Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I got bored of my dream car after 3mths.. it wasn’t enough
Ex-man Utd star tells how he has no regrets about becoming priest
A FORMER Ferrari-driving Manchester United star who joined the priesthood has claimed he won’t miss the £500,000-a-year salary.
Belfast man Philip Mulryne traded in his kit for a cassock after growing “dissatisfied” with his life as a professional footballer.
After swapping fast cars for the simple life, the 39-year-old will now take over as a chaplain at a Dominican school in Newbridge, Co Kildare.
The former Northern Ireland international said he was blessed to have spent 13 years as a soccer star but he eventually fell out of love with the “footballer lifestyle”.
He added: “There’s no running away from that.
“I obviously lived the life of a footballer and it’s well documented. Things were given to young men very quickly.”
Fr Mulryne, who took part in his first Mass on Monday after being ordained recently, said despite buying his “dream” car he was bored with living a celebrity lifestyle.
He added: “I had a Ferrari 360 Modena. I always said to myself, ‘If I get to the Premier League with Norwich I’ll buy one of these’.
“This was my dream car as a child. I had it for three months then I sold it – I got bored of it.
“At the age of 20 I had to stop and think, ‘Why is this stuff not satisfying me? I’m bored, it’s not enough, nothing’s ever enough’.”
Fr Mulryne hit a low in 2005 when he was sent home from international duty after breaking curfew to go on a drinking session before a World Cup qualifier against England.
He said: “It was a turning point – it made me reflect more.
“As a footballer you’re caught up in this whole way of life, you never stop to take stock and think, ‘This isn’t going to last for ever – what am I going to do after?’”
Fr Mulryne took a year out of football in 2009 to return to his home town.
He was later declared bankrupt and decided not to go back to the game.
And the priest told Today With Sean O’rourke on RTE Radio 1 that he enjoys his new life of chastity, poverty and obedience.
He added: “I have to say I found it tremendously liberating and freeing. “To be caught up in that rat race of always accumulating and the pressure it brings – it was making me very restless.
“The notion of living very simply, from a faith perspective, was very attractive to me.”