“You don’t understand; I could have had class! I could have been a contender. I could have been somebody.”
– Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) in 'On The Waterfront' (1954) En route to Turkey in the summer of 2008 for the Uefa Under-17 European Championships, Gavin Carlin felt on top of the world. Within a year he would be at the bottom.
Asked to recall that period, when the dreams of professional stardom were seemingly within reach, Carlin squints under the Florida sun and waves to the schoolkids running past whom he will be coaching within the next half an hour.
A trip down memory lane hurts. Pangs of regret, of injuries, of missed opportunities, and of betrayal flash through his mind’s eye. He had buried those images into the archives of his brain, as they only served as a reminder of when he had it so good – for club and country.
Back then Carlin was the reserve team goalkeeper at West Bromwich Albion and the Republic of Ireland Under-17’s. More than once he heard people refer to him as “the next Shay Given”. He was flattered, but also driven by such a compliment because he had gotten further than most on the rocky road to professionalism.
However, the summer that should have lit the touch paper for that career to take off actually ignited the beginning of its end. Now, as he pays the bills by coaching on the other side of the Atlantic, he can look back on that period with the benefit of hindsight.
“When you’re that young and you’re signed with a club in England, you almost expect to go on to the senior team, but that isn’t always the case,” said Carlin, who also works for GotSoccer, a software company.
“At that time, the real stand-out player and who everyone thought would go on to the highest level was Conor Clifford. He was the best player at everything and was highly rated by Chelsea at the time, so we all felt that he was almost guaranteed to go on and do well.
“But sometimes it just doesn’t work out that way. Conor made the Chelsea bench for a couple of Champions League games but never got on. If he had, maybe he would be a huge star now but he’s on loan with Barnet from Southend instead. That’s not a knock on him, but how difficult it is to make it.
“I remember when we were away in Turkey for those European finals and we had a team meeting where the manager, Seán McCaffrey, showed us a video of how Robbie Keane and John O’Shea had gone on to senior level. We all believed that that would happen for us as well.”
Golden summer
It is now seven years since that golden summer and life has brought those 18 Irish teenagers down very different paths. Two have become full internationals, two are based in the US, one in Australia, and three are back home playing non-league football.
Carlin was released by West Brom, spent an unhappy year at Forest Green Rovers, before switching his focus to earning a degree in Sociology, which took him to Jacksonville, Florida. He has been there ever since and even though he’s just another youngster who almost made it, he’s happy for that experience.
History shows that underage success tends not to translate into longevity at senior level. There are always exceptions, such as the Ireland team who won the 1998 Uefa European Championships with seven of their players going on to amass an astonishing 375 senior caps.
Ahead of Tom Mohan’s Under 17’s kicking off their Euro finals campaign today, it’s important to note that some tournaments are just more productive than others. The Under-19 squad who reached the 2011 Uefa European Championship semi-finals in Romania would be a case in point.
So far, only midfielder Jeff Hendrick has emerged from Paul Doolin’s class. Yet there is still time for the others to follow Hendrick’s lead and break into Martin O’Neill’s set-up. That is certainly the motivation for Anthony O’Connor, who scored twice in the opening win over Greece and now plays his club football with Plymouth Argyle in League Two.
“It’s my ambition to get into the senior team,” said O’Connor. “But you have to be playing in the Championship or the Premier League week in, week out to achieve that, so hopefully I’ll get to that in the next couple of years.
“I thought that I might have been playing at Blackburn Rovers by now, but circumstances change and I decided to sign for Plymouth in January. I’ve taken a step back but I’m very much focused on looking forward and my aim is still to get into the Ireland senior team.”
As Carlin can attest, it’s good to hold onto those dreams but only a select few can complete the journey from talented youngster to senior international.
