Coleman style a legacy of GAA

HE’S already a firm Goodison Park favourite for his whole-hearted endeavour, his versatility and his unwillingness to indulge in the play-acting many of his Premier League contemporaries are notorious for.

However for Republic of Ireland all-rounder Seamus Coleman, his attributes are only what the GAA at home in Donegal has made him.

For the first 17 years of his life, Gaelic football was the overriding passion for the midfielder from Killybegs.

“Gaelic was always my No 1,” he admits. “I played bits and pieces of soccer but I didn’t have a serious commitment to it. Gaelic was my chosen sport but when I was 18 I was offered a chance with a Premier League team in Ireland and €150 a week,” he said in an interview with The Guardian. “I thought I should at least give it a go because I could always go back to Gaelic if it didn’t work out. That was the plan anyway, but I haven’t looked back since, to be honest. It’s been unbelievable.”

He added: “I’d played Gaelic all my life and I loved it. I was on the county teams and we’d been quite successful. It was a tough decision to leave it behind. I didn’t want to leave a team that had all my mates in it. I still follow Donegal and Killybegs and keep in touch with the lads there. I’ll go whenever I can. I was playing Gaelic every week for my home town and we were winning, so it was difficult to move away from all that but, at the same time, I’d wanted to play in the Premier League in England since I was a boy.”

His versatility is also down, he believes, to his GAA background. “It’s a harder game for a start. If you get pushed you get straight back up. You don’t roll around looking at the referee for a free-kick and you wouldn’t get one if you did, in Gaelic. It’s a fight — nothing too serious, but it is pure determination and I think I brought that with me here. I just had to play soccer the way I played Gaelic and thankfully it has worked out.”

His time in Killybegs and with Sligo Rovers framed his view of the financial constraints that impacted on Everton’s ambition.

“You will never hear anyone in the changing room complaining about the club’s finances. We are at Everton to do a job... I just love the place,” he said.