MAD ABOUT THE MOLLOY
Biggest clubs in land were desperate to sign hugely talented kid but a cruel injury wrecked Mark’s dreams of hitting big time
Sharing digs with John Terry and even a treatment table with Marcel Desailly..
Signed shirts from Gianfranco Zola and phone calls from Joe Cole.
Wanted by Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal, Manchester City, West Ham, Everton, Celtic and a few more. In 1998, Mark Molloy was the most sought-after kid in British football.
Yet most people outside of the game won’t have heard of him until last week.
That’s when TV icon – and former Morton player – Martin Compston named him on
Twitter as the most talented kid he’d ever seen on a pitch.
More people, from far and wide, soon backed him up. Molloy’s childhood pal, and current Dundee boss, James McPake echoed that opinion. Former Partick Thistle playmaker Gary Harkins did likewise.
It’s certainly true that there are no certainties in football.
But, at 14, the boy from Chapelhall in Lanarkshire was an absolute stick-on to become a superstar.
We’ve all heard hard luck stories from players who could, and should, have made it big. Boozers across the country are awash with them. Guys who had the world at their feet before the inevitable tale of woe, whether it be drink or drugs, injury or illness or simply that coach who didn’t fancy them or a cruel twist of fate.
If they’d all cracked it, Scotland would probably have been multiple World Cup winners by now.
But Molloy’s story is worth retelling because it shows just how cruel sport can be. Only when Compston decided to tell the world about him, did the 36-yearold feel comfortable enough to talk about it.
It’s no exaggeration to say his whole career hinged on one challenge. In 1999, at Peterborough’s London Road Stadium, Molloy had the chance to showcase his talents live on TV for Scotland Under-15s against England in the Victory Shield.
Darren Fletcher was one of his team-mates that fateful night as Molloy lasted just eight minutes.
A challenge from keeper Andy Lonergan split his thigh bone in two – and left his career hanging in the balance.
Molloy said: “That was a pivotal moment, not just in my career but in my life.
“People always ask me if I’d go for that ball again. He came out with his knees up to protect himself.
“My left leg was bent and my right stretched out to try to nick it past him. Essentially, his knee clattered into my left thigh.
“I was told by the doctors that it was an injury rarely seen on a football pitch. It’s more common in car accidents. My femur had split in
two – it was broken right through the middle of it.”
At 14, Molloy had no fears about getting back to his best.
He’d heard of people breaking their leg and making a full recovery.
But this was different. He wouldn’t walk again for a year and wouldn’t kick a ball again for two.
For a kid being chased by just about every team in Britain, it was a devastating blow.
He told MailSport: “I had been down at Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Everton, West Ham and other clubs in England.
“I was going down with boys like Chris Burke and John Kennedy and I remember Aiden McGeady being down at City with me.
“Myself and John were very close at that point, we were going everywhere together with our parents.
“After being at West Ham I vividly remember Joe Cole calling my house a few times to check on me and see how I was doing.
“Every weekend, I would be at a different club. I enjoyed the different experiences.
“At the same time, I was picked for the Scotland Under-15s, even though I was only an Under-14s player.
“For the France 98 World Cup, six boys were chosen to go along and I was one of them.
“That was probably my fondest memory – but then disaster struck.”
If anything tells you just how good, or how highly rated, Molloy was, it’s that Chelsea offered to put him through his entire rehab.
A one-year YTS and three-year pro contract were incredibly on the table from Stamford Bridge.
He’d barely donned a blue shirt yet the London club treated the young midfielder and his family like royalty.
He got to mix with Desailly and
Frank Leboeuf, got pictures with Zola and Gianluca Vialli, before eventually sharing a flat with future Chelsea and England skipper Terry.
Molloy said: “Arsenal had already put an offer in to my parents but my inkling was always to sign for Chelsea. “On one of my trips down there, we played against Fulham and the boys were being graded by the coaches, for every different attribute.
“I got 18 out of 18. The only other player ever to get that score was
Leon Knight, who later went on to play for the likes of Brighton and Swansea.
“In the dressing room I remember mixing with guys who had just won the 1998 World Cup like Leboeuf and Desailly.
“Zola and Vialli were also there. We were treated really well and that felt good. “After my operation in Peterborough I didn’t walk for a year. I’d pins and plates in, with a full cast for six months.
“One morning I was told I could walk again and by the afternoon, I was on a flight to London heading for Stamford Bridge.
“Within a day, I was on the treatment table and you remember silly things.
“I was on my belly, with the physio on top of me trying to bend my leg. I was screaming in pain and big Desailly was shouting, telling him to leave me alone.
“The physio told him to get out. He had to bend my leg or I wouldn’t be able to walk properly. I’d be down there for treatment, two weeks of every month for a year, and I hadn’t even signed for them yet.
“Every time I went down I lived with John Terry. He had digs he was sharing with Jon Harley and I would stay with them in London.
“John would take us to training every day and afterwards, he always wanted to take us to McDonald’s.
“He was crazy, in a good way. He was just a daft young boy back then.
“I’m not sure whether these guys knew how good I was because they’d never seen me play but prior to the injury, the likes of Zola would take me under their wing. I was allowed to mingle with the first team, which was rare for any young player.
“Overall, I was out for two years but eventually I trained and played a few games. Then I suffered another hammer blow.
“One day the physio felt a bit of grinding around my knee. He wanted a scan to be safe. I went to a knee specialist and he told myself, my mum and the Chelsea physio that I had a lot of cartilage damage.
“He said it was highly unlikely I’d be able to play professional football, it wouldn’t stand up to the rigours.
“This had come about as a result of the original broken leg.
“I had just turned 16 and it was so disappointing.”
When Chelsea changed the terms of the contract they’d initially offered, Molloy wanted to come home.
Celtic had never forgotten him and a deal was immediately on the table.
Coming through the ranks with the likes of Kennedy, McGeady and Shaun Maloney, he was later offered a two-year contract by Martin O’Neill.
The truth is, Molloy never got back to the level he knew he was capable of. The setbacks had taken their toll. When he left Parkhead, Hibs boss Bobby Williamson snapped him up.
He was part of that famous young group with Scott Brown, Kevin Thomson, Derek Riordan and the rest but it never happened for Molloy.
When a move to Welsh champions Barry Town, where he’d play a Champions League qualifier, turned sour because the club went bust, it felt like he was jinxed.
He said: “I knew I should be further on in my career, 100 per cent.
“When you’re playing you think everything will go back to the way it was. In some games, even for Scotland, I played well but deep down I knew I’d regressed from where I was ability-wise, due to the injury.
“When I left Hibs I got a phone call from Barry Town, who had just won the double. They had a great set-up with some good players. Bizarrely, John Fashanu was chairman.
“I shared a house with big Adebayo Akinfenwa, who’s a real character.
“I signed a two-year deal at 19 and moved to just outside Cardiff.
“We’d played a Champions League tie against a team from Macedonia, which was a great experience and then, bang, there were no wages that month.
“When we turned up on the
Monday, the training ground was locked. The club was going bust and Fashanu had cut all ties.
“Before we knew it, the club was liquidated. It was all very surreal.
“I knew at that point full-time football was out of my grasp. I felt cursed, as if it just wasn’t meant to be.
“It was terrible. It was the first time I felt really under pressure.
“I remember thinking, ‘I’ve got a car to pay up and I don’t know how I’m going to do it.’
“For the first time in my life I was really down. I knew I was finished.
“People ask all the time if the injury is why I didn’t make it.
“It didn’t stop me from playing but it stopped me from getting to where I wanted to be.
“Given the trajectory I was on at
14, it certainly took me off course. Spending two years out is always going to have that impact on you.
“I’d never say that I’d have made the grade if it wasn’t for the injury but I can say with confidence that it definitely hampered me.”