Ronnie O'Brien

Ronnie's Travels

By Colm Keane

Trading the relatively humble atmosphere of Middlesbrough FC reserves for the dizzy surroundings of Italian giants, Juventus, would be a comic-book dream for most soccer professionals - but not for Bray-born Ronnie O'Brien. As soccer fans know by now, Ronnie - who hails from Killarney Park - made the astonishing leap to Juventus via Wolfe Tone, Wayside Celtic, St. Joseph's Boys and finally Middlesbrough FC, where it seemed for a time that his football career would perish.

Instead, last year, a dream move to Juventus was secured by Ronnie - no doubt helped by his fine performances for Ireland at youth level, especially playing for Brian Kerr's legendary U-18 European Championship-winning side.

Currently at home for the summer break, Ronnie - who split the past year between Juventus and two loan spells at Lugano in Switzerland and Crotone in the Italian Second Division - has four years left on his contract and has been telling me how things are progressing.

"In the last year, I spent two and a half months with Juventus," Ronnie explained. "The first month with Juventus I spent in a training camp, up in the mountains. We spent forty-five days in the mountains. We ate three meals a day together, pasta and rice every day.

"I was lucky, in a way, because the bigger players got an extra ten days off. For the first ten days only a couple of hundred people were watching us training. So, I got to settle in with the rest of the players.

"After ten days, the rest of the players - like Zidane and Del Piero - arrived, and tens of thousands would arrive for training sessions every day. A lot of them impressed me, but the three that impressed me most were Davids, Del Piero and Zidane. They are different characters , around whom the Juventus team is built. And I think Van der Sar is a very good professional as well.

"You just had to watch Zidane in the Euro 2000 Finals - he does that every day in training. He's a phenomenal player. I've read in the paper where people have a go at him, saying he's not this or that. But he's very quiet at the club and he gets on with everybody. Everyone in Juventus gets on and they're all really happy. The bigger players are happy to come to Juventus because they want to play.

"I played three pre-season friendlies with Juventus and one match in the Inter-Toto cup. I had a great time. I was in a room with Conte, the captain, for a month. When I was there I was with the first team, so I spent all the time with the rest of the players. It's an unbelievable experience. Even if nothing comes of it, I've learned a hell of a lot. It's a dream come true."

Ronnie O'Brien, who is generally known for his speed and wide-midfield attacking skills, won international acclaim for his performances with the under-age Irish international team. Having struck up a partnership with team-mate Liam George, Ronnie scored some important goals during Ireland's 8-game qualifications for the 1998 European Youths Championchips, where he went on to win a gold medal.

Unfortunately, success on the international stage failed to translate into the Middlesbrough side, where manager Bryan Robson finally let him go. His bad fortune at Middlesbrough, however, was soon followed by a dream move to Juventus - a club that has won almost three dozen Italian league and cup titles, along with multiple wins in the European Cup, the European Cup-winners' Cup, the Supercup and the World Club Cup.

"I don't know exactly how it started," Ronnie said regarding the move to Italy. "I think they saw me playing in one international. Then Paul Merson sorted me out with his agent. He's my agent now and he's got contacts in Italy. He's got a friend who works in Juventus. So, they came over to watch me in a couple of matches. They were impressed and offered me a contract.

"Then I met Robert Bettega, one of the nicest men you could ever meet. He speaks perfect English, because he used to room with Liam Brady. I met him, and the General Manager as well, and it went on from there.

"After two and a half months with Juventus, I was loaned out. A lot of Italian clubs buy a lot of good young players and then loan them out. I honestly couldn't tell you how many players different clubs own in Italy. In every team in Italy, some big club owns some player. It's the common practice.

"So, I spent six months in Switzerland playing with Lugano, and I spent the last six months in the south of Italy, in the Second Division, playing with a team called Crotone. We won the Second Division in Italy, so they're promoted up to the First Division.

"In the first club, Lugano, there was a lot of problems, not with myself but with the club in general. The club was changing presidents and we had a lot of players on loan from Italy. So, a lot of us - I think five of us - went back down to Italy.

"In the other club I was in - Crotone - they were on top of the league anyway when I arrived. But I learned a lot. So, I feel I'm a better player now. I'm a lot stronger and a lot more confident in myself. I've learned to look after myself a lot more, to avoid a lot of challenges. And I'm a lot stronger on the ball than I was."

Currently back home with his parents and family, Ronnie O'Brien, aged 21, can look back on an action-packed career to date and enormously bright prospects for the future - a future to be decided by the Juventus management, who will shortly outline the next step in Ronnie's five year contract with the club.

"I'm waiting to find out where I'm going. I hope to have a good year next year. Wherever I am, I hope to get a lot of games under my belt and play well. Then I'll look at it again, take one year at a time. If all goes well, maybe I'll go back to Juventus after that.

"Meanwhile, I'd like to wish Bray Wanderers every success this year. I know a lot of them. I know Pat Devlin well and I trained with them before I went to Juventus. A lot of them are my friends. And I honestly hope they have a good year this year."

Colm Keane

Award-winning broadcaster and writer, author of A Cut Above The Rest (Townhouse, 1999), as well as Tales of the Wanderers (Colado, 1998) and More Tales of the Wanderers (Colado, 2000), together with other volumes based on his work for RTÉ Radio.

First published in Seagull Scene, the Bray Wanderers match programme, 13th August 2000