Gilligan seals scholarship
Carnew whizz off to Kansas
ONE of Carnew’s brightest prospects in GAA and soccer is set to depart these shores for the US on a soccer scholarship to Allen College in Kansas later this year.
Cillian Gilligan has been banging in goals at the Back Alley and firing over points in the nearby GAA grounds for many years now but he couldn’t allow a golden opportunity pass him by after he caught the eye of scouts at a trial in Glasgow Rangers’ training grounds earlier this year.
Having been spotted playing locally to begin with, Cillian was invited to trials in Abbotstown in Dublin. Liking what they saw, the Global Sports Recruitment company signed the Carnew whizz as a client and arranged for him to attend a trial game in Glasgow where US college scouts would be in attendance.
In all, Cillian says that eight colleges came back to him with offers of scholarships following his performance and that in the end he went with the one that he liked the most, Allen College in Kansas.
It certainly won’t be all football for Cillian when he begins his scholarship. The academic side of the deal is quite testing. The Carnew footballer is planning on choosing business to study and his grades must be maintained at a certain standard so as to continue playing soccer.
It’s not a complete unknown into which Cillian is diving.
Several friends who he once played with at Wexford Youths are in America on similar scholarships with one of them based in Kansas as well, and they told Cillian that he would be mad to pass up the opportunity to go study and play in the US.
There are still roadblocks in his way, however. He has applied for his visa and is hoping that it comes back prior to his start date and, of course, there is the ever-present Covid-19 emergency that is looming over the planet but all things going well the Carnew man should be heading down the yellow brick road in the very near future.
‘Congrats Cillian on your decision, we are delighted for you! Cillian starts his scholarship this coming August,’ said Global Sports Recruitment when they made the announcement.