Latest news with #DylanConnolly
BreakingNews.ie
7 days ago
- Sport
- BreakingNews.ie
Sunday sport: Mayo knocked out of All-Ireland Championship, Tyrone trash Cavan
GAA Mayo are out of the All Ireland Football Championship. They suffered a heart-breaking 19 point to 1-15 loss to Donegal in Group 1's final game on Sunday evening. Advertisement All over here in King & Moffatt Dr. Hyde Park. — Mayo GAA (@MayoGAA) June 15, 2025 That result combined with Tyrone's 31 points to 18 point win over Cavan means Cavan survive and Donegal go through as group winners. Monaghan secured top spot in Group 3 earlier. They came from behind to beat Down by 2-27 to 1-26 which leaves Down in second place. Louth survived and dumped Clare out of the competition with a 2-17 to 2-14 win in Portlaoise. Advertisement Limerick are into the semi finals of the Tailteann Cup. They had too much for Wexford in their quarter final with the final score at the Gaelic Grounds Limerick 4-21 Wexford 2-19. Wicklow are also into the last 4 after a 2-18 to 2-17 victory over Westmeath in Aughrim. Soccer We are witnessing our first hammering of the Club World Cup in the USA this evening. Advertisement German champions Bayern Munich are 6-0 up on amateur side Auckland City at half time in their opening tie. 💫 OLISE!!! 💫 WHAT A STRIKE!!! 🤩 🌎 45'+3 | #FCBACFC | 6-0 🏆 — FC Bayern (@FCBayernEN) June 15, 2025 Irishman Dylan Connolly is on the Auckland bench. PSG, who recently won the Champions League, take on Atletico Madrid at 8pm. The night rounds off with Palmeiras taking on Porto at 11pm. Advertisement Former Liverpool defender Conor Masterson is weighing up his next move, with League of Ireland clubs circling. The 26-year-old Gillingham centre-back is out of contract, and while the English club want to keep him, interest from home is growing. Masterson was spotted at Tolka Park on Friday night, as Shamrock Rovers beat Shelbourne, and both Shels and St Patss are understood to be keen. The Lucan native, once an Ireland U21 international under Pats boss Stephen Kenny, was Gillingham�s Player of the Year last season. Advertisement Athletics There is Irish interest at the Stockholm Diamond League on Sunday evening. Rhasidat Adeleke is due to line up in the womens 400 meters which gets underway in the next few minutes. Golf Rory McIlroy is looking to end his disastrous US Open campaign on a positive note. The Masters champion is 3 under thru 14 and 7-over par in Pennsylvania. Sam Burns is still the man to catch on 4 under par. Tennis Germany's Tatjana Maria has become the first women's tennis champion at Queen's for 52 years. The 37-year-old qualifier beat Amanda Anisimova in straight sets in the final to claim the trophy. The Lawn Tennis Association reintroduced the women's competition in a bid to bring "greater visibility" to the game. Maria - who was a qualifier at the tournament - saw off four top-15 players on her way to the trophy.
Irish Independent
14-06-2025
- Sport
- Irish Independent
From Celbridge to Cincinnati via New Zealand, meet the Irishman preparing to face Bayern Munich at the Club World Cup
Dylan Connolly was playing in the Leinster Senior League two years ago, now the 25-year-old defender finds himself in the US with Auckland City where he will test himself against the German giants, Benfica and Boca Juniors 'One aspect of serendipity to bear in mind is that you have to be looking for something in order to find something else.'
The Irish Sun
14-06-2025
- Sport
- The Irish Sun
I'm the only Irish footballer in the Club World Cup – I can't wait to take on Harry Kane & Bayern Munich
WHEN asked who were the most famous players he has shared a pitch with up until this point, Dylan Connolly pauses for a moment. He mentions having played against Advertisement 3 Hoisting the Under-14s SFAI All-Ireland trophy in Wayside's ground 3 Beside a trophy that's about to become a whole lot more recognisable 3 He's grateful to the opportunities abroad that football has presented him with Go a little further back in his career and the ex-St Francis schoolboy played alongside Luton Town striker Millenic Alli and Joshua Kayode of Rotherham United. He will have a different answer after tomorrow when he is set to line out for Auckland City against He is the only Irishman in the The expanded competition is controversial both because of the Saudi Arabian origin of its prize fund and the prolongation of an already long season. Advertisement Read More On Irish Football But, for amateur side Auckland, concerns about time off revolve around their day jobs rather than rest. Connolly explained: 'Everyone works a full-time job alongside football. I work as a physio. 'Luckily for me, although I work for a company, I am a contractor so leave is not much of an issue. Some of the lads are struggling to get four weeks off and are trying to do some work while we're away. 'No other team has that worry. It's definitely tough but we can't complain. What other amateur team gets to experience this?' Advertisement Most read in Football They will return home to a fixture backlog in domestic competition but, again, it is a problem they would rather have than not. Connolly said: 'We will probably be playing midweek fixtures for the rest of the year but we'll deal with it. Gabriel urges Arsenal to complete £67m transfer for 'phenomenal' Brazil team-mate Rodrygo amid Real Madrid frustration 'A lot of these players will have been on international duty but, even so, you can see clubs are taking it seriously and not just treating it as a pre-season tournament, as some people thought they might. 'The fact Real Madrid just paid £10million so Trent Alexander-Arnold could play shows how seriously clubs are taking it.' Advertisement And, insofar as they can, Auckland have done the same, arriving in the USA almost a fortnight in advance of their opening fixture to play friendly games against Philadelphia Union and fellow competition participants Al-Ain. Connolly's girlfriend Tiquilla has travelled to America to cheer him on while some US-based pals will watch him in action against Benfica in Orlando. It is another far-flung adventure for Connolly who ended up lining out for Tupapa Maraerenga of the Cook Islands — population 15,040 — in the qualifying round of the Oceania Champions League last year. It was not long after his arrival in New Zealand, a move he decided upon in part thanks to a conversation with former Shelbourne and Longford Town player Aaron O'Driscoll. Advertisement Connolly said: 'I just asked him what the football was like and would there be opportunities, and what he said was positive. His advice helped.' It saw Connolly and Tiquilla — who works in a primary school — embark on an adventure which has gone better than might have been expected. ASKED OTHERS FOR ADVICE He said: 'I didn't quite make it out of the League of Ireland academy system. I had been playing amateur football for two years with Lucan United in the Leinster Senior League. 'It was a good standard with some good players but I had ambitions to play at a higher level. And I wanted something new in my life. Advertisement 'I knew people who had come out here and done well so we said we'd move over for a year and see how it goes. But we really didn't want to go home. 'We've loved it. There's a much more relaxed lifestyle with a better balance between work and free time. "We'll have permanent residency within a year and we're very settled.' Auckland FC and Wellington Phoenix — both of whom compete in Australia's A League — are the only two professional clubs in New Zealand. Advertisement After his brief stint with the Pacific Islanders, he signed for Birkenhead United and had a solid season which saw them reach the league final. He provided an assist in the decider. It was not enough for them to overcome Auckland City but it helped him to secure a move there. AUCKLAND ARRIVAL He said: 'Last year was my most enjoyable season in senior football. And playing in that final was the cherry on the cake but I was gutted we lost. 'When the Club World Cup was announced and the draw was made, I didn't envisage myself playing in it because I wasn't at the club. Advertisement "Obviously when they came to sign me, the Club World Cup was a big draw but I would have signed anyway because they're a big club. 'We might be amateur but on a regular week we train four times with a game at the weekend so we take our football seriously.' But, no matter how much they do, trying to bridge the gulf between themselves and Bayern — and their other two group opponents Boca Juniors and Benfica — will be next to impossible. Nevertheless, the full-back says there is no trepidation about taking on their star-studded opponents. Advertisement He said:'I don't think so. It's more excitement. We know where we stand. We're training as much as we can to give a good account of ourselves. 'We don't want to have just come over for the ride. There is a part where you are pinching yourself because you're up against players you might idolise. 'Bayern are one of the strongest teams around. They've players such as Harry Kane, Thomas Muller and Michael Olise. To share the pitch with these people would be unbelievable. 'How many players — particularly amateur ones — get this chance? But it's important not to get carried away with the occasion, which could easily happen. Advertisement 'We've got to focus on our job, our plan, for 90 extremely tough minutes and almost put everything else to one side, forget about it, be in the zone.' WHY NOT? Whatever happens, it will not change the fact that his move to the other side of the world has been a game-changer for Connolly, who is originally from Clondalkin before the family moved to Celbridge. And the older brother of Athlone Town player Aaron believes others should consider broadening their horizons if they do not make the progression into the League of Ireland. He said: 'I was probably close-minded as a teenager. I was in that academy system and the sole purpose was to get into the first team and when that doesn't happen it can be quite disheartening. Advertisement 'When I was with Shelbourne's Under-17s I trained with the first team and I thought it was going to happen for me. 'It didn't, I went to Drogheda United and got more exposure with the Under-19s but, for whatever reason, it didn't happen. But I can't think of too many who are in the first team now. 'It's a small funnel and not a lot squeeze through and, to this day, I have never signed a professional contract. "But I have had some cool experiences, whether it was playing for the Irish Regions team in Spain, for a team in the Cook Islands and now this. Advertisement 'I am not going to advise people what to do but there are definitely options there, you just have to take that leap. 'It was always my ambition to be a professional footballer and it always will be, even if I am realistic too that, at 25, the window of opportunity is probably closing for me. 'But my mindset, whether amateur or professional, will still be the same. 'If you had told me I would go from playing for Lucan in the Leinster Senior League to playing for Auckland in the Club World Cup in America, I would have said you were crazy so you just never know. Advertisement 'Things happen for some people and not for others.'
The 42
04-06-2025
- Health
- The 42
'There is a line... you know what you can play through and what you can't'
EARLY JUNE AND credit to the League of Ireland for being prepared to pause for breath and allow its players a chance to recharge. The final stages of the Nations League take place in Germany over the next week, before FIFA's expanded Club World Cup kicks off on 15 June in the United States. So, no time for beaten Champions League finalists Inter Milan to dwell on that sobering 5-0 defeat to PSG as they will be back in action. An Irishman will also feature on that opening weekend when Kildare native Dylan Connolly turns out for New Zealand's fully amateur outfit Auckland City against European royalty Bayern Munich. This month will be filled with games before the final in New Jersey on 13 July; a date sandwiched between both legs of Shelbourne's Champions League first-round qualifying tie. By that point, Premier League clubs will also be back in pre-season action ahead of the 2025/26 campaign and, just six days after the Club World Cup final, Manchester United will play Leeds United in a friendly in Stockholm. On and on it goes, as seasons blend into one. The Republic of Ireland, of course, have two friendlies of their own over the next week as preparations continue for a condensed World Cup qualifying campaign that means September through to November is make or break for manager Heimir Hallgrímsson. He opted to leave out the majority of his Championship players from this squad so they could have the benefit of longer holidays this summer before – as the Ireland boss put it – they spent next year on duty at the World Cup. Someone who has been able to take time to relax on a couch is John Egan, who was a guest on a special live show for the Second Captains podcast in Cork last week. The 32-year-old still harbours ambition to play a role in those qualifiers in the autumn after rebuilding fitness and form over the last nine months with Burnley and Hull City. Advertisement An achilles injury in September 2023 brought a premature end to Egan's Premier League career as well as his time at Sheffield United, a club he helped earn promotion to England's top flight on two occasions. He explained on Second Captains how he went into a match with West Ham with injuries to his ankle and knee but didn't want to pull out of the starting XI as it had been a tough start to the season. 'When you're carrying an injury, it affects the rest of your body if you keep playing. That's advice I'll give to any young fellas or any people with young kids, going forward mind your body because you know you get an injury somewhere, it could be affecting you somewhere else,' he said. 'It cost me the rest of the season, probably cost me the rest of my Sheffield United career, which was sad. Yeah, I think it's (playing while injured) definitely an Irish thing. You kind of feel embarrassed if you don't train or you don't play, you know? That's how I felt anyway, and then you get the Europeans coming in and they've a little knock, they don't play and you think 'come on, man, just play', [but] they're going to be still playing when they're 40, if they want. 'I've learned the hard way. If I could go back I wouldn't play that game. I'd wait until I was right or until I had a two or three-year contract behind me. That's the be all and end all.' Those words, combined with a further elongation of the club and country calendar, seemed all the more prescient when Jason Knight was put up as the Ireland player on media duty yesterday. Now captain at Bristol City and still only 24-years-old, he played every minute of his side's 46-game regular campaign as well as the defeat over two legs to Sheffield United in the play-offs. That's even more impressive when you consider he was coming off the back of the 2023/24 season when he also played 3,848 minutes of 4,140 available. Jason Knight with John O'Shea (background). Tom Maher / INPHO Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO Knight did manage a two-week break before joining the squad – Preston's Robbie Brady the other Championship player required for duty – and accepts it's hard to argue with Egan's regrets. 'John is probably right. There is a line and as you get older you get more experienced and you know what you can play through and what you can't,' he said. 'There's always knocks and niggles you can get through but I have been fortunate to get through the season without hurting myself too badly so a bit of luck as well. You can always get through a certain pain barrier and get on to the pitch.' That posed an obvious question: what is the line for you? 'If the leg isn't off, I suppose,' Knight said. John O'Shea, Ireland's assistant head coach, was sitting alongside the midfielder at the press conference and expanded on the kind of attitude and application that makes Knight so important. 'He is naturally leading now, vocally but also performance and intensity-wise. If we are doing a drill in training, you know if Knighty is involved in it that it is going to take care of itself and that is brilliant for a coaching staff, to have that and to see that reliability. 'It's also a trust to know what he is going to produce for the team as well. He has grown into the role for club and country. I'm sure there's lots of people looking at him and I'm sure Bristol City are very happy with him too. 'There's always that element of him being new school and old school, but it is a good school that he is from. Hopefully it continues.' Interest from other clubs for Knight is not at a stage where any transfer could be imminent. 'It's been a bit quiet for the last couple of weeks,' he said. Things move quickly in football and Knight knows that. 'I want to be ambitious. I want to play in the top division. But I'm relaxed, if it's now or in the future, that will be. I've just got to keep performing well to get to that point.' And if that means another summer still on the clock at the biggest show of all next summer then so be it.
Irish Daily Mirror
03-06-2025
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
Meet the Irishman playing at the Club World Cup against Bayern, Benfica and Boca
Dylan Connolly knows he's not supposed to have days like these, not as an amateur footballer who has to shoehorn training sessions into his busy working life. But sometimes you just strike it lucky and today the Celbridge lad has arrived in America to take on some of the world's biggest teams in the FIFA Club World Cup. From Celbridge in Co Kildare, the 25-year-old will be the sole Irish competitor in the expanded tournament that now incorporates 32-teams. He plays for New Zealand's most successful club, Auckland City, and the amateur side have been drawn in the same group as Bayern Munich, Boca Juniors and Benfica. Champions League winners PSG, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Manchester City, Chelsea, Juventus and Porto are among the other heavyweight clubs involved in the tournament. 'It's absolutely bonkers, and still hard to believe,' Connolly told Mirror Sport as he ramps up preparations for Auckland's opener against Bayern Munich on June 15. The Bundesliga champions are bringing their catalogue of stars to America and right-back Connolly will be part of a defence tasked with keeping Harry Kane quiet. 'It's one of those things that as you're saying it now, it still doesn't sound real,' said Connolly when asked about trying to do a job on the England international. Veteran striker Edinson Cavani - once of Manchester United - is still punishing defences for Boca Juniors, the giants of Argentina and Diego Maradona's old club. And it won't be lost on Connolly that Greece international Vangelis Pavlidis led the way for Benfica this season after smashing 19 league goals in 34 games in Portugal's top flight. Connolly said: 'Don't get me wrong, we're going to try our best as we've prepared so well and put so much into it. We want to give the best account of ourselves as possible. But we also have to consider that these are some of the very best players in world football. The experience and opportunity to share a field with them is every amateur footballer's dream. 'You're watching their games on TV at the weekend going 'wow, I could be on the pitch with them in a few weeks'. Not many amateur players get to say that, especially in a competitive game that both sides are going to take seriously. That makes it even more special. It's not a charity game or a friendly match, it's a big game in a big competition. ' Last year, Mirror Sport caught up with Connolly when he was playing in the Oceania Champions League in Tonga, for a club based in the Cook Islands called Tupapa Maraerenga. In April of this year, he returned to the Oceania Champions League with his new club Auckland City and ended up winning it outright in the Solomon Islands. Football has taken Connolly to some far flung destinations since leaving these shores, where he played U17 League of Ireland football for Shelbourne and Drogheda United. At senior level, he represented Lucan United in the Leinster Senior League and his younger brother, Aaron Connolly, is one of Athlone Town's key players. From Ireland to tournaments in Spain, and New Zealand via the Cook Islands and Tonga, Connolly is now in America for games in Cincinnati, Orlando and Nashville. And in September, it looks like he will be off to Africa to play in a FIFA Intercontinental Cup qualifier as the African Champions League winners are due to play Auckland City. 'It's unbelievable but as an amateur footballer you always have that wish growing up as a kid that you will play in something like this,' he said of the Club World Cup. 'I turned 25 last week and you think that opportunity is over and that you've missed the boat on the professional scene. So to have something like this, while still being an amateur, is just incredible and scarcely believable. 'I just want to contribute to the team, give it a go and make it something to remember. If you could go back a few years when I decided to move to New Zealand and told me this would happen in a couple of years, I'd have said you were crazy. This doesn't happen to people, so I know it's a once in a lifetime opportunity.' The entire New Zealand league is amateur but as they settle into their Tennessee base, Auckland City will shed that mindset and adopt the most professional of approaches. They have two warm-up matches pencilled in and will then fly to and from their group games against Bayern Munich in Cincinnati (June 15), Benfica in Orlando (June 20) and Boca in Nashville (JUne 24). Connolly admits it's a world removed from the day-to-day grind of amateur football in New Zealand's top flight, where you juggle work demands with the beautiful game. What's certain is that the galaxy of stars on display at Bayern Munich, Benfica and Boca Juniors didn't have to book time off work to play in this Club World Cup. That is their job and Connolly said: 'I'm a physiotherapist and I work as a contractor in a sports clinic. I also work as a football coach with a private academy. That's almost turning into another full-time job at the minute. A lot of my life is taken over by football and I'm either training, coaching or doing physio with athletes. It's really busy and I've tried to cut down on work this year because of football but it's difficult as you have to earn a living.' Connolly continued: 'All of our players are in different positions, depending on the jobs they have. I'm lucky that I work for myself as a contractor. I can take time off and with the football coaching we have other coaches that can come in and I can oversee that from abroad. 'Some of the lads are in university and have had to get special exemptions from exams to travel to America. Other lads working in jobs are taking annual leave and unpaid leave which is crazy as I doubt too many players are asking for time off work to go to the Club World Cup. 'But if you ask any other amateur footballer in the world if they would do it, of course they would. We're definitely not complaining but it's just a different world to what the professional players are facing. The best thing about the sport is that anything can happen and you just have to go out there with that attitude. On the day, it will be hard to avoid the big names but we'll be going out to follow a game plan, give it 100% and whatever happens, happens.' And Connolly added: 'We'll get what we deserve to get, but for the next couple of weeks it's about getting the head down and trying to give the best account of ourselves. Will an amateur team ever play in this competition again? I'm not sure, so we have to go and grab it, enjoy it and live the experience.'
