Charlie McGeever

Charles McGeever (born between 27 April and 22 December 1961) is an Irish sportsperson from County Donegal.

He played association football as a defender for Fanad United and in the League of Ireland for Sligo Rovers and Finn Harps.

He played Gaelic football in midfield for Donegal, for which he also captained.

He has had success while managing Finn Harps, as well as the Clonmel Commercials GAA club and the Tipperary county team.

McGeever is a native of Derryconnor, in the Cloughaneely region of Donegal in north-west Ireland.

He first discovered association football in the village hall in Gortahork, where he was a spectator at parish league games, and began playing the sport when he was around 11 years of age.

He credits Fr Michael ("Mick") Sweeney, whom he first encountered at secondary school in 1974, with influencing his interest in association football.

Around the same time, another teacher — Fr Sean Gallagher — stimulated McGeever's interest in Gaelic football.

The school won the under-14 county title and the under-16 national title against Summerhill.

McGeever later attended Thomond College of Education, Limerick.

However, after only two weeks in London (where he trained under manager Keith Burkinshaw with 1978 FIFA World Cup winners Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa, as well as Glenn Hoddle, all three of whom were late back to their club as they had been playing in that summer's World Cup), McGeever returned to Ireland and injured one of his cruciate ligaments in a Gaelic football match in which he was not supposed to be playing.

He had only returned from London for two nights when he heard that Seosamh Kelly was organising a Cloich Cheann Fhaola team to play a match against St Michael's at the Burn Road in Termon, and — ignoring his mother's advice to rest — off he went.

McGeever won the 1979 FAI Youth Cup with Fanad United, when the team unexpectedly defeated Shelbourne 3–1 in the final.

Following on from this victory Patsy McGowan signed McGeever for Sligo Rovers.

McGeever was in the bog in West Donegal when, he later said: "There was Patsy McGowan coming towards me, dressed as always and a form in his hand… I had to get out of a hole, wash my hands and sign the form".

McGeever credits McGowan, alongside Fr Sweeney, Fr Gallagher and Seosamh Kelly, as being the most influential people on his sporting career.

McGeever also received another offer after his encounter with McGowan in the bog: "Busty [Blake] spoke to me after that about going to [Finn] Harps, but I had already the form signed with Sligo. I was going to college in Limerick and the journey to Sligo was handier".

At the age of 19, McGeever played in the 1981 FAI Cup Final with Sligo Rovers, but his team were defeated by Dundalk.

The same year he captained Donegal in midfield (alongside Denis Bonner, twin of Packie) against Monaghan in the final of the Ulster Under-21 Senior Football Championship, but his team were defeated by two points.

He was part of a group of seven, including Pauric Gallagher (the driver), Jimmy Kennedy, Michael McBrearty, Michael McGeehin, Donnacha Mac Niallais and Seamus Meehan, who made their way back and forth from Thomond College for games and training sessions.

McGeever's career progressed to the extent that the English professional club Tottenham Hotspur invited him to train with their team in the summer of 1982 shortly after their FA Cup win.

Meanwhile, a now McGeeverless Tottenham went on to collect the 1983–84 UEFA Cup.

The injury left McGeever on the sidelines for one year, a crucial year, as his team Sligo Rovers won the 1983 FAI Cup Final without him.

To make matters worse, the Donegal football team of which he had been captain the previous year had claimed the 1983 All-Ireland Football Championship title, also without McGeever.

Sligo Rovers released McGeever in 1984.

He then signed for Finn Harps (managed at the time by Bobby Toland after Patsy McGowan was sacked), scoring a goal on his debut against Drogheda United.

He turned to coaching at Finn Harps and became caretaker manager of the club in December 1984, a role he filled for four months.

While in the United States in the middle of 1985, Harps appointed Tommy McConville as manager without informing McGeever.

McGeever restarted his playing career at Fanad United, with whom he won the 1987–88 FAI Intermediate Cup by defeating Tramore Athletic 1–0 in the final at Dalymount Park.

Donegal manager Brian McEniff had invited him to train with the county team in 1990 on the back of McGeever's performances alongside Con McLaughlin in the Cloich Cheann Fhaola full-forward line.

McGeever said: "Out of respect for Brian I went up and gave it a month. I was nowhere near it and, in fairness, I have no regrets about not being in the squad of '92. I gave it a go at training and was well off it".

As a consequence of his injury, McGeever missed out on Donegal's 1992 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final victory, again watching on as many of his former teammates achieved the pinnacle of the sport of Gaelic football.

Patsy McGowan — who resumed management of Finn Harps in June 1992 — signed McGeever as a player.

When Harps sacked McGowan for the fifth and final time in December 1995, McGeever again took over as caretaker manager for a three-month spell until Dermot Keely arrived in late February 1996.

McGeever selected the team for one game after Keely's appointment, a league match against Monaghan United in March 1996.

McGeever then made matters worse by carrying on and, while contesting a header in the opening minutes of that season's first league game against Bohemians, "came down and the knee buckled under me" as he put it in a 2012 interview with the Sunday Independent.

He decided to return to the field, "playing on one leg basically for about 10 years", he told the Sunday Independent in 2012.

He would wear a bandage for the rest of his playing career and had a knee replacement in around 2013.

He said in 2020: "At that time, no-one knew anything about cruciate ligaments".

McGeever returned to England to have surgery performed upon him by a Professor Dandy.