David Sneyd

IMAGINE, FOR A moment, that you have just bought a house with the person you love and are about to embark on a new chapter in your life.

Let’s say, for argument’s sake, you are also fortunate enough to have a baby on the way.

Your future is beginning to take on a different kind of purpose.

You also love your job and are driven by a twin sense of focus and ambition.

The job doesn’t ask things of you, it demands them. And you are only happy to oblige.

But let’s also say that you still need floors for your house, the home where your family will grow.

What do you do?

Well, if you’re Stephen Kenny you use your last £3,000 of savings that were set aside for wooden floors to buy two players for Longford Town instead.

This was just one anecdote Kenny told earlier this week as he spent an hour or so reflecting on a career where he will take charge of his 1,000th game in club management when St Patrick’s Athletic face Cork City in the FAI Cup semi-final tonight.

That story was from a different time, when Kenny was in his late 20s and fueled by a desire to make his name – and a living – in the game.

It’s an example of the sacrifice so many make to try to succeed in any walk of life; of the constant struggle to persevere in the pursuit of something we have no clue where it will take us.

Happiness and fulfilment are the ultimate destinations, and there will always be scars both physical and metaphorical to endure along the way. Kenny spoke of that this week, too, elaborating further on some of those faced during and after his time in charge of the Republic of Ireland.

In the Czech capital this week, Shamrock Rovers head coach Stephen Bradley and captain Roberto Lopes were side by side in the pre-match press conference ahead of their Uefa Conference League game with Sparta Prague.

Their shared sacrifice, struggle and perseverance in their respective careers came to mind as they spoke.

Bradley’s story of success with Rovers over the past six years has been even more remarkable given his son Josh was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2022, his treatment reaching a successful conclusion after three years in August.

When he was a teenager himself in Arsenal’s academy, Bradley was the victim of a brutal burglary in which he was stabbed in the head.

The Dubliner has been open about that time in his life, when the hunger for the game which he had growing up in Tallaght was already diminishing. He eventually returned to Ireland but retired from playing before he turned 30.

Roberto Lopes when he signed for Shamrock Rovers in November 2016. Donall Farmer / INPHO Donall Farmer / INPHO / INPHO

Coaching and management provided a new emphasis. He celebrated his 40th birthday last November and for most of the last decade he has been in charge at Rovers – he took over from Pat Fenlon on an interim basis in the summer of 2016.

Lopes was working for a bank as a mortgage advisor back then. He was 24 and recognised as a solid, dependable League of Ireland player with Bohemians.

But he was part-time and wanted more. Professional football offered him less money – to begin with – but fulfilment.

When Bradley signed him at the latter part of 2016, a two-year contract provided Lopes with the chance to try and live his dream.

Sacrifice and dedication have now brought Lopes to the cusp of an achievement that would have always been beyond those wildest dreams: playing at the World Cup.

He became a Cape Verde international as his father Carlos was born there before moving to Dublin in the 1980s.

Cape Verde are top of their qualifying group and require one point from their final two games to guarantee progress to next summer’s tournament in America, Canada and Mexico.

Lopes and his Rovers teammates landed back in Dublin just after 3am this morning after last night’s match in Prague. They face Kerry FC in the other FAI Cup semi-final on Sunday and then Lopes is back to Dublin airport again to fly off for international duty on Monday morning.

The first of the remaining Group D qualifiers is away to Libya on Wednesday and the campaign concludes at home to bottom side Eswatini the following Monday.

Qualification would be stunning, and he would become the first serving League of Ireland player to feature in a World Cup.

Lopes’ success is vindication for taking a chance on himself, and the sacrifice and struggle to achieve what he has will become proud memories as new experiences await gloriously over the horizon.