Karl Darlow on Cymru family legacy and World Cup dream

Cymru goalkeeper Karl Darlow has spoken about his ‘dream’ of playing at the World Cup and with it emulating the achievements of his grandfather, Ken Leek, who was a member of the Cymru squad at the 1958 tournament in Sweden.

“It would mean everything,” Darlow explained to FAW.cymru this week from the training camp in Spain. “As a player it’s a dream to go to the World Cup. I know a few of the lads have done it here before and have spoke about their experiences and how incredible it was for them, and it’s something I want to look back on in my career and say that I’ve been to a World Cup. It’s a big target for myself and the group.”

The 34-year old has started both qualifying matches for the 2026 FIFA World Cup as Cymru sit second in Group J with four points after alternating the position with Danny Ward during the last UEFA Nations League campaign. A 3-1 victory over Kazakhstan in Cardiff was followed by a 1-1 draw away to North Macedonia, and Craig Bellamy will now look to continue his undefeated record as head coach against Liechtenstein (6 June) and Belgium (9 June).

“The way that qualification works these two games in the summer are hugely important,” Darlow added. “We’ve got Liechtenstein and then Belgium, which are big games for us, and we want to maximise the amount of points that we can get from those games. Like the manager says, we just go on to the next one, so Liechtenstein at home is the most important at the minute and that’s got our full focus.

“We played some good football in that game (against Kazakhstan), so to start our campaign with three points in front of our home fans was brilliant. We know there’s obviously a long way to go in qualification and we hope we get the same backing against Liechtenstein in the next one.”

Family legacy

Darlow only made his Cymru debut last September in the 2-1 victory away to Montenegro and now has five senior appearances to his name. His international status means that he now follows in the footsteps of his grandfather, former Cymru striker Ken Leek, who made 13 appearances and scored five goals for his country, and was also part of Jimmy Murphy’s squad that reached the quarter-final of the 1958 FIFA World Cup.

“My parents have been down to the home games and I think my brother is planing on flying out to Belgium,” Darlow explained. “They’re massively proud and it’s something that I’m massively proud of as well to follow in the footsteps of what he’s done and hopefully we can achieve World Cup qualification, like he did many years ago. It’s been brilliant, a brilliant experience for me.

“It’s been completely different to anything that I’ve experienced before. Coming into a group that was already a really good group, a really strong group, I just wanted to add to what we’ve already got here. The way they’ve been with me and the professionalism in terms of how the coaching staff is day in, day out in what we do, the intensity of work that we do, I’ve really enjoyed it and it’s something I’m really glad I’ve signed up to.”

Championship glory

Born in Northampton, Darlow played for Nottingham Forest, Newcastle United, Newport County, Walsall and Hull City before joining current club Leeds United on a permanent deal in the summer of 2023, and played a key role in the side winning the EFL Championship this season and with it gaining promotion back to the Premier League.

Playing behind Cymru trio Ethan Ampadu, Joe Rodon and Dan James, Darlow was elevated first choice goalkeeper for the final seven games of the campaign by manager Daniel Farke. Leeds United won six of those final seven games with Darlow keeping four clean-sheets in the process as the side finished on 100 points and above Burnley on goal difference on the final day.

“It was an incredible end to the season, a really long season,” said Darlow. “We had a great string of results at the end that got us over the line, it went down to the last day for who was going to win the title, and thankfully we got over the line in the last minute. It was an incredible day and a great way to finish our season.”