Callum Wilson wants to make one thing clear – he is not finished yet. Not by a long shot.
It has been a busy week for the 33-year-old, finally, belatedly confirming his exit from Newcastle United after five fine years as the club’s number nine before jetting back from New Jersey, where he was part of Dazn’s broadcasting team for the Club World Cup.
Still tired, with his body clock still on US time, he had been dragged into a water fight with his daughter in the north-east sun just before we spoke.
But he sounds refreshed – mentally and physically – for a “proper break” and is adamant that the assumption he’s firmly in the autumn of his career are plain wrong.
Wilson has always been something of an outlier, a striker who has played in just about every rung of the football pyramid as well as a World Cup final.
His injury problems would have floored most but his determination to come back from those setbacks make his next aim – to get back among the goals in the Premier League – feel easily achievable.
“I had an amazing five years at Newcastle but football moves on so quickly,” he says.
“I’m at a point in my career now where I’m 33, I still have so much to give, but I’ve not been able to show it.”
Next week he will go into an overseas fitness camp before making a decision on his future.
Asked about Burnley and Leeds United’s reported interest, he says only that he believes he can play at the highest level next season.
It is not something he has been able to do much of over the last 12 months.
“When you’re coming on for five, 10 minutes here and there within a game everyone thinks that you can’t play longer than that,” Wilson says.
“Everyone thinks ‘he’s losing a yard of pace’, all these other things, but obviously coming on as a substitute is completely different to starting a game.
“When you come on as a sub it’s so hard to catch a second wind and before you know it the game is over. That was the only thing for me. I still feel I can offer so much.
“I had conversations with the manager [Eddie Howe] and we established that I’m not at a point mentally where I’m ready to sit on the bench and play No 2 for the whole season.
“I don’t mind yo-yoing here and there but it’s got to be a fair fight.”
There was an outpouring of goodwill at Newcastle when Wilson posted on social media earlier this week that he would be leaving the club after his contract expired.
There had been talks about his future – with a pay as you play deal talked about – but the way Wilson speaks about it, a renewal was never really on the cards.
“I always had my thoughts in my head,” he says.
“Staying at Newcastle with the Champions League and off the back of winning a trophy, signing all these players, it all sounds great and looks great, but for me as a player, when you’re not being able to contribute like you feel you could contribute, it doesn’t feel the same.
“If I was at a point where I was content with what I’ve done in my career and want to see the last few years fizzle out, sitting around and helping younger players then not a problem. But I still feel I can do that as well as play on the pitch.
“For me, looking at the bigger picture, Alex [Isak] has done fantastic last season and the season before so it’s difficult to get minutes.
“It’s OK, it’s not a problem but sometimes he’s not even coming off. It was five minutes here and there and I want more for myself. That was basically my decision.”
There is no bitterness at all but some of the jibes about his injury record must have stung, especially because – he reveals for the first time – some of those setbacks came because he was willing to play when clearly not 100 per cent.
Wilson says that was his decision, and one he is comfortable with, but it was done out of respect for Howe and the shirt and numbers he was representing.
“Newcastle has changed so much over five years and I’m glad to have contributed to that, to have worn the No 9 shirt and scored goals in the Gallowgate End which so many people speak about,” he says.
“I’m just glad to have put some more history of my own into the shirt – when you wear it you want to do it justice.
“People said to me it was losing its way a little bit so I’m glad I was able to, at one point, be the club’s second highest [Premier League] scorer.
“With the games I did miss in my time there I should have been in the clear and long gone but it just happens.
“Nobody likes to get injured, no-one wants to get injured and a lot of the time it was because I was selfless and put myself forward to play in games when I wasn’t 100 per cent fit to try and help the team because we might not have had a striker. It was to the detriment of myself and that’s why I then had these setbacks.
“Of course I could have sat down and said ‘No actually I’m not going to play’ and stuff like that but I came to the club to help the club and do a job for them.
“When I’m working with a manager I have so much respect for and have worked with for so many years I would basically, for my staff and teammates, do anything in my powers to help. That’s what I did do and unfortunately, like I say, I had my fair share of setbacks because of it. But I wouldn’t change anything.”
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The last month has seen Wilson cover the Club World Cup, where he has been impressed by the challenge of the South American clubs.
But he can’t see past Paris Saint-Germain on Sunday as they face a Chelsea side “growing into the tournament”.
“It has been a brilliant tournament to watch and I think you can see from the way the Real Madrid and PSG players reacted at the end of their semi-final how much it meant to them,” he says.
“It’s a new tournament but for South American football it’s a platform for those players and it’s only going to grow.
“Chelsea have done brilliantly but at the moment there’s a bit of a gap between them and PSG but rightly so. You’re talking about a club trying to win its fourth trophy of the season.”
Wilson has been a revelation for Dazn as a pundit in the States, knowledgeable and articulate and a natural broadcaster.
“I used the opportunity to experience something different while being attached to football slightly,” he says.
“Being 33 at some point you have to think about what you’re going to do afterwards.
“I’m thinking will I get into the media, an agent or mentor sort of role or striker coach. This was a perfect opportunity to dip my toe into the punditry side of things.”
Callum Wilson was speaking on behalf of Dazn ahead of the FIFA Club World Cup final on Sunday, 13 July. Watch for free live on Dazn.
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