HUDDERSFIELD GIANTS veteran Leroy Cudjoe is entering the twilight of his illustrious rugby league career.
Having debuted for his hometown club back in 2008, Cudjoe has gone on to make over 350 appearances for the Giants and signed a one-year deal in 2023 to take him into 2024.
Now 35, the veteran centre is under no illusions about his age, but Cudjoe isn’t ruling anything out.
“I’m not sure if next year will be my last; the focus at the moment is making sure I have a good pre season and compete for a place in the starting line up next season,” Cudjoe told TotalRL.
“I’ll probably have a better indication of my plans after the first few months, see how I’m travelling which has been the same for the last few years.
“I’m really passionate about coaching and have been for a long while now, I coached a team all the way through at Moldgreen and now I help out with our academy when I can.
“This year I had the opportunity to work with Yorkshire academy, so I’m really enjoying coaching young lads and learning lots from different environments and coaches, I should finish my level 3 coaching course by early next year so coaching is an option.”
With Cudjoe one of the highest-rated centres in Super League in the early 2010s, there was undoubtedly interest from abroad, with the 35-year-old revealing he almost left Huddersfield for the NRL in 2013.
“I’ve had interest over the years from different clubs but always remained at Huddersfield,” he said.
“After the World Cup in 2013 I had an opportunity from a club in the NRL which I considered a lot but the timing wasn’t right for me and my family.
“So I signed a long term deal with Huddersfield which I was really happy and excited about.”
The Giants underperformed greatly in 2023, missing out on a Super League play-off spot by some distance, but Cudjoe is aiming high.
He added: “The squad for next season looks really exciting and full of quality but last year’s squad was the same and we didn’t perform too well so we need to make sure we perform to our potential as a team consistently week in week out and prove with our actions and results that we are a quality squad.
“We need to have a much better season than this year and be a lot more consistent with everything we do. Deep down we all know what we want to achieve as that’s why we play the game but we cant jump ahead of ourselves.
“It all starts with having a good pre-season, building a good foundation for us to start the season with then take it week by week.”
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