SOME FOOTBALLERS MEASURE their lives in FAI Cup finals but let’s gauge Paddy Barrett’s between them.
Tomorrow he will return to the Aviva Stadium for his first Cup final in five years, this time with Saint Patrick’s Athletic having sat on the Dundalk bench for the late, Seani Maguire-inflicted defeat of 2016.
He has been globetrotting in the interim. Barrett left Dundalk permanently at the end of the following year, leaving for America and a year with FC Cincinnati of Ohio. It started well: he did an interview with the Irish press in which he said he missed tea and porridge and then found a delivery of the same from local fans. He played almost every week and occasionally captained a side that topped the regular season table but faltered in the play-offs.
The club was on an upward trajectory and earned a place in an expended Major League Soccer, but rules limiting foreign players saw him cut loose.
He then joined Indy Eleven of Indianapolis, where he spent two years before earning a move to Cambodian side Preah Khan Reach Svay Rieng. He didn’t last long, though: leaving his mandatory quarantine to find a country mired in shocking poverty.
“I really enjoyed it there but didn’t take a liking to it the way I would have”, says Barrett. “I saw some amazing things over there and other things that I wish I’d had a blindfold on for when I did see them. I ended up in Inchicore. Cambodia prepared me well for Inchicore! I’ve loved it since I came here.
“It’s just crazy, a different world over there, the third world side of it. The sights I’ve seen are very scary. It’s more kids than adults, where you see their suffering. From a month old, they’ve got no chance. They don’t really have a platform to start from. They’re at below zero and will stay there, however they react to that.
“That’s probably the saddest thing over there and probably the main reason I didn’t like it as much. The kids have no hope from the start.
“I’m the youngest of 11 kids. I’ve got 18 nieces and nephews so seeing kids that age…my nieces and nephews have a luxury life compared to theirs. It’s alright when people go there on holidays, seeing these beautiful oceans and sandy beaches. It’s completely different when you’re living there, the everyday norm is walking outside your door seeing kids lying on the ground with no clothes on.
“The most you can do is give them some money. I bought numerous pairs of shoes, probably one dollar per pair. I asked local players why kids don’t have shoes, it’s because parents don’t want to buy them shoes as they’ll grow out of them.
“They grow out of them and can’t afford to buy them a new pair. It’s mind-blowing stuff.
“I’ve alerted people. I’ve sent out emails to people from there who are in a group for foreigners that live over there. It’s crazy how things like that are accepted. I lived beside the killing fields where 40,000 people were killed 44 years ago, and nothing happened about it.
“It’s unbelievable in this day and age that it’s accepted. You see half the people driving around there in Ferraris and they’ve driving past the kids in streets with no shoes. And no hope for them from the start.”
Barrett left for home, and was signed by his old captain, Stephen O’Donnell. He didn’t make it off the bench in any of the three cup finals he was involved with at Dundalk but has been a Pat’s regular this season, playing in all but eight of their league games and all of their Cup games bar the last-16 win against Cork, which he missed through suspension.
“This would be my first one I’m most involved in and will probably mean the most because we weren’t expected to do as well as we did this year”, says Barrett. “We weren’t expected to have the season we did. Everyone else was looking at Shamrock Rovers to lift every bit of silverware, but in-house we knew that we’re capable of doing it. Hopefully we can go win it.”
Winning it will involve curbing the influence of Bohemian’s Georgie Kelly, who has recovered from a calf injury and arrives into the Cup final blazing a trail of hot form and interested suitors: the striker, once of Pat’s, has 26 goals in all competitions this year.
“Georgie is an unbelievable player, you’ve seen by his goals this year. He’s the top striker. I’ve played against him three or four times. He is big, strong, and a goal-scoring threat. Hopefully, I can keep him quiet.”
That’s the on-field ambition of a man himself not happy to keep quiet on other matters.
