EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW PART-TIME PREDATOR
Prolific Peterhead frontman McAllister has no regrets over rejecting professional deals to stay in lower leagues
IT’S every young footballer’s dream to play in a cup final at the national stadium. To play for the biggest teams in the world, to have hundreds of thousands of fans screaming their name.
What they are not told at the outset of their careers, however, is about the sacrifices required to make it happen. About how their closest relationships will be tested to the maximum.
Peterhead striker Rory McAllister has certainly had his opportunities to step up to the big time during a 13-year career which has seen him score more than 200 goals across three different clubs, including a famous winner in a 2-1 victory over Rangers at Ibrox in 2013.
But the man whose goalscoring feats have seen him become a personal favourite of Jeff Stelling on Sky Sports’ Soccer Saturday refused to be dazzled by the prospect of the bright lights.
Rather than pursue a career at a higher level — and despite various offers from full-time clubs looking to take him to the Scottish top flight — he preferred to remain with the Blue Toon in the country’s lowest division.
With a young family to provide for, he quickly realised he would be more financially stable combining part-time football with his full-time job as a heating engineer.
‘Sometimes I was being offered deals which would make me worse off financially and I wasn’t going to do it for any less money,’ the 31-year-old told Sportsmail. ‘Especially at the age I was. I didn’t need it. It wasn’t like I was going to go any further than one more step ahead, so it wasn’t worth my while to go do it for a couple of years.
‘Family comes first. I’ve got a young family now and, at the time, I’d just got married and other times I’d just bought a new house and stuff. Nothing ever made it the right option for me at the time.’
McAllister started his career at Inverness Caley Thistle when the club were in the Premiership, making over 60 appearances. But after a loan spell with Peterhead — followed by a move to Brechin City — he returned to Balmoor permanently in 2011 aiming to do a plumbing apprenticeship in his home town of Aberdeen to give him a back-up career option.
Since then, he’s had discussions with the likes of Hibs, Aberdeen and Hartlepool but they never went any further than a conversation. The striker accepts his chances of ever going full-time are over, but it is no longer something which interests him as he looks to see out the remainder of his career with Peterhead.
‘The chance for me going was gone a couple of years ago,’ said McAllister. ‘The last few years, there’s not really been anything. I was happy where I was and I just keep doing what I do.
‘The closest I’ve come to leaving was Dundee United a few years ago. They came in for me and the club agreed I could speak to them. But it was nowhere near the expectations of what I would want and what they could offer.
‘It was pointless continuing the conversation. It would have been nice maybe a few years ago but now I’m not interested in the slightest. I don’t see the point in going somewhere just for the sake of going full-time. It would have had to be the right thing.’
Close friends struggled to understand why he never seized his chance at a bigger club but McAllister knew he had his family to think about as well as himself, especially with the future to consider when his football career is over.
‘A few of my good pals think I should have maybe done it,’ he added. ‘They said if they were in my shoes they would have, but I know a lot of guys who have gone full-time and they end up finishing their careers and they’ve got nothing.
‘Now they’re scrambling about, not knowing what to do, and I’ve got actual work. I’ve got a trade, a good job with a good company. I don’t have to worry about what’s going to happen, I’ve always got this. These professionals don’t have that, and they’ve got to start from scratch at 33 or 34.
‘I wouldn’t say I’ll have the last laugh but sometimes you look at it and think you might be right.
‘It’s a hard one but it depends on what you want to do. Some guys don’t want to work for a living and some want to be happy football players until they’re 35, whereas I was happy to start working.
‘I don’t mind juggling it all. You get used to it. Some boys really struggle when they come from full-time to part-time, but I’ve adapted to it and I can enjoy it more than when I was full-time.’