ONE OF MAYO’S victorious All-Ireland U21 winners, Shairoze Akram, has thanked his club mate Andy Moran for forcing him to take up the game at the age of 11.
Akram became the first Pakistani-born player to win an All-Ireland medal as he helped Mayo to victory over Cork on Saturday night in Ennis, but none of it would have happened with the intervention of the Mayo senior captain.
There is a strong Ballaghaderreen influence in that Mayo U21 team: manager Mike Solan and selector John Ginty both hail from the club, while Akram, Seamus Cunniffe and Ryan Lynch all represented the parish in the U21 panel.
And despite being a keen soccer and basketball player, Akram – who moved to Ballaghaderreen at the age of four in 2001 – was inspired to join the local GAA club on Moran’s orders.
“It wasn’t me, I was persuaded to play the game. Andy Moran, I put it all down to him. I was sort of made go by him and it has taken off from there. I picked the game up when I was in sixth class about eight or nine years ago and I’ve played ever since,” said Akram.
“He’d be one of the players I look up to in the club. He is a great mentor. He’s the one who got me involved in football and he has helped me ever since.
“Anything I ever needed he has been there for me since the start. I’d like to thank him for that and for everything.”
As a former student of St Nathy’s College in Ballaghaderreen, Akram was always likely to develop his game through his teenage years, so much so that he played as a wing-forward for the 2014 county minor team that lost the All-Ireland semi-final to Kerry.
Injury denied him a place in last summer’s disappointing Connacht minor championship, but after Saturday’s success, the DCU fresher is keen to progress further with the county.
“Hopefully down the line I’ll make the seniors. You’d never know. But I have another year left in U21 anyway,” he said.
“I’m just out of minor since last year, and I would have two more years as an U21 but they cut it back to U20s, so I just have the one year left.
“This was an unbelievable experience. I can’t describe it, it was just an amazing feeling. It’s just hitting us now that we’ve won it.
“Standing up there in front of the Mayo supporters, it was hard to explain how good it felt. Hopefully it’s the first of many for us, hopefully we can push on and get a couple of more in the next few years and drive on from there.”
The42 is on Snapchat! Tap the button below on your phone to add!
Another fun filled day for us Irish.
Good luck to them all…..
How many medals can we really hope to pick up?
I’d say if we return wit 3-5 I’d be very happy
1: I’d be happy
2: I’d be very happy
3+ I wouldnt even notice the pissing rain outside!!
I think we could come away from the Olympics with 6+ medals…. Boxers look strong, Annalise Murphy, Eoin Rheinisch and a good track & field squad….
It’s not about medels it’s about Which 5 star hotel will the committee stay in? It’s also important they have drivers.