The makings of a star

GAA roots gave Killen youngster Conor Bradley the perfect credentials to play for Liverpool FC, writes Niall Gartland

WHEN a young lad makes it all the way to the bright lights of the multi-billion pound business that is the famed Premier League, you can rest assured that it didn’t come about by chance.

Conor Bradley made his Premier League debut for Liverpool at the weekend and he delivered a typically poised performance, assisting a goal in their 4-0 rout of Bournemouth.

Interviewed by Sky Sports after the game, Bradley said that he had dreamt of this moment since he was five-years-old. In another post-match interview, manager Jürgen Klopp sung his praises while social media was awash with positive comments about the 20-year-old who has enjoyed a meteoric rise to the summit of the soccer world.

Thousands of youngsters across these islands grow up aspiring to have a professional soccer career. It’s a cut-throat business in that respect with the chances of succeeding virtually infinitesimal, so it’s no great surprise to learn that Bradley is not just a dab hand with a football, but someone laced with the finest interpersonal qualities. A primadonna he certainly is not.

Bradley joined the youth academy of Liverpool in 2019 on a scholarship programme and signed his first professional contract with the club just over a year later.

He had been fast-tracked through Omagh CBS in order to complete his GCSEs, and none other than Kenny Dalglish made a personal plea to Bradley at that juncture to turn his nose at the competing attentions of clubs like perennial rivals Manchester United. He was just that good. Bradley was also steeped in GAA and never lost sight of that, even when joining the ranks of Liverpool looked a fait accompli.

He grew up in the village of Killen, a stone’s throw from the border with Donegal, and played his youth football with nearby Aghyaran.

He was also a supernaturally talented yet entirely ego-free Gaelic footballer during his school days with Omagh CBS.

His lead coach at the time was Pat McNabb, whose affection for Conor is undiluted with the passing of time. Indeed, McNabb is positively effusive about Bradley and anecdotes about his time at the ‘Brothers’ flow freely from a man who has overseen plenty of gifted Gaelic footballers in his day.

Take his winning contribution to Omagh CBS’ surge to the inaugural Oisin McGrath Cup, the Year Eight competition organised in memory of the pupil who had tragically died in a playground incident at St Michael’s, Enniskillen that previous February.

Bradley, stationed at right half-forward, scored 1-1 in their victory over Abbey CBS in the final, but it was his performance against St Pat’s, Maghera in the semi-final that has entered Omagh CBS folklore. With fewer than five minutes remaining, they trailed by eight points but Bradley, quite ridiculously, scored a hat-trick of goals in the blink of an eye to seal a spot in the final.

Roy of the Rovers stuff, as McNabb recalls: “St Pat’s were a bloody good team and Conor scored three incredible individual goals in about four minutes. I remember talking to William McAteer, the teacher taking the Maghera team, after the game. He said, referring to Conor McGillion, ‘Jesus Pat, your number six is good, but who the hell is that number 10 (Bradley).’”

“To this day, whenever William takes a St Pat’s, Maghera team, and he’s pushing the importance of resilience and a never-say-die attitude to the lads, he always talks about the day he met Conor Bradley.

“That game summed up everything about Conor and his will to win. He had the workrate of Brian Dooher, the ability to carry a ball of Brian McGuigan and the composure in front of goal of Peter Canavan, but it was his attitude that marked him out as something special. You could be eight or 80 points down and there would be one lad still giving it everything on the pitch and that’s Conor Bradley, and you see that to this day.”