Born in Dundee, Wallace began his career at Scottish giants Celtic. He made 37 appearances for the Hoops, before making the move to Wearside in 2006. He was an exciting forward that went straight into Keano’s side. He made his debut against Derby County and scored as the Lads began their promotion journey.
Wallace scored his sixth goal of the Championship campaign in a 5-0 win over Luton, the result secured the Championship title. He competed on the left-wing that season with Swedish international Toby Hysen, who scored four goals. Wallace garnered a reputation for taking his top off when he scored, this led him to getting sent off against Hull City.
Wallace had a reputation for taking his top off whenever he scored, much to the annoyance of Keane when he was in charge. In a game against Hull, Wallace was already on a yellow but he scored a late winner and in the chaos of the celebration he took his top off, something he had been booked for earlier in the season, and as a result the ref had to dismiss him with a second yellow card.
Speaking after the match, the Scot said: "The manager obviously isn't too happy and neither am I. I wanted to get a run in the team because it has been a bit stop-start so far and this won't help. There was a lot of upheaval when I first came here, in terms of moving house and leaving family behind, and it takes time to adjust. But I'm settled now, I want to kick on and this suspension won't come at a good time for me. Unfortunately, I'm going to have an unwanted holiday again."
He also made light of the sending off, vowing to keep his shirt on next time: "I'm going to have to staple my shirt on in the future because that is twice that it's happened now."
The Scot scored two goals in the Premier League before being loaned out to Preston North End. He played over 80 games for the Lilywhites and scored 12 goals. Wallace then made the move to Burnley in 2010, he remained there for five years winning promotion in 2014.
He then joined Sheffield Wednesday on a free transfer in 2015, where he scored 13 goals in three years. Not to mention, he played in the 2016 play off final, where Wednesday lost to Yorkshire rivals Hull City.
After a few short spells at Fleetwood Town and St Mirren, Ross Wallace retired from football in 2020. However, he currently works as the assistant coach for Burnley’s youth team. He is clearly well liked in Lancashire.
After he retired, Ross let people know that Roy Keane had a softer, lighter side too. The two had already known each other as we signed Ross from the same team Keano retired at, Celtic. He recalled his first meeting with Roy when he was about to join us:
"We went down to Sunderland and he was staying in a wee country club and it had a barn around the back. I went into the hotel and he was like 'ahhh how you doing?' When I first went in there was a wee couch and he had a booster seat waiting for me on the couch! It was good banter and he was quite funny like that. He said: 'You jump up there!"
A similar thing happened again when he got sent off for the excessive celebrations:
"The first time he had a pop at me but the second time he said to me: 'I don't know why you keep taking your top off. It's not as if you have got a good body! I did it a third time against Hull. I took my top off after scoring a winner and I was sent off again. He came up, I think there was six games to go and it was a massive win, but I think he was buzzing. He came over to me and there was ice on my leg. He booted the ice off my leg and went: 'Two weeks wages', but he gave me a wee wink as if to say he wasn't going to be taking them off me and he didn't to be fair."
