Sport
Wigan Athletic academy product and beloved club ‘servant’ Callum Lang issues emotional goodbye
The Latics have sang their last 'Sweet Callum Lang'.
Danny Jones -
29th January 2024 
Wigan Athletic academy product Callum Lang has issued an emotional goodbye after agreeing to leave the club after more than a decade to join Portsmouth FC.
The much-loved club servant and vice-captain who has been with Wigan since the age of 14 was revealed as a Pompey player on Monday, 29 January after joining the title contenders on a two-and-a-half-year deal for an undisclosed fee.
Having worked his way through the youth ranks and into the first-team and seen all the clubs’ highs and lows — from seeing them lift the FA Cup against Manchester City as a boy to surviving the administration years and everything in between — being a Latics is virtually all he’s known.
You could say the same for most local fans who grew up in the same generation as him too, with countless supporters jumping online to thank him for his years of service. Unsurprisingly, Lang’s farewell was just heartfelt if not more.
Insisting that he has “loved every minute” of playing for the Greater Manchester club, he described pulling on the blue and white shirt every week and calling the DW Stadium his home for more than 10 years as “an honour”, insisting that he “always left everything out on the pitch” whenever he played.
The now 25-year-old club veteran signed off by saying, “Wigan Athletic, thank you for looking after me. Once a Tic, always a Tic”.
Despite asking to leave the club after having been dropped to the bench on a number of occasions as other senior figures in the team stepped into leadership roles, compounded by a calf injury earlier in the season, there seems to be very little ill feeling in response to his decision to depart.
You only have to listen to what the supporters are saying about him now his transfer has gone through to know that he still has a lot of goodwill around the club and its fan base.
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Making 143 appearances for Wigan and playing a key role in the 2021/22 League One title-winning season, where he registered an impressive career-best of 18 goals, he made more than his contribution to the club during his long run in the team.
However, it was also his conduct and behaviour outside of the club that won him even more fans around Wigan, with many commenting “amazing footballer and an absolute gentleman” and congratulating Portsmouth on signing “a great player and an even better person”.
With nearby rivals and fellow title contenders Bolton in second behind Portsmouth, one fan simply signed off by sharing a picture of the table and adding, “You’ve got a job to do”.
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Featured Images — Wigan Athletic/Laura Meakin/Portsmouth (via X)
