Cillian's footballing life less ordinary

Damien Donohoe recently caught up with Bailieborough soccer star Cillian Sheridan for an in-depth discussion.
 

Q: Did you realise that there are no other Cavan athletes that have been as long going as you have? It's a long time since you went to Celtic as a 17-year-old.
A: I suppose I never really thought about that - at 17. What's that? God, 14 years.

Q: At the time you were heading off you were blessed with options. Brisbane Lions were looking at you at that stage; obviously, Cavan GAA wanted you to stay and then you had Celtic, as well. So, was it nice to be in demand?
A: Yeah, it kind of helped me that I had those other options going over to Celtic, so I didn't really go over with the pressure of it being all or nothing, or thinking "if I don't get this, then, that's it done and I don't have anything else". It took the pressure of me in that if it works out, it works out but if it doesn't I can come back to other things that are available.

Q: Do you think that that helped in your development and in your ability to adjust as your career went on?
A: I think that once you make the breakthrough into first-team football you've improved your chances of making a career. From the first club you go to, if you don't make the breakthrough it can be very hard to break it because with managers - and you're leaving the club without any first-team experience - a lot of them aren't going to take a chance on players. 
I was lucky that I got that so early, and because it was Celtic it gave me a great foundation where I could leave there and clubs and managers could see that I've played with Celtic. It always gave me a bit of a standard and a bit of security but without relaxing back and not doing anything. 
I think it took away a lot of the pressure that a lot of other people would've had - like, other people who would've gone to the youth team and didn't make it; they had to go back to Ireland or go to non-league, or lower teams and start again. Plus, I imagine it is harder to do all that when you're 19 or 20. 
Fair enough, when you're starting to try to be a footballer when you're 15, 16 or 17, you're still a kid and there's not a lot of the pressures of needing to go get a job or a career but when you're 19 or 20, things can be a bit different. So, I think I was lucky in having those options before I went over and it, I think, took away a lot of pressure from me because I never felt any real pressure in having to make it, in having to make that breakthrough.

Q: Was there a point before you went to Celtic that you decided soccer is where I'm really going to focus, or were you just enjoying a lot of it and it evolved that a lot of opportunities came up because you were getting better at it?
A: It was probably when I went up to Belvedere in Dublin - that's when it kind of took precedence over Gaelic football. So, if there were two things on and they'd clash, I'd go and do the soccer game, or event. 
That would've been when I was 13 or 14 and how it happened was that I went to one of the FAI soccer camps and Sean McCaffrey from Monaghan saw me at one of these camps and saw something there and told me to come for Ireland U15 trials and I went. I didn't get picked. 
After, and I was playing with Bailieborough and we didn't really take it too seriously, he said, "look, I'll talk to this team in Dublin, Belvedere, and maybe you can go up there". So, I started going up there and Sean got the Ireland U17 and U19 jobs and he always loved me and was picking me in those squads, when lots of guys would've moved away to England, getting trials. I was always the one who didn't get trials until a year or two after everyone else. 
I was playing for Ireland and I was maybe one of two players who didn't have a professional team. So, it all came from a summer schools soccer camp.

Q: So if you didn’t go to that camp, knowing your Gaelic background and your Dad’s love of it, you could have been in the blue of Cavan.
A: Yeah, it was what I grew up playing. The majority of soccer players now come through academies and they're taught the fundamentals and the foundations from when they're seven, eight, nine but for me I was doing all that but I was doing it in Gaelic from U8s so it's how you grow up. For me it was my first natural sport that you're taught to play.

Q: Do you have fond memories of playing with Cavan and with Bailieborough Shamrocks? I remember you playing so well for Cavan minors.
A: I loved it. That minor year, I think it was two years above my age. I remember Donal Keogan phoning and asking me to come into the squad and I said "no" because I was going up to Belvedere at the time. I said "no" because I didn't want to do too much. 
The summer before with the Cavan U16s, I’d have a soccer match in the morning and then I’d have to go and play a match in the Gerry Reilly Cup in the afternoon. I remember one time my legs started cramping up and after that I said, "nah, I don’t want to get burnout".
There were a few players doing similar things, playing loads and I remember my dad saying he was a bit afraid I’d get burned out. I said to Donal Keogan I didn’t want to do it this year and he said, "yeah, that’s fine".
Then, a few months, later he asked me to come in as a goalkeeper and I said, "sure, why not". I went in, played two friendly games and kept two clean sheets, although I didn’t have many saves to make.
Then one day in training he brought me out as a wing-back and I played well and that was it. I’d say that was his plan all along.

Q: Obviously, on the first day you came so close to beating Down, who went on to the All-Ireland final.
A: They won it. They won and I'm sure they won it easy because we were their closest game.

Q: Is there, as time goes on, a realisation that that was a nice opportunity to put a silver lining on your Gaelic football career before you committed to the soccer?
A: At that time, I was only playing soccer in Dublin with Belvedere and probably with Ireland U17s, maybe, so it wasn’t until the next year I started going on trials. Up until that time, I didn’t have it in my head that I would be going over to the UK and having a soccer career. 
After that summer, I started to go on trials and it was after those games against Down that Brisbane Lions got in touch with me and that coincided with me starting to go on trials in England. I said, "if they didn’t work out I’d be interested in speaking to you again".
The next minor year, I was in and out from it. Soccer was my main priority but I still wanted to play Gaelic. I went to most training and the first game we played in the preliminary round, I came on, I think I scored a point.
Then the next game, I think I had signed for Celtic. The next game was the same day Belvedere had an all-Ireland final or maybe the day before. Terry Brady was the manager and I said to him, "I can’t play. He wasn’t too happy about it".
To be fair to him, I spoke to him a year or two after when everything was going well at Celtic, and he was brand new but at the time he wasn't too happy. My actual minor year was when I was over at Celtic so I totally missed that one. I played one game with Bailieborough right before I went over to Celtic. I said I’d like to play one game. We played against Knockbride and lost - my one and only club senior game. I would have been 16, I think.

Q: Is it in your plans to come back to Bailiebough, maybe, and pay a bit of Junior B, or something similar?
A: I used to always say, "yeah, I’d love to". I still would love to but I think I’d like to play soccer obviously as long as I can. I’ll find myself playing soccer till my body says, "no, I have to retire". If it gets to that stage, if I can’t play soccer, I’d imagine I wouldn’t be able to play Gaelic.
It was always a thought, I’d like to play soccer till a certain age and then go home and play Gaelic, but it’s not as easy as that.

Q: You've had a phenomenal career in that you've been a professional since 2006/07 right through to now and consistently travelling the world and seeing so many different cultures and countries. Where were the fondest memories for you?
A: I've pretty much enjoyed everywhere, bar one or two bad moves in football but enjoyment-wise I've pretty much enjoyed myself. Celtic, obviously, because it's Celtic and to play for them is huge and even more so to do it early because it gives you a good grounding and foundation for the rest of your career. You'll always have that on your CV.
From there, I was going on loans to teams, and because I was young I was enjoying everything apart from Plymouth, which didn't work out well, and when I went to Bulgaria.
Just because the football wasn't going good and things didn't work out but in the long run it helped me for later on in my career. To do those two things when I was so young helped me massively.

Q: You're very, very entertaining on social media, how's the Ferrari? Any punctures lately?
A: Nah, but I don't want to be too flashy here, I'm trying to keep a low profile.

Q: You're 6'5" with long hair and a beard and probably a bit pasty with the Irish skin around there [Poland], so it's hard to keep a low profile, is it?
A: Yeah, my appearance doesn't help me go out for a quiet drink or something - it's good in that it keeps me inside.

Q: What was Israel like [playing for Ironi Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel in 2019-20]?
A: Of all the places I've been it was the most culturally different place - so different that it was strange… 
When I was playing in Cyprus I was in Tel-Aviv a few times because it was only a 40-minute flight and Tel-Aviv is an unbelievable city, so when I went, it was right up beside the Golan Heights, tucked in between Syria and Lebanon and before I went I saw it on a map and though, "oh, God, where am I going?" 
But it's more from the outside that we think that there are bombs in every day and that it's really dangerous but there were two times that there was a little bit of trouble. 
Once we were going into training and someone from, I think, Lebanon, one rogue guy fired a rocket into one of the army bases and maybe hit a tank of something - no-one was injured or anything. 
I didn't know anything as I was going into training but then all the lads were talking about it. So, we went out and trained and came back in and I was like, "what's happening now?" 
They were like, "it's finished. We sent a few rockets back and we agreed that that was it finished". That was it. Literally, it was three hours from start to finish. It sounds really bad but, for them, it's normal everyday life. 
For example, in our apartment building, every building has to have a bomb-shelter. So, one of the rooms was basically doubled up as one of these shelters where there's just a big steel door and just a little room, really. Things like that were weird, or new, but for them it's normal life and they laugh and joke about it but the first time it happened, you're like, "shit, there's going to be war!" 
You are thinking the worst things straight away. Like, my sister got married at Christmas time and I managed to get back and everyone was asking me about it and some of the people didn't even know where I was and the first question after asking me where I was playing would ask me if it's safe in Israel. If there was a world war it's probably the safest place to be, in that they are so used to it and that they're so protected.
Tel-Aviv is one of the nicest cities and it's got everything - it's on the sea, it's got a lovely beach, restaurants, bars and it's just one of the best cities that you'll go to. It's also a very modern city.

Q: Perception might be killing the potential for tourism to it?
A: Yeah, because the first time I was there with Apoel in Cyprus we were playing Maccabi Tel-Aviv, years ago, in the Europa League and I remember we were in one of the hotels by the beach and I remember thinking that "this is nothing at all like what I imagined" and after that if we had free time me and my girlfriend would go over for maybe a weekend. I'd definitely recommend it.

Q: There'll be a flood of Cavan people going there now.
A: Actually, I don't know - it's a very expensive city! If they bring their prices down they'll have a flood of Cavan people going over!

Q: You only joined Wisla Plock in February, have you actually played for them yet?
A: Yeah, we've played. I think out last game was maybe 6  or 7 March, so I've been here for six games. Over here there's 16 teams and everyone plays each other twice and then there's a split between the top and bottom eight. So, the top eight all then play each other once and the same for the bottom eight. 
At the minute, we have four games left to finish this first round and I think that's what they were trying to do here; they're trying to finish, if they can, to get just these four games done and then finish the league after those four games and get rid of the second round. 
If you get to finish these four, it's pretty fair, everyone has then played each other twice, like in a normal league structure. 
We'll see if that happens. So, we're in ninth or tenth position but it's a very tight league in that any team can beat any team. 
We could go a lose a few games and then win three games and that tends to happen to a lot of the teams here - you can go on little runs. So, if we played the remaining four games we'd have a good chance in getting into the top eight and then finishing the season there.

Q: Are you doing collective training still or has that been disbanded for the time being while the lockdown is on?
A: No, we can't train together so we're all doing individual things. It's alright once you get it into your routine and I've kinda been able to treat it as normal. I'd go and do the training at 10am and then I'm home for the rest of the day, which is not a big difference to what I would've been doing anyway. 
I'd normally come back and hang about because it's a small city and there's not really a lot to do. It hasn't affected me that much in that I'm in a lucky position because that was how my day worked anyway.

Q: It's affected you a wee bit in that you put your podcast, Mister Sherry, so you found the time to bring your creative expertise to the fore again. Do you enjoy doing stuff like the podcast?
A: Sometimes, but I don't really now. After I did that one I didn't really get the enjoyment. I kinda prefer getting it ready and putting it up but once I've put it up it's "right, now what?"

Q: Once you have it up and it's done you're getting nothing more from it?
A: Yes because I'm doing it on my own, just talking, so it is more fun with someone.

Q: You obviously have a funny gene in you because I was thinking back to Match of the Day in Scotland and you wore a Christmas jumper. Was that a statement, or was it a bet?
A: In training that morning or the day before, I mentioned I was going to be on it and one of the lads said you should wear a Christmas jumper on - it was coming up to Christmas but it wasn't when Christmas jumpers were popular, like they are now, when everyone has one and the whole family wears them on Christmas. This was years ago. 
Obviously, I had the jumper already and went in and had a v-neck top with a shirt and a dickie bow, something funny and a bit different and I brought the Christmas jumper in a bag with me and I was going to say to them, "look, do you think I could wear this?" and the guy went "sure, why not, it'll be a laugh". 
I was 20 or 21 at the time but back then I didn't really like talking about football. Because I grew up on Gaelic football I didn't know, tactically, too much about soccer. I didn't enjoy discussing it and I wasn't too knowledgeable about football. I remember saying to the guy after I walked in that I wasn't too knowledgeable about talking about football and I just remember his face.! I think he found out quickly.

Q: With that in mind, when your football career finishes up what do you think you'll be doing - punditry, coaching, putting your feet up on a beach?
A: I've absolutely no idea but I think I can rule out putting my feet up on a beach. I don't think I've had a career where I can go and do that. 
When I was 20, 21 and you said about coaching, I would've always said "no chance" and that I would leave football but the more you're in it and if, say I get to 35 - I'd like to go longer than that - that's from when I was 17, so that's 18 years. So, if you wanted to get a job you've got 18 years experience in something. It puts you in a much better position. 
You see a lot of people complaining that loads of jobs in football go to people already in football but that's the reason why in that most of them are coming off 15-20 years in the game. They know it, they've lived it. It gives you experiences that lots of other people can't get.

Q: Someone coming out from reading four years' worth of books wouldn't have the same experience that you've had at a professional level for so long so of course it makes sense.
A: Some people can still have 15, 20 years’ experience and still be clueless about it and still get jobs that maybe other people are better suited but I think it puts you in a much stronger position compared to other careers. If I was to finish football and to try something completely different you're starting from scratch. Whereas you might have 15 years work experience and now you're ready to try something working in the same field.

Q: Your profile is high and people are getting to know you and they get an idea of the personality…
A: But it might also close doors for serious jobs! I've no idea what I'll do. All that talk of staying in football... I could just go and try to do something completely different.

* This is a transcript of an original interview on the WeAreCavan podcast. To listen to the original, click here.