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O'Malley speaking today. Ryan Byrne/INPHO

Ireland's latest call-up O'Malley skips exams to link up with senior squad

The former St Patrick’s Athletic goalkeeper is studying to be a financial analyst, having earned a degree at Maynooth University.

CONOR O’MALLEY’S FIRST experience in the Ireland set-up has taken priority over his academic studies this week.

The 23-year-old inclusion in Martin O’Neill’s latest squad came as a bit of a surprise when he was named as one of three goalkeepers along with Colin Doyle and Shane Supple due to injuries to the regular stoppers.

For the Peterborough United man, however, the training camp for next week’s friendly matches against France and the US clashed with his CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) exams.

“The scholarship programme at St Pat’s allowed me to study and play professional football at the same time so I got a degree in Maths from Maynooth,” O’Malley explained today. “It’s nice to have it there and know that once I finish playing football, I’ll be able to go and get a good job.

“I’m doing my CFA exams at the moment to be a financial analyst. It was to be on 23 June, so this has ruined that exam for me this year but I might sit it next year.”

You can make good money at it but it’s just nice to have that security there when you finish,” the Mayo native adds. “If anything happens to finish your career suddenly there’s something there that you can do and still have a decent lifestyle.

“I didn’t enjoy school but I liked some subjects and I liked maths, physics, those sorts of subjects, so I didn’t mind studying for them. I went to college and they had options there so I did maths and football. I wanted to see where football would go then so I took a year out after college just to concentrate on that and ended up exactly a year after finishing college signing for Peterborough so it worked out well.

“If I’d had the offer when I was in college I might have made a rash decision and left so I’m happy I didn’t, that I got the opportunity to finish my degree and go over at the right time.”

O’Malley joined League One outfit Peterborough from St Patrick’s Athletic last August and made 14 appearances in all competitions during his first season in England football.

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