Georgie Kelly - the accidental hero

This wasn’t how Georgie Kelly planned it. When he was planning to go to UCD in 2015, education was at the forefront of his thoughts. So it remains, but UCD’s realisation that he was worthy of a soccer scholarship has somewhat altered his course.

Kelly has scored 26 goals in all competitions for Bohemians this season. A now coveted striker, Kelly will play in Sunday’s FAI Cup final against St Patrick’s Athletic. And, yet, you get the feeling that he could just as easily slip away. The teenage Kelly planned to ‘play for a couple of years and stop at 25 or 26’. He celebrated his 25th birthday earlier this month.

“I probably can’t do that now,” Kelly tells Donegal Live. “The football has gone better than expected. My plan was to go to college for a degree, not to play for UCD. I ended up slipping in on a scholarship and it kind of took off. It has worked out alright.”

Away from football, Kelly is doing a Masters in Renewable Energy and Environmental Finance with the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School.

The course director, Prof Andreas Hoepner, explained recently that the course was aimed at those with an interest in finance for the purpose of achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement.

“It’s about finance to save the planet,” he said. “It is estimated that achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 will require investments of between €4.3 trillion and €7 trillion annually across both the public and private sectors.

“The course is really broad,” Kelly says. “Nowadays, for example, asset managers are looking towards which companies are green and this is based on different types of metrics.

“Companies are hiring people with experience in sustainability. Companies are asking how they can reduce emissions at each grade. There are other routes from the course, in terms of renewable energy, wind farms and solar farms, with roles in project finance or project management.

“There are so many options; if you look at Donegal alone and the wind energy and off-shore markets, it’s massive.”
Kelly is not your conventional footballer.

Then again, he never intended to be a footballer; it just happened he was rather good at it. The ability to play for a part-time Premier Division club in Bohemians alongside the Masters was a huge appeal for the Tooban man.

“It works out perfect for me and I think you’ll see more players doing this kind of thing in the future,” he says. “Playing in the League of Ireland won’t sort you for life and if you’re ticking along at something else behind it, it’ll give you a good start for life after football.

“I will keep chipping away at it. If I have to even go and work for free, I just want to get my foot in the door somewhere. You have a load of time playing football. My plan is to chip away and get a bit of work somewhere. The worry I have is that when you come out of football in your mid-30s, you’re going in to start at the bottom of a company. I’d rather do little bits here and there for experience.”

Kelly tucked in the 88th minute winner in the FAI Cup semi-final last month as Bohemians squeezed past Waterford at a packed Dalymount Park.

The night was made even more special by the presence of his parents, George and Kathleen, at the game.
It was a special night in Phibsboro. Kelly saw an earlier penalty saved by Brian Murphy but, with two minutes remaining, turned in the match winner. Dalymount went wild.

“The relief when the goal went in . . . the place just erupted,” Kelly says. “Bohs have been fierce unlucky in semi-finals over the last few years. The relief of that goal was mental. I have never seen anything like it. The club deserves a big day out and a cup final.

“Bohs are a great club. They’re fan-owned and it has created a real togetherness. Bohs reminds me of a GAA club, there is a real community vibe around here. You don’t get that at many clubs.

“Bohs have good long-term plans. It’s not run off the cuff and they don’t throw money a way. I’m delighted we won that semi-final, just to give those people a day out.”

Kelly is the first Bohemians player since Jason Byrne in 2009 to break the 20-goal mark in a season. His 26 goals, 21 of them in the League, have come after an off-season wen he had to work on himself.

Going back to his time at Dundalk, Kelly was acutely aware that he would spend longer periods out of action than he ought to.
“I hadn’t really played full week-in, week-out football for maybe three years,” he says. “Getting myself right was the big one.”
Issues around lactic acid and fatigue were identified and Kelly endured what he calls a ‘rough few months’.

“I had to go back and run really slowly to train my body to get used to it,” he says. "I was flying, but once I was in a game and constantly moving, after 20 or 30 minutes I’d seize up. When my heart rate would spike, I would have to slow down. I’d nearly be walking and thinking: ‘What the hell am I doing here?’

“I gradually just built that up. I did that for weeks to get it built up and then the threshold was grand. I got loads of tests and got that sorted early in the year. After that, I kicked on. I always knew that if I was there and physically able to run that I would be good enough to score a few goals. Being able to play every game has been massive. Playing every week is great. It doesn’t come easy to get a regular enough spot at a good League of Ireland team.”

Nine of his goals so far have been scored in the last 20 minutes of games - something he puts down to his pre-season endeavour. So impressive has Kelly’s form been that a query was put by a journalist recently to the Republic of Ireland manager, Stephen Kenny, about the 25-year-old. “I would need to kick on and improve a bit,” Kelly says. “It’s fine margins and, while I might not be far away, I would need to be doing that at a higher level.

“This season couldn’t have gone much better. If you asked me at the start of the season if I thought that I’d have had this good of a season, I’d have said not a chance. It’s been a good year goals wise. Everything clicked for me. The run in Europe was great as well. That was some experience.”

A one-year contract at Bohemians means his time there officially expires at the end of this season. His future has been the subject of speculation everywhere bar in his own mind. Clubs in England and Scotland have been tracking Kelly’s goals and attention has been perked. Kelly, though, won’t be rushing in and football isn’t the priority decision.

“It’s more complicated now; scoring a few extra goals has nearly put a spanner in the works,” he laughs. “I don’t really know what’ll happen next year. It’ll depend on options, being honest. I wouldn’t jump at the chance to play in League Two or in Scotland, just to get that move. A lot of players are itching to get away and get the feel of that level. I would be a bit more hesitant because I have the Masters to finish.

“For others, it’s their life and it matters more to them. It depends on what comes up for me and what opportunities are there for me.”