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- Herausgeber: The O'Brien Press
- Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021
The inspiration behind many of Ireland's greatest days, Shay Given earned 134 caps for his country and played in goal for Ireland for 20 years! From the time he was a young boy playing football with his brothers in the front garden of their Donegal home, Shay Given dreamed of football glory. Leaving home at just sixteen to join Celtic, Shay had to face many challenges on the road to becoming a world-class goalkeeper. He went on to play for top clubs like Newcastle United and Manchester City, played in the Champions League, and was the last line of defence for Ireland at the World Cup and the European Championships. The inspirational life story of the Republic of Ireland's longest-serving player.
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Dedication
To Aidan, my favourite person to talk football with.
Contents
Prologue
The night before the match, Shay had trouble sleeping. He was suffering from jet lag due to the time difference between home and Tehran, and nerves didn’t help. He couldn’t stop thinking about how much they had to play for. He’d missed out on the chance to play at the World Cup four years earlier. Now he was absolutely desperate to make his World Cup dream a reality.
As they made their way from the team bus into the stadium, the players were pelted with fruit and tomatoes by the hostile Iranian fans. The attempt to intimidate the visiting team was starting before they even made it into the stadium.
Shay couldn’t believe that there were thousands of fans in the stands already. There were still five hours to go until kick-off! They were shouting abuse at the Irish players, trying to make them feel threatened, overawed by what they had to face. As the goalkeepers went through their stretches, the fans started throwing bangers at them. The noise made them jump! The team were glad to get back to the dressing room to regroup before the match began.
Coming out onto the pitch was like entering a cauldron. The stadium was completely full now and the noise was incredible. Shay couldn’t remember ever having played in such an intimidating atmosphere. The small group of Irish fans down one end were proudly displaying their flags and chanting ‘Olé, olé, olé’, but they were easily drowned out by the home support.
It had been eight long years since Ireland qualified for the World Cup. Shay had watched the USA 94 World Cup on television as a young fan and dreamed of one day representing his country on the world stage. He knew that, back home in Ireland, millions of fans would be tuning in right now, hoping and praying to see their country make it to Japan and Korea.
With the two-goal cushion from the first leg, the main priority for Ireland was to stop Iran from scoring. The pressure was on the goalie and his defenders to keep that ball out of the net. Iran needed to score two goals to make things level, but Shay was determined not to let them score at all.
‘Come on, lads!’ he roared. ‘Keep things tight!’
Shay made some great saves. In the second half, Ali Daei’s shot looked certain to go in, but Shay punched it away just in time.
The ball fell to Karim Bagheri, who immediately took another shot. Shay dived to save it once more, scrambling it out for a corner.
It was a pivotal moment in the game. Shay felt that if that ball had gone in it would have been impossible for the Irish team to stop Iran from scoring for another thirty minutes. The triumphalism of the Iranian fans would make the atmosphere even more unbearable, and it would be so easy for the fight to go out of the Irish.
Minavand was free on the inside left and sent a beautiful half-volley towards the goal. Shay leapt up to his right to knock the ball away. He was having a torrid time of it with so many attempts on goal. He knew he had to stay at the top of his game to keep them from scoring.
The ninety minutes were nearly up. The scoreboard read 0-0. But there was still a minute to go, and then injury time, and the players needed to see this one out.
Goal! Golmohammadi had put the ball in the back of the net, and there was nothing Shay could do about it.
Still a minute of injury time to go. Just hang on, just hang on, Shay said to himself, desperately willing the time to go by. If they didn’t concede again, Ireland would be through, 2-1 on aggregate.
Ireland took the kick-off to restart the match. Gary Breen passed the ball back to Shay. Shay’s heart was in his mouth as he rushed out to clear it before an Iranian player could try to take advantage. He watched in relief as the ball sailed high and far up the pitch.
The final whistle went. Ireland had done it! Shay and the rest of the team hugged each other in delight, hardly able to believe it.
They were going to the World Cup!
Chapter One
Football Crazy
There was never a dull moment in the Given house.
Shay shared a bedroom with his three brothers. There were two double beds in the room – one for Marcus and Kieran, and the other for Liam and Shay.
One side of the room was nice and peaceful. Marcus was very laidback, and Kieran wasn’t one to pick a fight either, so their bed was a calm place.
The other side of the room was a different story. Shay and Liam both had hot tempers and the slightest thing would set them off, pushing and shoving each other.
‘You’re not to cross this line,’ Liam told Shay, drawing an imaginary line down the middle of the bed. ‘This is my side. Stay on your own.’
‘Fine with me!’ Shay said, turning over on his side with a thump and taking most of the duvet with him.
But in the middle of the night, a stray foot or elbow would creep over Liam’s line, and a scrap would break out once again. On the bedroom door, Shay had stuck up a poster of Ireland and Juventus footballer Liam Brady. The caption read ‘Thanks to football for showing me the world.’ Shay would gaze at the poster and think how great it would be to see the world thanks to football.
Shay loved having three brothers to play football with. Their big front garden made the perfect GAA or soccer pitch.
‘Come on, lads. Three and in! Shay, you’re in goal first,’ Liam said.
Three and in was a game where one of the boys would go in goal while the other three all tried to score goals against him. Whoever got to three goals first would then take over as goalkeeper.
‘I’m always in goal,’ Shay complained, but he didn’t really mind. He enjoyed playing in goal, always on the lookout for where the threat was coming from, always ready to react.
Shay loved to commentate on the matches at the same time as playing. He’d pretend to be his hero, Everton goalkeeper Neville Southall.
‘Another brilliant save by Neville Southall,’ he roared as he stopped Liam from scoring with a perfectly timed dive.
* * *
On the hill overlooking the house was St Patrick’s Church, with a peaceful graveyard beside it, and that was where Mum lay. It was a comfort knowing she was so close. Shay could feel her presence looking down on them and minding them.
Shay was just four years old when Mum died. He was the fifth of six children. Liam, his oldest brother, was eleven, then came Kieran, Marcus, Michelle and Shay, and lastly Sinead, who was two.
Shay had only a few memories of that terrible time. In his mind’s eye, he could see Mum sitting up in her hospital bed, her black hair flowing around her thin shoulders. She was smiling at her children, telling them to look after each other.
They celebrated Christmas early that year, in the strange surrounds of the waiting room at the hospital. The younger children didn’t really understand, but they were excited by the presents. Kind-faced nurses came and went, whispering to each other, putting on bright cheerful voices for the children, comforting Dad.
Shay knew, because Dad told him later, that Mum made him promise to keep all the family together. ‘Hold them together, Seamus,’ she’d said. ‘You’re to hold them together.’
Dad’s sisters, wanting to help out, had offered to take a child each to live with them, but Dad had firmly refused. ‘They’re my children, and they’re staying here with me,’ he said, and that was the end of it.
The devastating loss of Mum was a tragedy they would all have to learn to live with – but they would do it together.
* * *
Dad ran his own market garden business. The fields around the Given house were planted with potatoes, carrots, turnips, lettuce and beans. It was all hands on deck when the vegetables needed to be harvested.
Weeding was a job Shay hated. The market garden right beside the house was like a window display for everything that Dad’s business sold, and it needed to look perfect if it was to attract customers. Keeping it clear of weeds was Shay’s job, and it was a slow and thankless task. Up in the big fields they could use ploughs to keep weeds under control, but here in the market garden it had to be done completely by hand because of the small space.
Then there was the job of selling the vegetables, driving round in the van to make deliveries. When they were teenagers, Shay and Marcus often did this job after school or at the weekend.
Dad worked very hard, and he expected all the children to work hard too. When lunch was ready, Michelle or Sinead would blow on Dad’s referee whistle, and they’d all come charging in to devour a huge pile of sandwiches. They barely had time to finish eating before Dad would be ordering them back to work.
But there was plenty of time for fun too. Dad played for a football team and he’d bring the children along to watch him on a Saturday afternoon. Sometimes they brought a ball and had their own kickabout while the match was on. But as he got older, Shay was more focused on watching Dad. He was a brilliant goalkeeper and Shay loved to watch him play.
The best spot to watch a match was near the halfway line, so you could see all the ebb and flow of the game. But Shay never stood there. He stood behind the goals, watching every move Dad made, learning from him.
Shay played himself too, both soccer and Gaelic. He preferred soccer, but he knew the skills he was picking up in Gaelic, catching and kicking the ball, would stand to him in the future as a goalie.
When he grew up, he wanted to be a top-class keeper, just like Dad.
