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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Seems to be fairly grounded. Best of luck to him!
Wow. That closing piece of advice is powerful for a 16 year old. I like him already.
Not going to be popular but gaa is the main reason Ireland isn’t producing more professional sports people. Nothing against gaa but young kids are playing a sport they can’t make a living from when they may make a career from another sport with the same input.
@Harry Trafford: that is of no fault of the GAA to be fair. It’s up to the FAI to attract these young players to their product…every country faces the same issue, sports competing with other sports to attract young participants. Ireland is no different.
@Harry Trafford: not everything is about money. For some playing gaa and having a good job etc is enough for them. They play the sport and can obtain legendary local status. For others it’s about chasing huge wads of cash in a more commercial industry overseas with huge failure rates. Retire & play golf & grow a beer belly. Different folks, different strokes. As long as you’re happy. That’s the main thing.
@Ottomaaan: I agree the FAI need to pull the finger out. Ireland have some of the best sports people in the world right across the board. Just the article mentions a career in GAA but it’s an amature sport, all be it played with a professional attitude.
@Ronan McDermott: a career in sport isn’t all about money, not everyone makes massive wads of cash only the very small majority. I’m not referring to just becoming a footballer. You can make a decent wage in most sports at a professional level.
@Harry Trafford: I hear you. Not disagreeing with you as such. Lots of sports have salary caps etc. By being involved with gaa you could have a very good job arranged with a sponsor etc. So technically you’d still be making money with a company that’ll work around your schedule.
@Ronan McDermott: very small minded, being a top footballer against the billions that play or the the top hurler against the 100s that play
@tubbsyf: I’m not small minded at all. Different folks, different strokes is all I said.
“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.” Sounds like Roy Keane got to him.
I think this is a story the GAA need to be cery cognisant of. The way the competitions are set up now you only have a few counties who are ever likely to win anything with back doors, super 8′s etc making it almost impossible for one of the “smaller” teams like wicklow to hold onto or encourage their best players to stick with the support. The constant push for revenue generated by the biggest counties making finals is seeing the players from the top counties putting in even more effort in the knowledge they might win something while concurrently you have teams from weaker counties who are saying upwards of 40 players are refusing to come into their County set ups.
@Dino Baggio: This is vividly highlighted in Munster where they seed the draw to have Cork and Kerry in the football final every year even though Cork are at best the third best team in Munster and the likes of Limerick footballers are struggling to get players to commit. The drain of players to pro sports is going to get worse unless the Gaa address this issue.
Only just came across this article. Conor was with Mill Celtic from the age of 11 before joining Newbridge Town at 13. He was in the KDUL Academy from 11 and played inter league at u 12 and u 13. Not sure where the only playing soccer since 14 is coming from
Bully Beef?