{"id":774421,"date":"2026-09-18T06:20:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T06:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/774421\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T06:20:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T06:20:14","slug":"ross-mccormack-signs-for-ninth-tier-side-months-after-shocking-boxing-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/774421\/","title":{"rendered":"Ross McCormack Signs For Ninth-Tier Side Months After Shocking Boxing Debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former Premier League<\/a> striker, who was knocked out in the first round of his boxing debut back in April, has made his return to the beautiful game this week, albeit under far less glamorous circumstances.<\/p>\n

The forward in question played for Aston Villa<\/a> and Leeds United<\/a> during his career and won 13 caps for his national team. He is best known for his time in the Championship, where he earned legend status for the frequency with which he was banging in the goals.<\/p>\n

Now on the wrong side of 40, though, a surprising announcement declared him the new talisman of a ninth-tier side in English football. He has since spoken about the move, with a lot in his life having changed over the course of the last 12 months.<\/p>\n

Former Aston Villa and Leeds United Star Signs For Ninth-Tier Side<\/p>\n

\"Villa<\/p>\n

EFL legend Ross McCormack has joined Knaresborough Town of the Northern Counties East Football League Premier Division. His arrival at the North Yorkshire-based outfit comes just a month after McCormack signed for Scottish amateur side Giffnock North.<\/p>\n

The 40-year-old, who contributed to an incredible 175 goals in 330 Championship appearances, had previously been without a club for almost two-and-a-half years after leaving Doncaster City in March 2024. <\/p>\n

The Boro announced the signing of McCormack on Tuesday ahead of a Northern Counties East Football League Cup tie against Penistone Church. While Knaresborough went on to win 2-0, McCormack was not involved, and he could instead make his debut at home to Horbury Town on Saturday afternoon at the 1,000-capacity Manse Lane.<\/p>\n

Back in April, the former Scotland international made headlines for making his boxing debut, in which he was knocked out in the first round by fellow former Leeds player Matt Kilgallon<\/a> in a charity match. <\/p>\n

Kilgallon was on top from the outset of the fight, skillfully avoiding McCormack’s punches as the striker waded forward looking to land blows of his own. Ultimately, the Scot was made to pay for his reckless advances as Kilgallon landed a perfectly-timed left hook that sent McCormack crashing to the canvas.<\/p>\n

Ross McCormack’s career stats (selected)<\/p>\n

Competition<\/p>\n

Appearances<\/p>\n

Goals<\/p>\n

Assists<\/p>\n

Minutes Played<\/p>\n

Championship<\/p>\n

333<\/p>\n

120<\/p>\n

55<\/p>\n

24,909<\/p>\n

Scottish Premiership<\/p>\n

62<\/p>\n

12<\/p>\n

8<\/p>\n

3,600<\/p>\n

A-League Men<\/p>\n

22<\/p>\n

15<\/p>\n

1<\/p>\n

1,629<\/p>\n

EFL Cup<\/p>\n

21<\/p>\n

9<\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

1,341<\/p>\n

FA Cup<\/p>\n

19<\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

1,387<\/p>\n

League One<\/p>\n

19<\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

0<\/p>\n

1,149<\/p>\n

It was immediately clear that McCormack wanted no more of his opponent after that point. Referee Ian-John Lewis waved the fight off with barely two minutes of the opening round gone. <\/p>\n

\"Ross<\/p>\n

It has since come to light that McCormack has struggled in life recently, and a return to football has helped him get back on track. Opening up on his latest career move, he told the BBC (watch the full interview below):<\/p>\n

“I just fell out of love for the game. You start eating, you start drinking, you fall into a little bit of depression, you’re struggling, you put weight on, and it becomes a hard cycle to break. I think I’m past that now, I’m training, I’m a lot slimmer, a lot fitter, a lot happier as well.<\/p>\n

“That’s why I want to keep it going now. I hate thinking about it now, because when I retired at 32, you think: ‘why didn’t you just keep playing?’ But I’ve got a chance now, and I want to play for as long as I possibly can.”<\/p>\n

After being asked about the value his experience brings to a club at Knaresborough’s level, he continued: “That’s exactly what it is, it’s sharing the experience. There’s a couple younger people in the squad. There’s actually some older heads in the building that haven’t experienced a lot too.<\/p>\n

“So anything there is that I can do to help, I’m always willing to do it. I’ve said that to the club, I’m happy to do it, in any capacity.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Premier League striker, who was knocked out in the first round of his boxing debut back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":774422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-774421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=774421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=774421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=774421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=774421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}