Meet the English striker chasing Golden Boot after taking France by storm

As a teenager, Rhys Healey briefly stopped playing football and feared his dreams were just out of reach.

Having had unsuccessful trials with a number of clubs then been released by Rochdale at 14, Healey took a year away.

His love of the game never faded, however, and as a Manchester City fan he looked to Craig Bellamy as his idol.

A move to Wales eventually saw him find a place with Connah's Quay Nomads, before his big break finally arrived with Cardiff City in 2013.

In a dream turn of events, it was childhood hero Bellamy who he replaced on his Premier League debut against Chelsea on the final day of the 2013/14 campaign.

"I just played normal Sunday league as a kid, junior football," he recalls. "I had trials at a lot of places, and I knew I was half-decent but I just didn't know how good I could be.

"I played for Rochdale from a young age, aged 12-14, then I moved to Wales with my Dad after Rochdale let me go.

"I had a year of not playing football at all because I didn't know which direction to go in.

"Then I had the opportunity to train with Connah's Quay when I was about 15 or 16, and it's all gone from there.

"When I signed for Cardiff it was a dream come true, getting into professional football.

"My Dad always said to me, 'I think if you were at a professional club at the age of 15 or 16 training every day, you'd go a long way'.

"I had to wait a while, but I managed to get that opportunity eventually at Cardiff which I was really grateful for.

"When I joined, obviously you had the likes of Craig Bellamy there. I don't think I ever told him, but all my life I used to watch Man City week in, week out.

"When he was there I used to love him, I used to have his name on the back of my shirt, and every day when he was there at Cardiff I was a bit starstruck.

"Making my debut in the Premier League and replacing him was something special. To this day I still speak about it and when people ask me about my career, that's the first thing I tell them - playing against Chelsea and replacing Craig Bellamy. It was a dream come true."

Healey's journey to professional football has never been the most conventional.

It was Welsh football which handed him his first break and, over a decade later, it is French football which has now taken his game to new heights.

Playing for Toulouse, Healey has emerged as one of Ligue 2's most prolific marksmen.

After finding the net 14 times last term, he is currently top goalscorer with eight goals in his opening 15 games to fire Les Violets to the top of the table.

"Last year I had a really good season," he says. "After coming from MK Dons, who played good football, I knew I'd fit in straight away.

"It was just me being patient and adapting to the way they play, the language barrier, the culture.

"I picked it up really quickly, and the style of play fits me perfectly. It's physical in certain parts but not as physical as in England.

"It's perfect for me right now, and I feel like I'm progressing even more out here at the moment."

It appeared at one stage that Healey could make the grade at Cardiff City.

After success for the Under-23s and loan spells with Colchester, Dundee and Newport County, he returned to the first-team fold for the first time in three years in January 2017.

New manager Neil Warnock handed him a lifeline, which Healey repaid with a last-minute winner against Burton Albion.

"I always thought when I was playing in the Under-23s and scoring a lot of goals, I believed my chance would come," he says.

"I knew in myself I was good enough for Cardiff's first-team, but I was patient and went on a lot of loans to get experience against seasoned pros.

"To get that opportunity and then score the winner against Burton was something I was working for over the five or six years I was at Cardiff before getting my proper taste of it.

"That was what kick-started the love of me wanting to be in the first-team squad every week and has got me to where I am today."

In a cruel twist of fate, Healey suffered a serious knee injury just a few weeks later on his second start for the Bluebirds.

Not for the first time, it left him doubting his future in football.

"It was probably the worst time of my career," he reflects. "I thought all the hard work had just been taken away from me.

"I genuinely said to myself, 'I don't know if I'll ever play again'. When people talk about those injuries, you never think it'll happen to you.

"I wouldn't wish it upon anyone, doing your MCL ligaments. It's a good old injury and at one point I didn't know if I was going to play again.

"But I had good ex-pros at Cardiff, the medical staff had been through it with players a lot, and I worked extremely hard."

Looking back, Healey views that injury as a turning point and an experience which shaped him into the player and man he is today.

"The hardest I've ever worked in my career was that period of eight months not training," he reveals. "I don't think I went one day without recovery - I just wanted to get back and make sure I was strong again.

"I think the way I worked whilst I was injured was the reason I kicked on. You see a lot of people with injuries that don't come back the same, but looking back it was an experience that made me stronger.

"It's just part of football, injuries come along, and I'm just happy I got through it and came back stronger."

After his return, Milton Keynes Dons handed Healey a loan opportunity before signing him permanently in 2019.

11 goals in 19 league appearances then caught the eye of former Liverpool chief Damien Comoli, now at Toulouse, and prompted him to take him to France.

"It was crazy how it came about," he says. "Just before the pandemic, me, my wife and a few couples from MK, we decided to go on a golfing trip near Bournemouth, just to switch off for a bit.

"I got a call off my agent, expecting just a touch up, 'how are you doing, are you keeping fit?', the standard phone call.

"He just said out of the blue, Toulouse are interested, are you interested? I said, 'why wouldn't I be? I love a challenge'.

"I spoke to my mrs and we both agreed if it did proceed then we should go for it. I didn't want to look back on it and regret not going there.

"Within the space of a month, it all snowballed, went really quickly and looking back I'm just really happy it managed to get over the line as quickly as it did.

"It's one million per cent the right choice I made. I'm happy and it's been a good choice in my career, the direction I want to go. I'm just grateful Toulouse had the trust in me to bring me to the club."

The move to the south of France came at an awkward time with the world in the grips of the coronavirus pandemic.

With the Pink City now returning to some form of normality, his first child on the way, and the goals flowing, life on and off the pitch has followed a similarly upwards trend.

"The first year was difficult," he admits. "We came when the pandemic picked up and a lot of restaurants and places like that closed.

"We were away from family and friends so it was difficult at times, but we're mostly over the pandemic now which we're grateful for.

"Life's really good out here. We're enjoying the culture, it's totally different to back home. It's more relaxed, not 100mph.

"Me and my wife are loving it out here, and we're expecting a child now that will obviously be born in France as well.

"I think it's probably the best time of my career at the minute which helps, I'm really enjoying my football, so hopefully that continues."

Healey hopes that upwards trend will land him and Toulouse in Ligue 1, giving him an opportunity to test himself at the top level.

"Last year we should've been promoted," he states. "We had everything in place, the team was unbelievable just like this year.

"But we had a situation with COVID towards the end of the season which didn't help, and we just fell short.

"This year we've started well. The team and the staff, everyone associated with Toulouse, it feels like a family.

"The team spirit is good and I think that's important, especially with such a mix of cultures and nationalities in the team.

"The president, Damien (Comoli), has the right structure of what he wants, and we feel like a family out here.

"Everyone is helping each other. We have a very young squad but the players here, the quality is second to none and players have gone on to bigger things from here.

"It's a great club to be at, and hopefully we can carry on our form to get where we want to be.

"Every player wants to achieve more and more. For me, I want to achieve promotion to Ligue 1, I want to get the chance to play in Ligue 1 with Toulouse.

"I also want to give my experience to people in Toulouse as well, because obviously I bring a different culture.

"We've got players from Holland, Belgium, Japan, Brazil, so it's a good mix and I want to play my part in that as well."

On a personal level, Healey has the goalscoring bug - and doesn't want to stop riding the crest of the wave.

"For me, as I'm getting more experienced it's just going out there to express myself," he concludes.

"I knew in myself I could score goals, I always believed in myself, and it's just going out and doing it.

"It's just a case of getting better each game, each training session and just scoring goals - that's ultimately what I want to keep doing."