WHILE ONE FORMER Sligo Rovers defender from Killybegs spent today training at Versailles, another could be in the engine-room for Donegal against Fermanagh on Sunday.
Seamus Coleman played both codes before nailing to the soccer mast in 2006 when he left St Catherine’s to sign for Sligo, while McFadden, who was also on the books of Finn Harps, went in the opposite direction.
[adrotate group=”66″]“It is great to see,” McFadden said of Coleman, who is expected to start at right-back on Monday evening as Ireland open their Euro 2016 campaign against Sweden at the Stade de France.
“The town is buzzing and everyone wants to see him do well. It is a big celebration for the town to have someone representing Ireland at such a level and it is good for us to see that and to have someone to look up. It is fantastic for the area. It is good to see someone from the town doing so well.”
Whilst Coleman is on a healthy wage at Everton in the Premier League, McFadden has just finished up at St Patrick’s College for Education in Drumcondra.
[adrotate group=”55″]But while it’s often said that GAA players are professional in every sense of the word except for the salary, McFadden is of the opinion that there’s no need to examine their overlap in forensic detail.
“People try to compare them too much,” he said. “Maybe it is because they are the two dominant sports we are fascinated as to who is the fitter, who is the stronger, who is the better. We should enjoy both for what they are, two different sports that require different skills, different fitness and different attributes. They are two different beasts and we should just love them separately.
When McFadden lines up in the all red kit of Killybegs, he frequently makes the headlines for scoring chunks of the Fintra team’s scores, while he plays a more withdrawn role for Donegal.
“If you look at our club at the moment, we have a lot of good players who are getting back down the field so I play in a completely different position,” he said.
“In club football you have that licence because you do not have as many people willing to suit. You have to adapt, it is a lot easier to out sometimes and kick a few points for your club whereas you come in here and there are other people who are higher percentage shooters than you.
“It is up to me to get to a level where I am doing enough to have more shots and to become a more accurate player than I am.”
For such a famous club – and one that was a bloodline of the 1992 All-Ireland win – there was too long a vacuum without a Killybegs player on the team.
“To be honest, for too long Killybegs didn’t have anyone in the county panel,” McFadden said. “Until I started last year we had no one previously until 1998 which is not good enough in my opinion. It is probably a sign that things went wrong.
“Manus Boyle was the last. Owen puts in serious effort at underage level, he was always involved at under-12, under-14 level upwards in development squads and it shows because he is such an athlete. It is great to have him up. He is going to be a serious county player going forward, he is dedicated to his football, he lives his life around football.
“Unfortunately we lost some excellent players who were in the older age group and who led the team so anyone that has any character who is around a county team that has so many great leaders and see what they do, and you see what attributes they bring, then you try to replicate that with your club.”
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