SPORTING PASSIONS: Mickey Whelan:Dublin's senior football selector tells GAVIN CUMMISKEY about his former career as a professional soccer player in the US

I PLAYED professional soccer in the US with the Connecticut Wildcats. When I was a young fella I was approached by Manchester United. They came to the house, but I refused to go. I had a phobia about emigrating when I was 12 or 13. It was about 1952.

There was a lot of emigration from the street I lived on in Cabra west. My father was lucky, he had a good job.

There was a lot of unemployment so most kids I knew only saw their fathers at Christmas and for two weeks in the summer before they went back to England to work. This had a huge impact on me, seeing my uncles and aunts going off, so I just thought I’d never emigrate, but then I ended up in the US and I had two kids at the time as well.

My last match for Connecticut was actually one of my early games as I tore my cruciate knee ligament. We played Estudiantes when they were the world club champions. I have the programme at home.

Sport is my passion, period. I love Gaelic football and I played a lot of hurling. As a kid I was a hurdler and I was on the relay team. In fact, myself and a fella called Mick Smith from Star of Sea tied, at four foot eight, in the primary school high jump final in Croke Park.

The following year his father moved to Phibsboro and Mick came to St Peter’s so we were in school together. Then we played for Clan Na Gael together before he went on to play for Shamrock Rovers and Ireland as a goalkeeper.

I emigrated in 1969 so, yes, I could have won three more AllIrelands. I was only 29. I still played regularly in New York, while playing soccer in college on a scholarship.

I didn’t go over on a scholarship. At the time I was living in New Jersey and I had to get a train down from Westchester into the city and then get a bus out.

In the first couple of weeks I approached the soccer coach and asked could I train because I had to wait until 6.40pm for the train home anyway. He became a great friend, John Yasinsak, a Pole though his mother was Irish.

After the training he came up and asked if I had played professional soccer. I explained I had played another game called Irish football at the top level. He said, “We think you could help us.” Within a short time I was brought up to the president of the college.

I was an Irish guy so I couldn’t get a scholarship from a state college, so they brought in an insurance company to give me a scholarship.

I started with a two-year course in biology and sociology in Westchester. I then went on to study PE and biology as two major subjects at Davis and Elkins College in West Virginia.

When you graduated there was a draft. I had a few offers, but I was looking at where I would do a masters. Westchester was willing to facilitate me going back there.

I played a game in Gaelic Park soon after the Estudiantes game.

Running through on goal, I shot the ball hard and felt my knee hyperextend, but I couldn’t stop myself as I was going so fast. It blew up.

I was told I would need knee re-construction. I was 31 and decided I was not going to do that. Little did I know I would be coming home and playing with St Vincent’s. I just did enough rehabilitation so I could walk and eventually jog.

It was a brief but memorable spell. Pele was with the New York Cosmos at the time. I didn’t play against him, but was in a summer camp with him.

He used to play the guitar and sing, which made him a big hit with the kids. He was a good guy. To be honest, I thought George Best was just as good a player.

I’m in three Halls of Fame in America – the National Junior College, Westchester and another from my time at Davis and Elkins.

My induction to Westchester clashed with St Vincent’s’ Leinster championship game against Senchalstown in 2007.

During my course in Westchester I was the MVP in the leagues for two years, playing as a sweeper.

It was a big deal at the time because they had very good basketball and American football teams. They retired my jersey. Number 17. It’s framed and hanging in the hall.

Before I went to America I player-managed the Clan Na Gael seniors to a league and championship. Mick Byrne (the former Republic of Ireland physiotherapist) was on that team, he was a good worker.

When I first came home I was involved in designing all the training for (Kevin) Heffernan, but I continued to coach soccer. I brought an Irish national college team to Westchester a few years ago. When we arrived they had “Welcome home Mickey” up in lights.

The guys were blown away by this. I was embarrassed. They knew me as a GAA guy even though I was their coach.

I went on to coach under-15 and under-16 international soccer teams with Tommy Connolly. I managed the Irish team at the World University Games. I was manager of the Irish Colleges, who beat the Irish University side three times in a row. I went on to coach Dundalk to the League of Ireland title in 1995.

As a coach, I can see what Giovanni Trapattoni is doing. He has a limited squad and the fact of the matter is he has brought some organisation.

Jack Charlton did the very same thing. I was away on coaching courses with Jack, he wouldn’t even know me now, but I used to chat away to him.

He had a philosophy that he wanted to do something different with the international team. He noticed that top-class defenders hated turning back into the corners. That’s why he had full and half backs putting balls down there.

International teams get together for three or four games before qualifier matches and they are coming from teams where they are pulling strings through players like Franco Baresi.

The Milan philosophy was to allow Baresi, as sweeper, to come forward, but once he lost possession he had to run everybody down until he fell. Somebody slipped back into the defensive unit. They would then let him off three or four balls to allow him recover. It was a great philosophy. A great way of playing.

Anyway, how did I get on to that subject? You can see I have a passion for sport not just Gaelic football, but it has probably got me into trouble with ardent GAA fans.

People have become more enlightened these days.

I remember sitting down with rugby people and asking why somebody doesn’t kick the ball from one side of the field to the other and catch everybody out.

“Great trick, Mickey, but it wouldn’t work,” they told me.

But what do I know?