IT WAS PROBABLY the day the chant originated.
Six years ago last Saturday, on December 5th 2009, Seamus Coleman was plucked from the substitutes’ bench against Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League by then Everton manager David Moyes as Joseph Yobo hobbled off.
The 21-year-old from Killybegs had never played at Goodison Park before.
60 grand, 60 grand, Séamus Coleman
60 grand, 60 grand, I say
60 grand, 60 grand, Séamus Coleman
Playing football the Everton way
Coleman had a hellish debut, thrown in at a deep end and out of position at left-back at Lisbon’s Estadio da Luz six weeks’ beforehand as Benfica trounced an inexperienced Everton side 5-0 – the result remains the Merseysiders’ heaviest ever defeat in Europe.
Benfica’s team that night included Angel di Maria – the midfielder that joined Manchester United in 2014 from Real Madrid for British record £59.7 million – and Pablo Aimar, who Diego Maradona once claimed was the only player he would pay to watch.
Javier Saviola, another Argentine, played for both Real Madrid and Barcelona in his time. He opened and closed the scoring in the rout against Everton, while Paraguayan striker Oscar Cardozo also scored twice – two of his 112 goals in 175 appearances in Portugal.
Also on the Benfica team sheet that night was a 22-year-old Brazilian, Rameries, who would go onto win the 2012 Champions’ League with Chelsea.
For Coleman, it was a far cry from Emerald Park in Killybegs, where he had helped his local club St Catherine’s to the 2006 Donegal League Premier Division title.
A five-goal hammering on his debut was, in fact, nothing new to the gentle-mannered right-back.
His first appearance for Sligo Rovers, as a late substitute on Halloween night 2006 against Derry City in an FAI Cup semi-final replay, ended up a 5-0 loss and on his competitive Republic of Ireland debut in 2012 against Germany, his side suffered a 6-1 defeat at the Aviva Stadium.
But Coleman’s resilient character had always helped him move on. At Sligo, the manager who plucked him from Killybegs, Sean Connor, moved on at the end of 2006 and in his stead, his replacement Rob McDonald wasn’t keen.
“He said ‘you are lucky you have a year left on your contract,'” Coleman told The Sunday Times this week. “I don’t see you getting in the team’ and he spoke about sending me on loan.
“After that meeting, I went out to the car and my dad said ‘how was it?’ Because I had a year left on my contract, I just said ‘it’s fine’. I kept it to myself. I am a fighter. I don’t give up and I was going to prove him wrong.”
Growing up in Cummins Hill and playing football from dawn till dusk, Coleman would wear the colours of this local GAA side Killybegs and Donegal’s underage sides as much as St Catherine’s.
In 2006, when Coleman’s Sligo future was uncertain, he wondered if he had made the right call.
In Gaelic games, a Donegal panel that included Michael Murphy, Martin McElhinney, Declan Walsh and Leo McLoone – all four of whom would help the county to Sam Maguire in 2012 – defeated Antrim to win the Ulster Minor Championship at Croke Park.
Seamus Coleman, Donegal captain Michael Murphy and Republic of Ireland internationals Damien Delaney and James McCarthy at Portmarnock, Dublin, in 2013
In 2014, Murphy, the Donegal captain, recalled playing with and against a teenage Coleman.
“There’s no doubt Seamie would’ve been with us but the rest is history,” Murphy, a clubman of Glenswilly, said. “He played Gaelic football just as he plays soccer with that marauding style. He was the modern day centre-back who was tough and can defend but can get up the field.
“It was at a time before centre-backs would be so forward-thinking but he had me on the back foot the whole time. We got hammered as Killybegs were very strong at that time. I was thinking the whole time that I was the forward here and he was the defender. I spent the whole time chasing him!”
Coleman stuck to his guns and trained diligently at Sligo.
“We would pick teams on a Friday and I would be picked last and I would be thinking ‘where is this going?,” he added of those early days looking out at Benbulben from the Showgrounds.
“Donegal county minors are in the Ulster final. Have I made the right decision here?”
That commitment meant Coleman broke into the Sligo Rovers team. The curve on the progress chart steepened so fast, in his last year, 2008, he was named at right-back in the League of Ireland team of the season.
Twelve months later, he was there at Goodison, galloping up and down the sidelines, when Moyes called his name.
“I just remember warming up with Shane Duffy,” Coleman added of that home debut against Spurs. “The previous game I had played was against Benfica and I didn’t know whether I would get a chance after that game.
“I came on after 10 minutes. I just wanted to get on and do as well as I could because that debut against Benfica wasn’t the best. I just kept getting up and down the line. It was as though it was meant to happen and it gave a kick-start to my career in England.”
From 2-0 down, he played a part in both goals – zipping up and down the right flank past Gareth Bale – as Everton secured a 2-2 draw with goals from Louis Saha and Tim Cahill. In terms of Coleman’s career, it was meant to happen.
From there, his personal and professional life has continued for the most part on an upward curve.
Last summer he married his childhood sweetheart Rachel Cunningham and last week the news of their first arrival, in late January, became public.
“Exciting times,”Coleman said. “My afternoon naps mightn’t be as frequent as usual but no we’re all looking forward it – it will be great.”
One of the standout disappointments in recent times was Coleman’s omission from Giovanni Trapattoni’s Ireland squad that travelled to Euro 2012 in Poland.
He stayed at home in Killybegs, watching the games on television – no need for a replica international jersey and he wore the real thing having debuted a year earlier against Wales – as his friends from the seaside town travelled east.
Seamus Coleman celebrates with his Republic of Ireland teammates as Jonathan Walters scores his second goal in the Euro 2016 play-off second leg against Bosnia-Herzegovina at the Aviva Stadium last month
Four years on, showing that steeliness again to succeed, Coleman now is Ireland’s first choice right-back. The new management team of Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane have brought the buzz back. Both men appreciate the raw materials in their squad, with Coleman and his peers the epitome of their honesty and endeavour.
The Aviva Stadium exploded in joy with a 1-0 Euro 2016 qualifying win over world champions Germany in October followed by Jonathan Walters’ heroics to see off Bosnia-Herzegovina 2-0 last month, which clinched a 3-1 aggregate win and qualification for France.
This Saturday, Ireland will learn who they will meet when the balls are plucked from the drums and the groups decided for Euro 2016.
“The Germany game was a special night and a special atmosphere,” Coleman, now 27, added. “Shane Long’s goal is something that will always be remembered. Obviously the Bosnia game was just that relief. When Jonny Walters scored the second goal it was something else. It was a moment I’ll always remember. It will be great to go to France next summer and represent Ireland in a major tournament.
“A massive contingent went to the last European Championships so I’ll be disappointed if they don’t go to the next one. All my friends that I’ve got will be going. I grew up in a small town and we all played football together growing up and we’re all still very close. A lot of them will be getting over and I’m sure they’re getting the camper vans ready.
“I missed out on the last European Championships so I’m looking forward to the draw and whoever we get. It will be great and we will be definitely looking to improve on what we did at the last European Championships. We did have a very tough group but the lads were disappointed with how they did and we’ll be looking to put that right.”
The chant at Goodison might be heard tonight again as Everton welcome Crystal Palace, although it’s accuracy is questionable and perhaps an asterix should compliment it, as the fee Sligo Rovers eventually received is approximately four times that “60 grand.”
In a way, though, it reminds us of the romanticism of the journey experienced by a young man from Killybegs who possessed talent and application and dared to dream. His story of moving swiftly though the ranks is more of a fairytale from a bygone era.
Seamus Coleman has had knock-backs before but has that unquenchable desire to come back and to come back stronger.
It’s who he is.
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