John Ruddy

Four years after leaving the club, popular goalkeeper John Ruddy returned to Wolves in summer 2026 for a second spell.

Ruddy previously spent five years at Molineux, playing a key role in the club’s last promotion to the top flight, and returned with the Old Gold to provide experience and know-how to Cesar Peixoto’s goalkeeping department.

The one-time Norwich City stopper first arrived at Wolves in 2017 and was Nuno Espirito Santo’s number one during a thrilling title-winning campaign, collecting the league’s Golden Glove award after 24 clean sheets and being named in the Team of the Season.

The most memorable of those 24 stop outs came in the Welsh capital, when his injury time penalty save against Cardiff City all but sealed the title and the club’s return to the Premier League.

Following promotion, Ruddy served as understudy to Rui Patricio and later Jose Sa for four seasons, driving standards in the dressing room and pushing his colleagues between the sticks each day in training.

After departing, Ruddy chalked up another 87 Championship appearances at Birmingham City, and was their Players’ Player of the Season in 2023, before spending two seasons at Newcastle United and being part of a squad which won the Carabao Cup.