‘You have to do everything you can to be the best person you can be’

I have spread my dreams under your feet;/Thread softly because you thread on my dreams - WB Yeats

It is the kind of news no young professional footballer wants to hear. The news that the club he has signed for (and where he has invested his hopes and dreams in) are about to let him go.

"Sorry son, but we are not keeping you on," are the words that have pierced the heart of many young Irish footballers who have signed for English clubs over the years; a devastating blow many don't bounce back from. Invariably the scenario is that the young player is called into the manager's office and told the bleak news.

Jimmy Corcoran from Drumbaragh, who turned 21 just a few weeks ago, is one of the young players who was told those harsh words - although the context in which he was told by Preston North End were were bizarre, historic, unprecedented.

It was the spring of 2020 and the world was in a spin with governments floundering around looking for ways to tackle the Covid crisis. The player takes up the story. "I was in Preston but once Covid hit we were all sent home. Our league was stopped on the Saturday and by the Tuesday I had the car packed and was on the ferry home, me and Brian McManus, a lad from Dublin," he recalls.

"We were supposed to be going home for two or three weeks to let all the Covid stuff die down. Obviously at the time there was no decision about anybody's contract."

Like every other sector there was uncertainly in football - how would all this pan out? It wasn't long before Preston North End clarified things for Jimmy Corcoran and his colleagues. Back safely among the bosom of his family in Drumbaragh Jimmy was asked to make himself available for a zoom call. It was zoom call from hell.

"I, and the rest of the players in my age group were told the club had decided not to offer us professional contacts," he recalls. "There's not much you can do when that happens. You obviously ask yourself why? Could you have done a lot more, questions come into your head but these things happen in football.

"Preston needed to save money. They had to pay wages to the older players but there was no money coming in so I think the easiest option for them was not to offer any of us a professional contract."

No doubt those involved with Preston North End who have the unenviable task of telling youngsters they will not be kept on are trained to convey such devastating news in as diplomatic, soft-toned way as possible (as the great WB Yeats would, no doubt, have hoped). However no matter what the words are, no matter how carefully couched, the central message is the same and has about the same effect as a slap across the face with a wet towel.

Some young footballers don't recover but Corcoran has shown he is made of strong stuff. He bounced back from the setback and has successfully rebuilt his career. He joined Dundalk, chastened but the fires of ambition undimmed. He soaked up information from where he could including from fellow Meathman Gary Rogers, one of his heroes. Corcoran also had a spell with Wexford Youths and early last year signed for Cork City.

He is now a professional with the the newly installed Premier Div outfit. Not only that he is their first choice goalkeeper and you suspect it will take a lot for him to relinquish it. He has worked bloody hard to get to where he is now. One day you’re the business, the next well, everything has changed, changed utterly as Mr Yeats might put it.

This season he has put in a series of consistent, impressive displays that has earned him acclaim, the level of performances reflected in the way he was recently in the Republic of Ireland u-21 squad for a game against Iceland.

It was was another indication the young Drumbaragh man was back in business. Big time. Firmly back on track.

HOLLAND

From a very young age Jimmy Corcoran knew he wanted to be a goalkeeper. He sort of fell into the position while playing for Kells/Blackwater underage teams. There was just something about the demands of the role that suited him, intrigued him. He was good at it too and he was noticed. He was recruited by Dublin club Cherry Orchard, called into Irish development squads. His talent continued to blossom and he made it into the national youths squad, his skills honed also from playing Gaelic football with his local club, Drumbaragh Emmets. Then the call came from Preston and the chance to carve out a career for himself in the English game something he always wanted.

There were other unexpected twists and turns on the road. Take the events of May 2018. The Drumbaragh youngster was part of the Irish u-17 team that took part in a European Championship game in Holland. The game went to penalties and in the shoot-out Corcoran was controversially sent off during the shoot-out.

The Czech Republic referee Zbynek Proske showed the Irish goalkeeper two yellow cards for allegedly stepping off his line before spot-kicks were taken. The second yellow was shown after Meath teenager thought he had heroically saved a penalty that would have taken the game to sudden death. An outfield player went between the Irish posts (no subs are allowed during shootouts unless one of the goalkeepers are injured), Holland scored and progressed to the semi-finals.

The then Irish senior manager, Martin O'Neill, was in the stand watching. He was so enraged by what he saw he raced onto the field and protested against the decision. The story went viral and, as sudden as the arrival of a winter squall, Corcoran became a household name, in the most unexpected of ways.

DEEPDALE

Not that the youngster had much time to dwell on events. The following week he moved to Preston. Despite how things transpired with the English club, Corcoran learned a great deal at Deepdale. He has nothing but happy memories from his time there.

"Being away at that age is quite tough but the hardest part was training everyday. I went from training two or three nights a week with Cherry Orchard, or playing with Drumbaragh, to every day out on the training ground. Then we had education thrown in as well. The hardest part was trying to balance it all.

"During the first six months I was with the first team so that was a step up as well, travelling to games, I was in the first-team squads, it was something new, a whole new experience. I really, really enjoyed it and definitely helped me a lot.

"There was no bullying or anything like that, we were treated very well. I worked with top class goalkeepers like Declan Rudd who had just been in the Premier League with Norwich. Irish players like Alan Browne and Sean Maguire were there. I had three or four boys looking after me."

Corcoran says that apart from learning so much about the art of goalkeeping his time with Preston helped to foster in him a fierce independence; a resilience that has helped him get over other setbacks and challenges.

"Looking back now I see how at just 16 moving to a different country, moving away from family and friends was a very big move. I don't regret moving away, I wouldn't be the person I am today without moving to England, it was a great experience for me, in terms of football, and other ways. I live in Cork full time now and when you are on your own you have to cook for yourself, look after yourself. My time in Preston certainly helped me in that regard."

There are other lessons Corcoran has learned over the last five years including "I feel now I know what it takes, it takes a lot of hard work. No matter where you are you still have to prove you are good enough."

At times over the past few years when a wage couldn't be earned from football, Jimmy has worked with his father Noel Corcoran in the plastering trade.

He knows and likes the trade but working in building sites on cold frosty mornings has served to highlight further the attractions of life as a professional footballer.

Not that a life in football is easy either. The past five years have reinforced for the young Drumbaragh man that reality. If he was asked to talk to some 16 year-old about to embark on a career in the game he knows what piece of advice he would give.

"It's a bit of cliche but just work as hard as you can, make sure you're doing more than the person next to you because football is a game where the lad sitting next to you might be your best friend but he doesn't care if you make it or not. It's a selfish game because you have to do everything you can to push on and break through to the next level. You have to do everything you can to be the best person you can be, the best footballer you can be."

Even the great WB Yeats could hardly have put it better.