Caoimhin Kelleher has left Liverpool back-up duty behind to become a No.1 – but to his old grassroots club, he remains one in a million.
Ringmahon Rangers will receive the biggest-ever sell-on windfall for an Irish team following the goalkeeper’s move to Brentford.
Kelleher played his part in helping Liverpool to the titleGettyThe 26-year-old came up through the ranks at the amateur Cork outfit before making the move to Liverpool in 2015.
As part of that modest five-figure deal, Ringmahon agreed a 20 per cent sell-on fee that, a decade later, is now set to be highly lucrative.
Kelleher’s switch to Brentford as part of an overall package worth £18million will see his former grassroots team bag the largest ever sell-on payment received by an Irish club – eclipsing the £1.7m Shamrock Rovers received of the fee Southampton paid Manchester City for Gavin Bazunu in 2022.
During an exclusive interview with talkSPORT.com, Ringmahon’s club secretary Sean Fitzgerald said: “As of now, we don’t know how much money we’re getting.
“There’s money being trashed around everywhere. There’s figures being thrown out. Jesus Christ, we’re buying all sorts,” he joked.
“No one knows what we’re getting yet because we still don’t know the deal between Liverpool and Brentford. We’re not going to know that for a while. We’re the least of Liverpool’s worries now at the moment because they’re still trying to sign players.
“When it does happen, when it does come, we have massive facilities as it is. We’ve great facilities here, but our next plan will be a full-size Astro pitch.
“After that, the money will just be put in the bank, and it’s going to be there for the next 100 years for the club.
“It’ll be there for my kids. It’ll be there for their kids. It’ll be there for the kids after. It’s life-changing money for us, especially for a club of our size, for our community, and for where we live.
“Any given day on a Saturday or Sunday, there’s a couple of hundred people down there from 8 a.m. to 10 o’clock at night.
Cork will soon swap the Liverpool red for the red and white jersey of Brentford The windfall from Kelleher’s deal will fund a full-size Astro pitchRingmahon Rangers“We all have each other’s backs down there, which is a big thing to have. We’re all locals. We’re all just one big happy club. We’re a small community, a small parish. We’re a big dysfunctional family, as I say.”
Ringmahon have had cause to celebrate both on the pitch and off it this week, after their senior side secured a fourth trophy of the season on Wednesday by beating local rivals Avondale United 1-0 in the Beamish Cup final.
Fittingly, it could mean the players have the chance to commemorate a memorable campaign with a spot in their clubhouse’s illustrious Hall of Fame – which is already headlined by a Kelleher performance in a cup final.
Ringmahon have their most famous alumni’s matchworn shirt from the Carabao Cup over Chelsea at Wembley in 2022 on display.
Alongside it hangs a personalised letter from former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, to thank the club for Kelleher, who had kept a clean sheet across 120 minutes before smashing home the winning penalty during a madcap shootout victory.
Fitzgerald explained: “The Anfield Wrap, the Liverpool podcast, they came over to an interview just after the Chelsea match. A few phone calls were made, and the next thing, the jersey arrived at the door.
Kelleher helped Liverpool to secure the Carabao Cup in 2022Getty Klopp wrote: “To everyone of Ringmahon Rangers, thank you for sending us Caoimhin, he’s done you proud!”Ringmahon Rangers“I was inside working, the wife rang me and she said, ‘there’s a package that has come now from Liverpool’.
“And I said, ‘don’t f****** open that at all, don’t open nothing at all’.
“She was, ‘Oh, why are you worried?’ I said, ‘don’t open nothing, don’t open nothing’. So I opened it up and there was the jersey and a letter from Jurgen Klopp.
“It was unbelievable. So we were hanging it up now down the clubhouse, like, a kind of Wall of Fame at the clubhouse, all our players who played in England and all their Ireland jerseys and stuff.
“We weren’t expecting a message from Jurgen Klopp at all, so that’s inside the frame with it – the Brentford shirt now is next!”
During his teenage years, Kelleher trained at Blackburn Rovers and Aston Villa, before settling on Liverpool, the club Fitzgerald supports.
Kelleher joined Liverpool’s youth team in 2015Ringmahon RangersThat fact makes it all the more amusing that it was he who was able to haggle with his favourite team to get the best deal possible.
Fitzgerald, who balances his volunteer work at the club alongside his day job as a pipe fitter welder, told talkSPORT: “It’s a lot of haggling; they offer you pennies, and then you fight back that way.
“It happens all the time when you’re dealing with a lot of the big clubs, they offer you nothing, and then you gradually work your way up, and then you kind of throw in clauses here and there and then you haggle on different things and haggle and haggle. It took around two weeks to do it.
“You massively have to dig your heels in because, pardon the French, you don’t want to be treated like a p****.
“You don’t want them to take you for a ride either, but you kinda know what you’re entitled to. There are two ways to go around it; you could go down the UEFA route, which is that they give you a set fee and that’s it. You’ll never get anything ever again.
“Or you go down the other route, which was a transfer fee and then you put in your clauses into that, so that’s the route we went down.”
Ringmahon also produced Sunderland’s Browne, an unused sub in the Championship playoff finalGettyRingmathon, which boasts almost 500 members, have had plenty of experience in this area following a number of other success stories.
Fitzgerald added: “We have an endless conveyor belt of talent, which is fantastic. It all boils down to all the coaches.
“It’s a massive pathway. But it wouldn’t be there without the coaches. All our coaches down in the club are all Ringmahon people.”
Sunderland’s Alan Browne came through the pathway, as did Cathal Heffernan, now at Tyne-Wear rivals Newcastle, alongside the two Umeh brothers — Franco, who is on the books at Crystal Palace, and Jaden, who plays for Portuguese giants Benfica.
However, Kelleher remains the cream of the crop, having played most of his underage football at Ringmathon from under-7s to the seniors.
Three years ago at Wembley, he buried a penalty with skills developed at the club in a Liverpool kit that’s now on the walls.
Kelleher was a centre-forward until he was 13, before catching the goalkeeper bug in training with Cork.
He then went full-time between the sticks a year later after Ringmathon’s first-choice ‘threw his toys out of the pram’, so to speak.
The decision to turn to Kelleher was led by his father, Ray, who convinced his long-term coach Eddie Harrington to make the switch.
Kelleher was a capable striker in his teensRingmahon RangersFitzgerald told talkSPORT: “Eddie was Caoimhin’s manager from start to finish. He deserves immense credit.
“He still talks to Caoimhin all the time, he sent him a text message yesterday [Tuesday] and he just said congratulations.
“[Kelleher] was buzzing for it. He flew over from Dublin because he’s in the Irish camp. So he flew off to London, he’d done his bit and he flew back.”
The pair are used to celebrating by now, with Kelleher instrumental in the side that won the Cork U-17 Premier League in 2015.
With Ringmahon trailing by a single goal to College Corinthians, Harrington sent his No.1 into the box late on, and, in the melee, an equaliser was forced to secure a 1-1 draw to make them champions.
Fitzgerald said: “He was inside the box causing havoc, and someone tipped it in.
“We knew he was going to Liverpool. They won the league in the last game of the season. It was a fitting tribute for him to go away.”
In perfect symmetry, Kelleher has now waved goodbye to Anfield after playing a key part in delivering the Premier League title.
Kelleher has played a vital part in Liverpool’s title successThe Republic of Ireland international deputised for Alisson Becker in 10 top-flight matches under Arne Slot, while also saving a penalty from Kylian Mbappe in a 2-0 win over Real Madrid.
Kelleher moves to Brentford after winning two league titles, the Champions League, the FA Cup, two Carabao Cups and the Super Cup.
Fitzgerald concluded: “It’s Roy of the Rovers stuff, coming from where he started out as a striker, and then he’s a goalkeeper now with the number one club in the world, Liverpool, now he’s gone to Brentford.
“He’s the number one for his country. It’s just brilliant. It’s fantastic.
“You’d never dream it went this far, this is the stuff that you dream about, but you never think it’s going to happen.
“But when it happens to you, then you’re kind of going, Jesus. I’m still shaking, goosebumps… No one can believe how it happened.”
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