From a very early age it was clear that Gary O'Neill had a special talent on a football pitch. Whether it was with Kingdom Boys or a Kennedy Cup representative team, he consistently caught the eye. The playmaking midfielder loved to play the game. Y
From a very early age it was clear that Gary O'Neill had a special talent on a football pitch. Whether it was with Kingdom Boys or a Kennedy Cup representative team, he consistently caught the eye. The playmaking midfielder loved to play the game. Yet that desire slipped away following a spell in England with Wolverhampton Wanderers and Port Vale, so he returned home unsure of his next move and whether a career in football was for him. "At the time I thought it was the end of the world, I thought that everyone at home would be laughing at me," O'Neill stated on the latest episode of Greatest League In The World when discussing back-to-back rejections by clubs in England. "If you did an anonymous poll, there were probably more people who wanted me to fail than who wanted me to succeed. I was probably too stubborn to come home and maybe build a career here. At the time I didn't see much of League of Ireland because I was going to Premier League games every weekend so I didn't know much about it (SSE Airtricity League), but if I did I would've had no problem coming home. "I came home and I didn't want to play football anymore. But Pat Devlin (former UCD manager) got on to me, I went up and met him, and, to be honest, he sold it straight away. It was just getting my enjoyment back for the game again." The offer of playing First Division in the SSE Airtricity League appealed to O'Neill, especially when they were competing in Europe in the season that he joined, but the other luring factor was the opportunity to pick his education back up. O'Neill soon discovered that UCD were able to provide a balance of playing competitive football and studying for a Sports Management degree. Suddenly he felt alive again. "Diarmuid McNally, at UCD, had suggested what I had done in England was enough to get a Diploma, which would then lead to getting a Degree. So I went down a long pathway but I'm delighted that I did it now," he stated. Listen to the full interview with Gary O'Neill on the latest episode of Greatest League In The World
