I’d trust my teammates with my life, says Coleman
Killybegs’ pride and joy epitomises the spirit in this tight-knit group of players
YOUR body has been battered and you’re feeling weary. Your club manager has been sacked. Your form hasn’t quite hit the same heights as before. There have been injuries and supporters on your back. You’re tired. It’s been another draining season amid the circus of the Premier League. Then, summer arrives offering an escape. You’re a wealthy man so there are plenty of options. Dubai, Los Angeles, Ibiza.
‘Killybegs,’ Séamus Coleman smiles. ‘As soon as the season finishes I pack up and get the ferry from Holyhead. It’s my favourite drive of the year. I love it. For some reason, yeah, I always do the drive.
‘My wife says the same. My brother has driven over a few times and he loves driving. He does the drive back and I’ll do the drive over. I’ve just liked doing the drive home, knowing that I’m going home for the summer.’
His stay in Donegal this time around wasn’t as long as usual, what with Ireland’s preparations for Euro 2016 getting under way in the middle of May, but he still made sure to drop into his former soccer club, St Catherine’s, as well as the home of Killybegs GAA.
‘It’s something I pride myself on. When I walk down the street I want people to come over and ask how I am and I’ll ask how they are. I left at 20. I went to Sligo at 18 but I was over and back the road until I was 20,’ he explains.
‘I grew up with all these people, played football with all these people, walking into shops where people worked until I was 20 years of age so I’m not going to change all of a sudden. I wouldn’t see the reason why you would change in the first place.
‘I’m very proud of where I’m from. I’ve said from day one when I moved that, all going well, I’ll come back home eventually. I’m not saying in the next year or two but once my career is over I want to come home and live in Killybegs and live by the Gaelic club and live by the soccer club again. And just be around it.
‘Because I do miss that side of things. Obviously I love my time in England but I’m a home bird. I love my family and love being around them.
‘Without doubt, that’s the plan anyway when I get back, back playing with the lads if they’ll still have me. I got back for a week before we met up which was great but there is no place I’d rather be now than where I’m sitting.’
He’s on a bench in one of the small dressing-rooms in the gym beside Ireland’s training ground in Versailles. The Stade de Montbauron is home of FC Versailles, a semi-professional team in the seventh tier of the French league system. It is a world away from the Stade De France, where Coleman will get his first taste of a major international tournament tomorrow night. And it will be as today comes to close that the Everton full-back will begin to narrow his focus on the threat provided by Sweden’s left winger, Emil Forsberg.
‘At different times, I try and switch off as much as I can during the week but obviously you’ve got to focus during the training. In your free time you try and switch off and go down to the games room but there are times when you’re lying in bed and thinking, “I’m playing on Monday, fingers crossed, in the Euros”. It’s hard to believe sometimes and even when you try and switch off it’s always there in the back of your mind.
‘We have done work on Sweden. I like to do my work on my individual player maybe the night before the game. I have clips on my laptop of him and I’ll sit down and have a look before I go to bed. It can only help... Which way he likes to go which way he doesn’t like to go… But look, playing in the Premier League against top wingers that’s the way it is. You’re playing against top players week in, week out and he’s another one. I’ll not get too bogged down by him.’
On Friday night, Coleman watched the opening game of the tournament between France and Romania. Like everyone else, he was touched by the sight of Dimitri Payet leaving the pitch in tears after scoring what turned out to be a stunning winning goal.
‘Yeah, you can understand how he must have felt in that moment. I just hope one of us can have that moment,’ he says.
After being overlooked by Giovanni Trapattoni four years ago, this is Coleman’s moment. And he will savour it alongside Shane Duffy, a former teammate at Everton who had to leave Goodison Park for Blackburn Rovers in order to kickstart his career.
The decision paid off and impressive displays against Switzerland in March and The Netherlands last month ensured the 24-year-old made the cut having not played in a single qualifier.
‘When he made the 23 it showed how well has he done to come out of the blue,’ Coleman reckons. ‘The Switzerland game done wonders and ever since then in training he’s been brilliant. Before the 23 was named you kind of felt he would be going which was a credit to him.
‘I feel like he’s a much better player now than when he was at Everton. He got out to play games and playing week in, week out you can see it in training how much more comfortable he is on the ball. We all know how good he is defensively, defending our box and also in their box he is a threat.
‘He done very well at Everton, as you said they signed players, different managers have different preferences. Going to Blackburn was a great move and I don’t think it will be too long before you see him back in the Premier League.
‘From our reserve days at Everton when we played beside each other, we were always taking to each other and it was the same in the Holland and Switzerland games, it was like we were never away from each other. He is very vocal and that is a big part of his game.’
Coleman and Duffy have also formed an impressive partnership on the pool table, taking on all comers in the team hotel.
‘We’ve won 10 in a row,’ he reveals proudly, before giving an insight into why he has such faith Ireland can achieve success at this championship.
‘I don’t think we have to win this game but I would not take a point now, three points,’ he insists.
‘We have to come out and say all the right things but I genuinely do believe that with this group of lads we definitely have a good chance of getting out of this group.
‘From when we qualified till right now it has always been in the back of your mind that you want to do well and the lads we have won’t let us down. We will give our all and please God we will get out of this group.
‘They are great lads. You could trust them with your life. Say if you make a mistake. For instance, if Jonny Walters is in front of you, he is going to break his back to get back for you. Shane Long will make a bad ball into a good ball and that is all important, there is nobody in the squad who thinks they are higher than anybody else.’
Coleman was brought up better than that.