 26–13 pre-season loss to Jacksonville Jaguars, running six times, gaining 22 yards (20 m) and catching one pass for three yards (2.7 m).[4][58] He made three pre-season appearances for the Chiefs in mid 2024.[14] During the pre-season on August 26, the Chiefs re-signed JuJu Smith-Schuster after his time with New England Patriots. Smith-Schuster took Rees-Zammit's assigned shirt-number, #9, and Rees-Zammit switched to shirt number #49, the same number as the punter Matt Araiza, until the final selection was made.[59][60] On 28 August 2024, Rees-Zammit became a free agent after failing to be chosen for the Chiefs' initial 53-man rosterr during the final pre-season roster cuts. Later that day, he joined Jacksonville Jaguars' practice squad, taking jersey #84.[61][62] Rees-Zammit also changed positions from running back for the Chiefs to wide receiver for the Jaguars, a position he prefers due to his size and strength.[4] As part of the squad, he returned to the UK for the NFL London Games in October 2024. During the journey, he had an interview with the NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and also met William, Prince of Wales.[63][64] Notes
References
External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Louis Rees-Zammit. More profile links |
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