The pride of Cork who went from floppy-haired striker to Liverpool goalkeeper
Simon Hughes Dec 3, 2020
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Among the many photographs on Keelyn Cotterâs Facebook page is one of the football team he used to play for and copied into the memory are those he used to play with. These are good Irish names like Eoin Byrne, Jordan OâRegan, Troy OâSullivan, Caoilte Hayes, Ciaran Kearney and Aaron Quilligan; lads who still live near him in the old fishing village of Blackrock, out to the east of Cork where the River Lee spills into Lough Mahon.
This incarnation of Ringmahon Rangers broke up four years ago and most of the team has since gone their own way. While Cotter turns out for a Sunday league side sponsored by a solicitorâs firm in between his electrical engineering studies at Nagle College, where he had an exam yesterday, 22-year-old David Hurley signed last month for Galway United having spent four seasons in the midfield of Cobh Ramblers.
âFour or five of us still play,â Cotter told The Athletic this week. Aside from Hurley, a few are with established amateur clubs in the Cork area. âThen there is Caoimhin,â he reminds. âI know loads of people say it when someone does something special, but he was different to the rest of us.â
On Tuesday night, Caoimhin Kelleher kept a clean sheet in the Champions League against Ajax. Liverpool would probably have drawn had it not been for his save from Klaas-Jan Huntelaar in the final moments. The 37-year-old has scored 360 career goals and he tends not to miss opportunities as clear as this one, an unmarked header from six or seven yards out. Yet Kelleher was there.
Back in Blackrock, Cotter was screaming the house down. A Liverpool supporter, he was mainly delighted for his friend. He was not, however, surprised by the manner of a performance that was underpinned by his composure â particularly when the ball was at his feet.
Cotter thought back towards their time together on the playing fields at Ringmahon. âThatâs what made our team 10 times better, the fact our keeper was able to play out from the back,â he reflected. âCaoimhin was probably the best passer in our team to be fair.â
If you have been paying attention to Kelleherâs back story you have probably already heard that he used to be a centre-forward with Ringmahon, where everyone quotes the same figure whenever they are asked whether he was any good. âTwenty or 30 goals a season tells you how important he was,â says Cotter â a sum backed up by the teamâs manager Eddie Harrington who made what now seems an extraordinarily important decision to radically switch Kelleherâs responsibilities seven years ago, at the age of 14. Harrington admits, however, that he was left with no other option after the first-choice goalkeeper decided at short notice that he did not want to play for his team anymore.
Kelleher dons the goalkeeper shirt with his youth team, Ringmahon Rangers (Photo: Eddie Harrington)
âWe started the season with another boy in goal, Robbie OâLeary,â Harrington explains. âHe was younger than everyone else and also played in the under-13s age group. He wasnât enjoying playing with the older boys, two games a week and training too much. This left us in a right predicament. We were a decent team playing at a high standard in junior football in Cork so finding a new goalkeeper wasnât going to be easy.â
That was when Ray Kelleher, Caoimhinâs father, called him.
âI was sitting in the car one night after training, Iâll never forget it. Ray said, âWill you put Caoimhin in goal?â I was reluctant because Caoimhin was our best striker and he played for Cork in that position. Everybody who knew anything about junior football in the city was aware of him because of his ability and his long blond hair. I had a chat with the other coaches about the idea. We were all very reluctant. It was a bit mad and I told Ray that but, in the end, I said, âLook, Ray, weâre not sure exactly whether itâs the right decision but weâll go with it. Weâll throw him in and see how he gets onâŚââ
There had been no prior indication that Kelleher was interested in playing as a keeper but being the youngest of five brothers (including Fiacre, who now plays for Wrexham having started his career at Celtic), this meant he sometimes found himself in goal when the family got together.
âIn training heâd have a go, diving about, but it only seemed to be because of the craic,â Harrington says. âApparently, the coach at the Cork team had a look at him in that position and thought he might have something. Ultimately, Ray took a chance. He told me afterwards that heâd never have called had young Robbie carried on with the team. He didnât want to stand on his toes. Theyâre that kind of family, theyâre not forceful. Jackie, his mum was the same. Both of them would be at every game. Ray would watch training if it was a nice day, heâd sit on the grass with one of Caoimhinâs brothers or his sister.â
When he found out in the changing rooms before the next game against Springfield Ramblers about the decision to move Kelleher around, Cotter could not believe it. As one of the teamâs central midfielders, he was immediately concerned that he might not have someone higher up the pitch with the ability âto make my own passes look goodâ.
âI was very surprised,â he says. âCaoimhin was our leading scorer. I was thinking, âHow on earth is this going to work out?â It seemed crazy. He was so close to being the best striker in Cork and suddenly he was taking a step back.â
Kelleher is congratulated by Jurgen Klopp after his performance in the Champions League (Photo: Jon Super â Pool/Getty Images)
Only the N40 motorway separates the home of Ringmahon Rangers from the lough and this means strong winds blow across the pitches for virtually the whole of the football season. âYou always had to be wrapped up down there,â Harrington stresses. Perhaps this explains why Kelleher, in his first game, allowed a cross to sail over his head and ensure that his first game as a goalkeeper ended in a 1-0 defeat.
Cotter remembers players and parents looking at one another when that happened with an expression that said, âWhat are you doing? A proper keeper doesnât make that sort of mistakeâŚâ Yet Kelleher responded well. âHe did not let it affect him. He came for every other cross and won the ball. His performance was excellent. By the end of the game everyone had changed their minds.â
The junior leagues in Cork are very competitive, with promotions and relegations. There was a chance Ringmahonâs under-14s could go down, but Kelleherâs saves helped keep the team up. Two and a half years later he was signing for Liverpool.
Ringmahon Rangers were founded in 1951 by a group of friends who kicked balls around the streets of Mahonâs housing estate.
Sean Fitzgeraldâs father John â then aged 14 â played in the first ever team and later became secretary, holding the role for 60 years until he stepped down. At that meeting, according to Sean, âeveryone turned around and said, âSean will do itâ and I didnât really get a say,â but he didnât really mind, having acted as his fatherâs unofficial assistant since the start of the Internet age when correspondence started to arrive via email.
âI was born into the club,â Sean says. âWhen I was a kid, I was watching games morning, noon and night. It was only around the corner. Ringmahon was my life. Once youâre involved in the club, you canât get out.â
Everyone who plays for Ringmahon comes from working class Mahon or Blackrock, where the house prices are higher.
âNobody around here is stuck up their own holes,â Cotter says. âNobody (in Mahon) has bucket loads of money. Everyone works hard for whatever they earn. People looking in might look down but itâs a nice part of Cork with lovely people.â
An outsider, Fitzgerald jokes, is someone who comes from a place which is more than a 15-minute drive away. âThereâs a great humility about the club,â he says. âThere are no superstars. Nobody is allowed to be.â
Kelleher saves from Huntelaar (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)
Kelleher attended the prestigious Presentation Brothers College in central Cork where the main sports are rugby and rowing but this did not affect the way the boys of Mahon and Blackrock thought about him. Cotter cannot think of too many times Kelleher was seen hanging around on the streets but when he was in a football setting â despite being one of the quieter members of the team â he always seemed comfortable. âHeâd say nothing for 10 minutes then suddenly heâd kill you with a one-liner out of nowhere.â
The team stuck together for six years and this meant the group became very close. âNobody got ahead of themselves and that was because nobody was precious about anything,â Harrington suggests. âThough everyone was on the same level (in terms of respect), by the end of his time with us I got the impression quite a few of the lads looked up to Caoimhin, not only because of his ability but because of the way he handled himself.â
Cotter thinks Kelleher took football a bit more seriously but that was because inwardly he probably knew he was better than everyone else. âFor a lot of the lads, if we won, we won. But with Caoimhin, you could see it mattered more. He was desperate to win and heâd hate it if we ever lost. He was a quiet person but you could see it if he wasnât happy with something. It wasnât until he went in goal that he really found his voice and started having more of a say on what was going on across the pitch.â
Kelleher was due to appear in a national competition called the Kennedy Cup as a centre-forward for Cork but ended up going as a keeper just three months after his first appearance in goal for Ringmahon.
âHe was unbelievable,â Cotter says. âWe had a few goalkeepers in our league who were getting trials in England, going to play for Ireland or representing the Cork team. The competition was fierce but within a couple of years heâd flown past them all.
âHe was always tall so he had the build for a goalkeeper. I think it also helped that he understood what a good striker might do because he was one himself. Maybe heâd think to himself, âWhere would I go if I was taking the shot?â
âWe became used to him getting us out of a hole. When he was a centre-forward, weâd be 2-0 down and heâd score a hat-trick in the second half. But if he was in goal and we were 1-0 up with two minutes to go, heâd make a flying save. We had a very good team but whenever you needed him, he was there. You could rely on him. If the other team got past our defence, you knew they still had to get past Caoimhin. Nine out of 10 times, heâd save it.â
Fitzgerald started taking calls from a host of English clubs. Kelleher trained at Blackburn Rovers and Aston Villa but by the time Manchester United came along, they were too late â much to the amusement of Fitzgerald, a Liverpool fan who was able to haggle with the club he supported for what proved to be a relatively modest fee that came Ringmahonâs way. The sum has since contributed towards an extension of a clubhouse as well as the upgrading of grass pitches and AstroTurf which currently serves more than 500 footballers from the age groups of five to over 35.
Kelleher travelled to Merseyside regularly during his last season at Ringmahon but âhe never came back and said, âBoys, Iâm making it big hereâŚââ according to Cotter. The rate of his progression accelerated at Liverpool and this prompted Harrington to hold a meeting with the other coaches where it was decided that they would not attempt to try and teach him anything new and instead focus on making sure he was still enjoying himself.
âIn his last ever game for the club, we won the league with the last kick of the game,â Harrington recalls. âWe thought the title was gone so we sent Caoimhin went up for a corner in injury time. Probably the only thing that stops it from being a fairytale is that someone else scored the equaliser (in a 1-1 draw). Caoimhin was usually so easy-going but like the rest of the lads, he went absolutely crazy. He knew what it meant. It was our first trophy in six years together.â
Harrington is a Celtic fan but he would have watched the Ajax game in Blackrockâs Maple Leaf pub with his Liverpool supporting brother-in-law, Chris, had it not been for the pandemic.
âI donât think it could have gone much better for Caoimhin,â Harrington says. âHis handling and footwork were superb. He was always cool, calm and collected with us and though heâs gone to a much, much higher level, nothing seems to worry him.â
Text messages between the player and his former manager have since been exchanged.
Andy Lonergan, Adrian, assistant goalkeeping coach Jack Robinson, Alisson, goalkeeping coach John Achterberg and Kelleher celebrate Liverpoolâs title win (Photo: Paul Ellis/Pool via Getty Images)
âHeâs back to normal already, donât worry about that,â says Harrington, who believes Kelleher might have made even more of an impression at Liverpool than he already has had it not been for a wrist injury suffered after falling off a bike in the summer of 2019 which meant he wasnât in a position to take advantage when Alisson missed two months of the title season that followed.
Liverpool, indeed, considered sending Kelleher on loan last summer and there was plenty of interest in him but with Adrian out of contract next June, he might now have the chance to establish himself as the clubâs number two goalkeeper at the very least.
âCaoimhinâs been huge news in Cork because the city has been waiting for a player to burst on the scene since Roy Keane,â Harrington says. âItâs been a tough year for everyone but his story this week has given everyone a bit of a lift.â
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