Rathangan Football Club To Be Visited By Celtic Stalwarts This ...

Darren O'Dea and Jose Romero will be giving public sessions on Saturday

Members of Celtic Football Club are coming to Kildare this weekend to visit Rathangan Football Club.

Celtic stalwarts Darren O'Dea and Jose Romero will visit the club this Saturday, where they will be holding coaching sessions.

Speaking on this morning's Kildare Today show was Rathangan FC Chairman Oisín McTigue and committee member and Under 12 coach Craig Butler, who explained how the opportunity came about.

Celtic FC flagged the visit with Mr Butler, as they wanted to connect with Irish clubs once more.

"Ireland is a really important country for Celtic, and by them coming over to us and spending the day with us, with Darren O'Dea, an ex-Irish international to connect with our club and give back to the community [is the] ethos of what football is all about", said Mr Butler on this morning's show.

The visit from Celtic FC also coincides with Rathangan FC's 30th anniversary.

Image via @rathangan_fc on Instagram

O'Dea and Romero will oversee the club's Under 8s, 9s, 10s and 11s on Saturday morning, before making their way to the local community centre where they will provide presentations for both the coaches and parents.

Public sessions are open to everyone on Canal Road in Rathangan at 1.15pm on Saturday.

O'Dea and Romero will then run two sessions back-to-back, with each session taking 40 players.

They will wrap up between approximately 3.45pm-4pm.

Mr Butler has described them as "world class sessions", given the players that will be giving them.

In recent years, Rathangan FC has seen major improvements to their club grounds, having "two extremely good pitches and a club house", as said by Mr McTigue.

Mr McTigue noted how despite this, they are looking to change one of the pitches to a full AstroTurf facility as they need it, along with more training time for players.

The football club has gone up to 450 players, with 30% of them female.