THERE IS NO obvious right or wrong pathway for a young footballer, as Conor Carty’s journey attests.

The 16-year-old forward initially had his eye on a career in GAA, before the lure of professional soccer became apparent.

“I started off playing GAA and never got involved in soccer until I was about 14 or 15 and signed up for St Francis in Dublin,” he explains.

“Everything really took off from there. I was involved with the Irish squads, getting trials and eventually going over to England.”

The soccer starlet’s father is a “GAA head” whose playing career was prematurely cut short by a broken ankle, while Carty himself lined out for Wicklow at underage level before opting to switch sports.

So what was it that ultimately convinced him to make this difficult decision to leave a promising GAA career with St Nicholas club Dunlavin behind?

“I think it was how important it is. Playing Gaelic football, you can only go as far as your county, but playing soccer, you can play for your country and represent it in big tournaments as well.

I spoke to my dad and because I was already playing county for Wicklow, I’d never played for my country, and the minute I played against Poland on my [Ireland] debut, I haven’t really looked back since.”

The decision appears to have paid off so far. Carty will represent Ireland at the U17 Euros in the coming weeks, while he is also making good progress at Wolves since joining the English club in 2017.

“At St Francis, my first game, I got attracted [to Britain] and went over there on a few trials. Celtic would be quite a big club. When I went over, more clubs came looking and I went over to Wolves and found it really friendly and homely.

The youngster has caught the eye at international level, scoring two goals in two games against Turkey last year.

And with Troy Parrott expected to be unavailable, Ireland will be hoping that Carty can continue to fill the void set to be left by the Tottenham youngster’s absence.

“He’s quite a good player. He’s been doing well at Spurs and was obviously involved in the Euros last year.

“[But] we haven’t had him for the whole year — we haven’t really had many games [with him]. We’ve been preparing without him.” 

Carty is not the only Irishman at Wolves. Fellow Irish underage international Callum Thompson is there too, as is senior player Matt Doherty, who Carty frequently chats to at the club.

Former housemate Dan McKenna and Conor Levingston were also playing for the Molineux outfit until recently, though both ultimately returned home, signing for Shelbourne and Bohemians respectively. Their fates serve as a reminder, if any were needed, of the immense difficulty of breaking through at senior level in the Premier League.

The Wicklow native has been playing regularly for Wolves U18s, finishing 10th out of 12 teams in the season just finished, in addition to making two appearances for the club’s U23 side.

Carty is asked about advice for youngsters hoping to emulate his path in signing for a Premier League team and his response seems as much a warning to himself as anyone else.

“Stay committed to doing it. Don’t go over there and think you’ve made it. You’re only playing 18s football. You haven’t made it anywhere yet, so keep your head down and keep working away.”

Gavan Casey and Murray Kinsella are joined by Andy Dunne to get stuck into last weekend’s Champions Cup semi-finals.:

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