Frank McGlynn recalls days in Wayne Rooney’s world

He’s won everything Gaelic football has to offer and been handsomely rewarded with silverware, but Frank McGlynn has revealed his sporting career could have been panned out very differently — if it hadn’t been for Wayne Rooney.

A promising underage soccer career seemed to be going places until McGlynn got a reality check in 2000 when as a 14-year-old he spent a week training in the same Everton youth team as the England striker.

McGlynn was also part of the same Everton squad as Rooney at the Milk Cup that year, but couldn’t come close to challenging the blossoming superstar for a starting position up front.

“I played up front but there was stiff competition with Wayne there,” McGlynn recalls.

“Even at the time everyone was talking about him.

“All the players and coaches knew he was the one who was guaranteed to make it and come through.

“He was one of the guaranteed starters whereas I was a fleeting substitute brought on from time to time.

“He is the only player from that squad that I can recall watching on TV in later years.”

Whilst playing with Drumkeen United, a club based around half an hour from his home in Glenfin, McGlynn was called up to play for a Donegal schools team in the Kennedy Cup in Limerick. That’s where he was spotted by an Everton scout.

“I was brought up to train with them during the Milk Cup in Coleraine and then I went over to Everton for a week, when Richard Dunne and a few other Irish lads were there.

“That was it from an Everton point of view. I went to a few other clubs like Leeds and Wolves and Preston were the last one I went to when I was 16.”

Packie Bonner, Shay Given, and most recently Seamus Coleman all left Donegal shores to play soccer at the top level for club and country.

Part of McGlynn wishes his opportunity to ‘make it big’ across the water hadn’t come so soon in life.

He admits: “Being honest, I don’t think I understood the enormity of what was happening to me.

“I was going over to play a football match and if I didn’t play well, sure I didn’t play well. You don’t appreciate the enormity of what you are playing for.

“If I had to do it again, I’d rather have those few years under my belt.

“The likes of Seamus Coleman went down a different route and was home-based with Sligo Rovers and did remarkably well to go from the League of Ireland straight to a Premiership regular.

“Anyway, there was nothing long-term in it but it was a great life experience to have, and I settled the head in and around minor age.

“There was no soccer club in my area and the pull of playing with the boys I grew up with in Glenfin was very strong.”

McGlynn has never regretted dedicating his sporting career to his club and to Donegal.

An All-Ireland, three Ulster titles and a Division One Allianz League title in 2007 are the currency that prove it has probably all worked out for the best.

In Belfast yesterday to help launch the Allianz Football League, with Donegal starting with an all-Ulster clash against Down in Pairc Esler on Saturday night, McGlynn backed manager Rory Gallagher’s decision to take the squad on a five-day training camp to Tenerife next month.

“We last went away in 2014 and were back just before the Division Two league final against Monaghan, but this is a nice time of year to do it.

“Everyone understands it benefits your chances of success later in the year.”