BULGARIAN BEGINNING

Kelleher's come a long way since last visit with Ireland

- BY MARK McCADDEN

THE last time Caoimhin Kelleher played international football in Bulgaria, he had his Junior Certificate books with him and was playing opposite Gian-luigi Donnarumma.

His Liverpool adventure hadn't yet begun, whereas now it appears that it is coming to an end.

One of his Ireland team-mates, Marcus McGuane, would be Barcelona-bound three years later - but as an England international.

Another, Connor Ronan, had just made the switch to Ireland after playing for the Three Lions a few months earlier.

It's 10 years ago since the then Ringmahon Rangers goalkeeper was a member of the Ireland Under-17 side that travelled to this neck of the woods for the European Championships.

Drawn in a formidable group alongside the Netherlands, Italy and England, Kelleher played all three games as Tom Mohan's side opened with a hard-fought scoreless draw against the Dutch.

Unfortunately, things went downhill from there. Donnarumma kept a clean sheet in the next game, just 80km down the road from Plovdiv, the venue for tomorrow night's Nations League promotion/relegation play-off, as the young Azzurri side won 2-0.

Their goalscorers that day were Simone Lo Faso and Simone Mazzocchi.

Neither have reached the heights of their one-time goalkeeper teammate. Lo Faso is now in Serie D with Akragas, while Mazzocchi most recently enjoyed a couple of loan spells in Serie B.

As for Donnarumma, the then 16-year-old would make his Serie A debut for Milan five months after the May meeting with the Boys in Green in the Bulgarian city of Stara Zagora.

That game was sandwiched between the opening stalemate against the Dutch in Sozopol, on Bulgaria’s sunny Black Sea coast, and a 1-0 defeat to England.