Ben Foster: ‘I owe a lot to Wrexham. I’m enjoying playing football again’

B en Foster could be still playing in the Premier League, he could have started this season’s Carabao Cup final for Newcastle or he could have started a new adventure in MLS. The veteran goalkeeper said no to them all, but a debt of gratitude towards Wrexham was one he felt should be repaid.

Foster’s decision to come out of retirement and join the National League side last month was rewarded in spectacular style on Monday when his 97th-minute penalty save secured a 3-2 win over title rivals Notts County. It was, said a keeper who has represented England, Manchester United, Birmingham, West Brom and Watford in a career spanning more than 500 games, one of two moments he wished he could bottle to preserve the feeling forever. It gave Phil Parkinson’s team a three-point lead over Notts County in the race to secure automatic promotion to the Football League, with a game in hand and four to play.

Foster, who turned 40 last week, resisted several offers to return to the game after hanging up his gloves following Watford’s relegation from the top flight last season. He rejected Newcastle because he didn’t want to live apart from his Midlands-based family. Foster, not Loris Karius, would have deputised for Nick Pope in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley had he accepted the offer from Eddie Howe. Tottenham, seeking back-up for the injured Hugo Lloris, were also politely turned down. But not Wrexham.

A cynical take on the keeper’s decision was that it would be good for Fozcast – The Ben Foster Podcast, with its 191,000 subscribers on YouTube, to join a club with its own successful documentary series and Hollywood owners in Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. Foster’s reasoning is more straightforward. It was Wrexham who gave him a