We suspect he is playing down just how good a soccer player he is.
Reading FC’s loss was definitely Donegal GAA’s gain.
Back when he was 16, Ryan McHugh impressed a scout from Reading so much that he was swiftly invited over to train with the club’s underage team. He played a few games and was helped settle in by fellow Donegal native Carl McHugh but he soon realised that GAA would always win out.
The year after he landed back home, Reading were promoted to the Premier League. McHugh does not have a single regret, he insists. You’d believe him too. He won an All Stars Young Player of the Year award and is now an integral part of Rory Gallagher’s Donegal set-up.
During a wide-ranging interview with Colm Parkinson on The GAA Hour, McHugh gave some more details about his time in Greater London and the one game that he said secured his trial. McHugh said:
“I was down playing with St Catherine’s, which is the club down beside Kilcar and I played good one day. A Reading scout spotted me and I went over and played with their Under 16s.
“It was a great experience. I knew myself – no, not that I knew myself – that I wasn’t good enough but that, I guess, I was going across for the experience. I was fortunate enough at the time that Carl McHugh, who I would have known and who is now with Motherwell, was over there at the time.
“It was good to have someone over there that I knew. It was great and I enjoyed it. Being at such a young age and getting that professional experience was great but I just wanted to get back and play for Kilcar [GAA] U16s.
“It was good but I definitely wasn’t good enough for that level.”
Typical GAA modesty.
McHugh explained that he played in a different position to Donegal’s most successful soccer import of recent years – Everton and Ireland right-back Seamus Coleman.
“I was playing centre midfielder. I used to just run, hai.
“I was a real Gaelic footballer – just run about and hit the ball. No silky touches or anything like that.”
When it comes to GAA, McHugh is certainly as silky as they come.
We’ll next get to see those skills when he lines out for an outrageously talented Jordanstown team in the Siegerson Cup.
