Notts County: Ruben Rodrigues on his turbulent career & commitment to promotion

Ruben Rodrigues had 38 goal involvements for Notts County in all competitions last season, scoring 22 and providing 16 assists

Ruben Rodrigues has learned to take opportunities when presented with them.

Just ask Wrexham's players, who fell victim to six nutmegs from Notts County's Portuguese playmaker in last month's top-of-the-table match between the two promotion favourites.

"I like to nutmeg people, yeah," he told BBC Sport with a wide grin.

"It's not taking the mick out of the opponents, sometimes it's made easier for me if they open their legs - it's an easier pass or dribble.

"It's in a fraction of a second that I decide to do it because you never know when the player's legs will be open."

Such quick and decisive thinking, pulling off the most humiliating of skills on his opponents with almost effortless ease, is partly what makes Rodrigues one of the most wanted players in non-league football.

The 26-year-old smiles when he says he likes to be seen as the entertainer - but this is a footballer who is about much more than one trick in a fascinating career of impressive highs and almost ruinous lows.

He is a former football bad boy, a redemption story and risk-taker.

Rodrigues left Dutch second division side Den Bosch - a club that had once jettisoned him as a teenager because of bad behaviour - to move to England and drop to the fifth tier of professional football.

He shocked himself in wanting to move to the National League club, having had a breakout season with 12 goals and 10 assists in the Eerste Divisie - drawing admirers from the country's top flight, as well as clubs in Germany.

"It was Covid and other clubs said to wait until they knew their budgets," Rodrigues said. "Notts kept calling and one day I just said 'let's have a listen because you never know'.

"It surprised us how good it was."

'I'd have left in the summer'

Rodrigues is in his third season with Notts County

Rodrigues says there were times with the Magpies in his first season under Neal Ardley that "weren't happy", when "confidence was low" and "doubt" crept into his game.

He scored just four goals in 23 appearances before Ian Burchnall took charge, then went on to score seven goals in May 2021.

"Since then it's been upwards", Rodrigues said.

Last season he hit 22 goals and contributed 16 assists in all competitions - form that saw him linked with numerous clubs, from Blackburn and Blackpool to Sheffield Wednesday and Lincoln City.

The attention was intense, but what kept him at Meadow Lane was the arrival of new boss Luke Williams.

"I'm not going to lie, If Ian Burchnall would have stayed I think I would have left because I had him for a year and a half and I didn't think, after being with a manager for so long, that he would make me an even better player," Rodrigues said.

"You need new managers to get better and to think differently about the game. When I heard the gaffer came, we had a conversation on the phone in the summer and it was a really good to be fair.

"As soon as I came to training I told my agent, 'yeah, I think it's best for us to stay'.

"Everyone has to dream to go higher, but I came here with the idea of getting Notts County to where it belongs and we are doing a good job this year to try to achieve that.

"If I would have left the club and seen them get promoted this year and not be here, I would have regretted it."

Under Williams, Rodrigues is a changed player - acting more as a attacking bridge in a side that is spearheaded by the prolific Macaulay Langstaff.

Rodrigues' goal in Saturday's win at Eastleigh to take Notts back to the top of the table was his fifth this term. His tally of assists is already at six.

"Football wise it's the best season I've had, even though I'm not scoring or assisting as many as last season," he said.

"It's just how I feel on the pitch. I've been creating a lot of chances, my work-rate off the ball has been really good and I'm playing with pleasure."

'They kicked me out'

Rodrigues' two-year stint with Den Bosch as a senior player was broken up by a loan spell with lower league Dutch side De Treffers

Rodrigues, who was born in the Portuguese city of Oliveira de Azemeis and brought up in the Netherlands - where he was first discovered and encouraged to take football seriously by a painter working at a neighbouring house - says he is "proud of what I have become" in Nottingham.

Feeling goosebumps as his name is chanted by Magpies fans is not something he ever dared envision, especially when his initial stint with Den Bosch ended ignominiously as a teenager.

"They kicked me out," said Rodrigues, who went on to ask if he could swear while trying to explain what sort of person he was at the time.

"What was I doing? It was hanging around outside and having trouble with police. Nothing crazy, but doing the wrong things.

"It was also because of school. I'd have to stay back until 4pm then couldn't attend training sessions, so it wasn't working.

"I was young, made mistakes and I learned from it."

Rodrigues looks back at that time as a missed opportunity, but he went on to impress in the amateur game, before a move up the leagues with VV Gemert earned him a return to Den Bosch, where he eventually flourished.

"There were more teams in the second division that called me about playing professionally, but there was something about Den Bosch and having unfinished business there that made we want to prove them wrong," he said.

And when he did, Notts beckoned and became the unlikely destination where he would "grow up a lot".

On Saturday, when Notts take on Yeovil in front of what is anticipated to be a new non-league record crowd at Meadow Lane, the playmaker is determined to make the most of the latest opportunity in front of him.

"It drives every player on, especially me, because I like to showboat a little bit when the crowd is big," he said.

"It gives me extra motivation and energy."