Paul Fennessy

IT HAS been a remarkable season for Galway United.

Last month, the Tribesmen sealed a First Division title triumph with several games to spare thanks to a 4-0 victory over Kerry FC.

As it stands, they have won 27 of their 33 league matches, losing just twice (both 1-0 defeats away to Longford).

If they prevail in their two remaining home league games, against Waterford and Wexford, they will have realised a rare landmark — winning every single league game in 2023 at Eamonn Deacy Park.

It’s no wonder Wassim Aouachria rejects the suggestion that they are underdogs for today’s FAI Cup semi-final at home to Bohemians.

You could also argue they were not favourites to progress in the previous two rounds when they came up against top-flight opposition, but UCD and Dundalk were duly dispatched 5-1 and 4-0 respectively.

“I don’t know if you can still use the word ‘underdogs’ anymore [about us],” Aouachria tells The 42. “I don’t think any team scored as much as us in the cup this year.

“You’re in the semi-final at the end of it, I don’t think there is any favourite anymore at this stage, it’s whoever turns up and shows that they want it the most.

“We’re still aware that Bohs are a good team but we have been tested against Premier Division sides before and we have shown that we can compete. So we don’t have anything to fear from them.

“We’re really confident but not arrogant. Hopefully, it’s going to be a good game, with a big crowd. We’re only one step from the Aviva [Stadium] and two steps from winning the double.”

Whether the 23-year-old forward starts this afternoon is uncertain. Since signing for the club from Waterford in July, in the league, Aouachria has scored three goals from 11 games.

Just under half his First Division appearances (5) for Galway have been from the outset and Aouachria was an unused sub in the most recent win over Athlone, though he has started all three of their cup ties so far this season, scoring twice in the process.

Either way, it’s been a long, hard and often painful journey for Aouachria to get to this point.

He was born in Roubaix, France to Algerian parents, holds dual citizenship and has opted to represent the African country at underage level.

“I’m still proud to have both, but I would say my blood is 100% Algerian,” he adds.

As a youngster, Aouachria came through the youth system of the club he grew up supporting, Marseille, and he hopes to rejoin his boyhood team someday.

After six years, the somewhat frustrated youngster decided to move on. He says academy products seldom graduate to the first-team at Marseille, citing Aston Villa’s Boubacar Kamara and ex-Arsenal star Samir Nasri as rare exceptions to the rule.

The next stop on the journey was Charlton, whom he joined in January 2019.

“I wanted to get my first pro [contract] so I think it was a good time to leave when I was 18,” he explains.

“Charlton are the opposite of Marseille in that they have a lot of academy players who [graduate to] the first team.

“I would say lately the most famous are Joe Gomez and Ademola Lookman.

“This season, I would say that maybe half the team came through the academy.”

After impressing on trial, Aouachria spent three and a half years at the London-based club, however, first-team opportunities still were not forthcoming.

“I don’t like to use the word ‘lucky’ because I think whatever happens is meant to happen but I had few injuries throughout my young career and had a bad one when I was at Charlton, which kept me out for [about] two years I was there.

“So Charlton released me when I was 22.”

Wassim Aouachria pictured during his time at Charlton. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Before departing the club, Aouachria had gained invaluable first-team experience playing games on loan with Aldershot Town and Hampton & Richmond Borough. 

Danny Searle, who had worked with the player at Aldershot, was managing Waterford by the summer of 2022, prompting a reunion between the pair.

There were others he knew from England playing for the First Division side at the time — Junior Quitirna, Yassine En-Neyah, Phoenix Patterson and Richard Taylor — so Aouachria was confident Ireland was a “good level” in which to kickstart his professional career.

Though disappointed to just fall short of promotion with Waterford last season, losing 1-0 to UCD in the playoffs, he feels the decision to move to Ireland has paid dividends, with Aouachria enjoying the best run of his career so far in terms of goals and playing time.

“I’m not really that difficult,” he says. “I’m from a tough background where you either play football outside or go to school. So as long as I play football, I’m happy.

“People in both clubs, Waterford and Galway, made it easy for me.

“It’s not really that different from England because the language is the same. And I kind of felt the same vibe as people love football here too.

“There are other sports that are famous but people do love football. So when people love football and they are as nice as they are in Ireland, things could not be easier for me to adapt and to express myself on the pitch.”

He continues: “I’ve only been here [at Galway] for maybe three months now.

“So I’m learning every day and I will keep learning every day but they’re good people and good managers [John Caulfield and his assistant Ollie Horgan] who have a lot of experience.”

Aouachria has already earned a place in the memory of Galway fans, scoring the all-important opener in the title-clinching game against Kerry — the victory that saw the club end a 26-year wait to win a major trophy — and he hopes to build on that memorable moment in the weeks and months to come.

Growing up, he idolised another French-born footballer of Algerian descent — former Ballon d’Or and World Cup winner Zinedine Zidane.

Aouachria remembers watching the Real Madrid legend with awe in the 2006 World Cup when he was just six years old.

“I would say a lot of people from my geactually started playing football because of him, so he’s my idol,” he says, adding that Algeria star Riyad Mahrez, for obvious reasons, is his favourite of the current generation of footballers.

While acknowledging he is well below the greats in terms of ability, it has not stopped Aouachria from trying to emulate them in one sense in particular.

“When you look at the best players in the world, whether it’s Messi, Ronaldo, Ibra, Iniesta, Zidane, all those players when you look at the way they play when they get older, they still have the same child’s soul.

“We spoke earlier about winning the league and beating Dundalk and hopefully beating Bohemians — we don’t do that just for money. We do that, especially for the memories and the emotions that it gives to us.

“Because that’s what football is about, whether you’re a player, staff member or a fan who comes to watch the game, just forgetting everything else.”

Particularly given what he has already been through, Aouachria realises football is a short career and he is consequently determined to savour big occasions like this afternoon.

“I’m blessed,” he concludes. “I struggled with injuries a lot. I’ve done both ACLs and both menisci, I struggled to come back from one of them — it took me two years when it was meant to be nine months.

“Now, my mentality is still working hard every day to get better, to achieve my goals, and to make my family proud.

“But my bottom line is just enjoy every session, enjoy being with my friends, enjoy doing what I love, enjoy being on the pitch, win or lose. And I will say that’s the mentality everyone should have. And that’s what we maybe lose sometimes nowadays in football, because of [the pitfalls] around it.”