SEAMUS COLEMAN, by his own admission, is a home bird.
The Everton and Republic of Ireland full-back has an FA Cup semi-final and Euro 2016 to look forward to in the coming month and it’s a far cry from the days when he lined out in his hometown for Killybegs GAA club and St Catherine’s FC.
Photo caption: Seamus Coleman with Donegal captain Michael Murphy and Ireland internationals Damien Delaney and James McCarthy
However, the 27-year-old still has his feet firmly on the ground and has admitted that once his professional football career finishes in the UK, he’ll be back living in south-west Donegal.
Coleman was an accomplished Gaelic footballer, playing centre-back for Killybegs and Donegal underage teams and in soccer, he was only 17 when St Catherine’s won the 2005/06 Brian McCormick Sports Premier Division title.
“I’m definitely going home, I’m a homebird,” Coleman told The Irish Times today of his plans for the future.
“I’ll go back to Killybegs when I finish but I think it’ll be a case of playing for Killybegs GAA and St Catherine’s, the local club. I don’t know about the League of Ireland.
“I’ll play with friends at St Catherine’s. They think I’m just saying that but that’s what I’m longing for, training on a Tuesday and Thursday night on the Astroturf or up on the Gaelic pitch with your friends. I was lucky enough to do that until I was 18. Hopefully I can go back and join in.”
Coleman recalls the conclusion to his time with Sligo Rovers, when a host of clubs including Celtic, Burnely and Birmingham City were interested in hid signature.
Then, the call came from Premier League Everton in the early weeks of 2009.
“It was a funny one, even when I got the phone call to say: ‘Everton want to sign you,’ Coleman continued.
“It was a Friday and they wanted me to go over to have a medical. ‘You’re moving over, Monday’, I was told.
“Inside me that homebird said: ‘Look, I’ve got to go here.’ “Every other young lad would say: ‘Brilliant!’; I was saying to myself: ‘I have to go here, I can’t not do it.’
Coleman admitted that in those first months he kept his thoughts to himself, not even telling his now wife Rachel Cunningham.
“I was quite lonely heading away. I kept that to myself, I didn’t tell my girlfriend, now my wife, I didn’t let her know. I didn’t let my family know I was upset. That’s just the way I am. I battled through it. Then I got to the airport at Derry and the flight was cancelled because of snow. Something like that. I was delighted.
“I rang my brother. I could get an extra night at home. I could have gone on to Belfast and got a flight there but I rang Everton and said the flight’s cancelled, I couldn’t make it. I got an extra night with my family.
“I flew out of Knock the next day. I remember that being quite lonely. I love it over here now and I’m settled but I missed home a lot. I went over at 20 and I struggled. If I’d had to do it at 15, 16 I’d have struggled massively.”
Please click here to read Michael Walker’s article from the Irish Times in full
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