'I wasn't that good then' - Former Mayo GAA star on almost quitting football

Former Mayo footballer Andy Moran has opened up about his early sporting career. 

In an interview with Anne Marie Gibbons on Castlebar Community Radio, Moran explained how he almost ended up quitting Gaelic football.

"I came out of Minor and I wasn't really that good to be honest. I played two years of Minor and never really made the team. I was always more kind of a sub coming on. Two of my friends got straight called up into the U-21 team. I didn't get called up."

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Moran then got offered the opportunity to play soccer for Longford Town instead.

"I loved it. I really enjoyed playing soccer. I was young, only 19 or 20 years of age. When I was younger it was probably always my dream to play a bit of professional soccer but I was getting to a stage where those opportunities were running out."

And then on a December day Moran got a call from Mayo manager John Maughan and he joined up with the county's training panel.

"It was the players you were looking up to, when you were a teenager and then suddenly they're your teammates" Moran said.

And the rest is history, as they say, and Moran was part of a Mayo team that in six All-Ireland finals, became an All-Star and was named Footballer of the Year in 2017. The Ballaghaderreen man and is regarded as one of the best forwards the county has ever produced.

READ: Former Mayo footballer Andy Moran joins Monaghan backroom team