THE TISSUE THIN difference between making it and not making it as a professional footballer was up for discussion on today’s Football Family podcast.
The 42 journalists David Sneyd and Gavin Cooney and Cobh Ramblers manager Shane Keegan delved into the topic on the back of Cooney’s fascinating interview with Dan Rose, the goalkeeping prospect who swapped Schalke for college in the US.
Keegan said such stories are more common than many imagine.
“Waterford were particularly strong when I was involved in underage football,” Keegan said. “They were winning All-Irelands and they had a couple of absolute stars. I could name half a dozen but the one who I really remember is Kenny McEvoy.”
“Kenny was at Spurs. He played in the same position as Gareth Bale, he was the absolute stamp of Gareth Bale and apparently he was the only person in training, because he was training with Spurs first team like, who was able to put it up to Gareth Bale in a race.
“Everybody wanted Kenny when he moved across to England. He went across in 2014 and there was so much talk. He was doing well for Spurs at underage level for quite a while. And then he went out on loans and things didn’t really happen when he went out on loan. He went in 2014 and I’m looking at this guy as being the great hope for Spurs, the club I support, could he be the next Gareth Bale?
“By 2017 I was telling him at the end of a trial period at Galway United that I wasn’t offering him a contract. He ended up signing for Waterford that year, he gave one season to Waterford and I think he basically retired at the end of 2017.
“These stories, there’s so, so many of them, and Gav’s story (with Rose) is a perfect example of one.”
Cooney said that Rose found that you need ability plus an unwavering passion for the game to progress to the professional ranks. And if that fervour diminishes, it is pointless to continue even if others think you are leading a life of dreams.
“Like he says, like being a footballer sounds great off your lips and everyone loves it for you. And you can try and live your life not necessarily enjoying the day-to-day but striving for some imagined vision at the end of it, or some vision of success, but life doesn’t work that way,” Cooney said.
He added: “You genuinely have to, in my view, enjoy what you do day-to-day. Like, you can’t eat a load of shit every day and postpone it all in the hope of, you know, some great moment of validation or enjoyment down the line because that may never come and particularly in football.
“When people say it’s a game of opinions they don’t just refer to media comment, they refer to the opinions of those who will make or break your career. That’s what I found most effecting from that interview, and I think that’s why it struck a chord with people.”
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