Welcome guys to Episode no. 36 overall but no.1 of my new rebranded Podcast “Lean into Life”
I was delighted to be able to welcome on a buddy of mine and former professional Soccer player and Irish Youth International Ryan Casey to the podcast. Galway native Ryan was scouted by Swansea City FC at the age of 13 and never looked back. He player for the Swans from 1996-2002 and his time there was cut short by a couple of bad injuries. Ryan returned to Ireland to play for a number of League of Ireland Clubs such as St. Pats, Cork City, Galway United, Longford and Athlone as well as a stint playing in Australia. Since retiring, Ryan is has been heavily involved in coaching especially at Academy and youth level and has also worked for the FAI as a Development Officer. He currently is coaching at Sligo Rovers as the U17 coach.
We had a brilliant conversation about Ryan’s childhood as his passion for Soccer coming heavily from his hero, his own Dad who as Case said is still his hero today. We discussed his journey in youth football locally in Galway to playing for Belvedere FC in Dublin and was then noticed by a Swansea scout. It was a very different environment to the academies of today and he had to work hard and be driven to make it through which he succeeded in doing.
Ryan went on to play in the winning Irish European U18 Championships under Brian Kerr in 1998 where they beat Germany on penalties to win the cup. A massive achievement with what was deemed by the press to be the “Golden Generation” of Irish youth football with some of his teammates including the likes of Robbie Keane, Damien Duff, Stephen McPhail and Richard Dunne to name a few.
We discussed the pitfalls of a career in soccer as well as some great stories on some fanatical fan bases and rivalries he came across in is playing days over the water.
We also talked about the interesting topic of talent selection and development of young players which is a bit of minefield and how he sculpted his own coaching habits and skills from his years of playing and from some of the top coaches he played under. A quote that stood out for me from the podcast was “It’s good to be open to advice but to be really good at anything, you have to believe in what you are doing and believe in your own style and keep refining it”
I loved that quote from Case, believe in you and your own style and then refine as you go on your journey.
I thoroughly enjoyed the chat and I am sure you will too. Please share, tag and rate. I think you will get a lot from it and what it takes to become a high performance professional player.
Enjoy guys
Thanks Michael
