One of the best decisions I ever made - Shaun Patton on switching to GAA

Donegal goalkeeper Shaun Patton admitted that the decision to change from a soccer career to Gaelic football was one of the best decisions he has made in his career.

The Letterkenny man was speaking on the Off The Ball podcast about his switch of code, having been one of the most exciting young goalkeepers in the League of Ireland, playing for Finn Harps, Derry City and Sligo Rovers in his teens.

Patton had a surprising and late entry into the Gaelic football world, not playing for his club until November 2014, when he was 19 years old.

He had played in the MacLarnon Cup for his St Eunan’s College side, as they won the title that same year in an All-Donegal clash, defeating the Colaisti Inis Eoghain amalgamation.

Later that year, he made a debut for St Eunan’s in their Ulster Senior Championship run as they beat Roslea Shamrocks before losing out to Omagh St Enda’s in the semi-final, where he was spotted by Declan Bonner, who would eventually try to call him up to the Donegal senior squad when he returned in 2018 and the shot stopper hasn’t looked back since.

“It was a massive decision at the time and for me when I was growing up,” Patton said.

“I decided to stop playing Gaelic football when I was twelve years old and looking back now, it was way too young (to make the decision) and if I’m ever asked now, I would always tell people to play football and soccer for as long as they can.

“My family would be a soccer background coming from Bunagee, and my father would be heavily involved in it.

“I had aspirations of going to England and all of that, like every young fella, you had your dreams, but when it came to the time of playing League of Ireland, I was still thinking there was time to make a decent career of it, but things ended kind of poorly and the opportunity came (to play Gaelic football).

“I was still leaning very much towards the soccer element, but whenever I was invited into the panel and spoke to Declan Bonner at the time and the physio and players that were in there, something just clicked and I sat down with my family and spoke about it.

“It was a huge decision to make at the time, but looking back, it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

“The passion and the want of players to be there in that group as opposed to players fighting for their own contract every year, it’s just a completely different environment, and I absolutely love the environment we’re in and I wouldn’t change a thing.”

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Patton was speaking to the podcast about the new jersey released in collaboration with Sourced by Sab, and O’Reilly Sports, for the new Football Special top from McDaids.

“It’s a nice wee top and it’s a cool jersey,” he added.

A pre-sale for the jersey took place on Tuesday morning, but an extra batch of the retro shirts will go live on Friday.

"Missed out? Fear not, the general sale will be at 12pm this Friday where we’ll have the rest of the batch available to buy from ourselves and @sourcedbysab," the McDaids Facebook page said.