Gavin Cooney
LATER TODAY, JOE Redmond and Jonathan Afolabi will go head-to-head in their most consequential tussle since they were battling to be the top scorer at St Joseph’s Boys.
Redmond is now starting centre-back and the captain of St Patrick’s Athletic, while Afolabi is Bohemians’ top scorer and focal point, so it is on their individual battle which today’s FAI Cup battle may turn.
Both were also once team-mates for Joey’s of Sallynoggin, part of a team which won two All-Ireland titles and lost a further two finals. Redmond captained the side from centre-back, but was reliably the side’s top scorer.
“Joe was the penalty taker, so Johnny didn’t take them”, says one of their former Joey’s teammates, Andy Lyons. “Joe was probably the top scorer every year, he scored from every corner as he was bigger and better in the air than anyone. In my time he only missed one penalty, he must have scored 30 or 40.”
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— Will Clarke (@WClarke1980) October 8, 2023The Joey’s team was stacked with talent. Redmond’s record on corners was buttressed by the set-piece quality of Brandon Kavanagh, now of Derry City, while Afolabi had to contend for a position up front with Promise Omochere – now at Fleetwood Town – and Glen McAuley, one of the most exciting players of his age group, and who would leave Joey’s for Liverpool.
Redmond was part of a strong Crumlin side which once vied with Joey’s and Saint Kevin’s as having the best crop of 2000-born kids in Dublin, but when he, McAuley and defender Ryan Burke swapped Crumlin for Joey’s, their new team became nigh-untouchable. Afolabi, meanwhile, joined from Lourdes Celtic, having left an impression on Joey’s in classic fashion.
“My first memory of Johnny was when he was playing against us”, remembers Joey’s coaching co-ordinator, Bernard Byrne. “When he was 13 and 14, he was similar to size he is now. He had power and pace, and was scoring goals for fun. I know it is a big comparison, but at that age it was like watching Haaland now, in terms of power and the pace. I know it’s a totally different level, but that’s the kind of player you could describe Johnny as when he was that age.”
But with McAuley up front, Afolabi had to bide his time at his new side, and was accommodated out wide at time. “Johnny and Glen were the two main forwards”, says Byrne, “and while Glen got his big move to Liverpool, Johnny didn’t let that bother him.”
Both he and Redmond were too busy preparing to be professionals. At one point, Redmond shocked his coaches by rocking up to a training session at 6.30pm, hours after playing a lunchtime international match for the Irish U16s.
“We were saying, ‘What are you doing?’ and he’s like, ‘What do you mean?’”, says Byrne. ”‘This is my club, I’m here to train.’ He always had that unbelievable attitude to do well.”
Joey’s generally trained twice a week back then, but both Redmond and Afolabi atoned for the relatively limited contact hours by doing work of their own.
“It’s no surprise that these lads go on to do better in the game”, says Byrne, “as for these lads, football was everything to them. I know they were young enough, but even when they were 16, I don’t remember any of them having girlfriends. They just wanted to be footballers. I am sure that’s changed now! They just wanted to improve. They were like sponges, any detail you could give them to be 1% better, they were willing to do it.”
This being a pre-Brexit era, both were allowed move to the UK from the age of 16. Redmond and his friend Ryan Burke left for Birmingham City – joining an academy which featured Jude Bellingham – while Southampton moved for Afolabi.
Both returned to Joey’s during their off-seasons, and the club once arranged for Redmond and Burke to give a presentation to Joey’s players, so they could quiz them on what is expected of a footballer at that level.
“Some of the kids would ask, ‘And what would you do after training’ and the boys would say ‘Well, we go home and then we go to the gym’”, remembers Byrne. One of the kids in that audience was Mason Melia, who this week signed a professional contract with Pat’s and will likely feature at some stage in today’s Cup final.
Redmond talked about the typical week at an English academy but both he and Afolabi would suffer from its typical indifference. Redmond’s stint at Birmingham was not renewed, which Byrne says was down to the club’s financial difficulties.
Afolabi’s performances at the U19 European Championships in 2019 earned him a place in the team of the tournament – alongside Ferran Torres and Fabio Vieira, now of Barcelona and Arsenal respectively – and then a move to Celtic, where he regrettably became yet another Irish youngster to fail to make a breakthrough into the first team. This led to a tour of Scotland on loan – Dunfermline, Dundee, Ayr United, and Airdrieonians – before he eventually returned home, joining Bohemians last year.
By this stage, Redmond was at Pat’s. Having left Birmingham in 2021, he excelled at Drogheda, and joined Pat’s at the start of the season. His League of Ireland performances were such that he was reunited with Lyons in the Irish U21 team.
“I didn’t get away at that age, but looking at those lads going away at 16/17 was massive for me, it was what I always wanted to do”, says Lyons. “It’s a different industry here [in England]. It’s ruthless. They came back and made a massive impact, it’s a testament to their mental strength and their quality as players. Joe came back and played with Drogheda for six months and the whole league was talking, ‘Jeez, where has he come out of?’ I knew it was never a question of him doing well for Drogheda at the time.
“I was at Shamrock Rovers and there were a lot of clubs sniffing around Johnny. He came back and showed his quality. Most players’ childhood dream is to get away, and when you get those big moves you think everything is brilliant. But when you come back home people are questioning, ‘What’s going on there?’ but the two lads have come back and been brilliant for their respective clubs.”
Life back at home has not been without its challenges, either. Redmond missed four months of this season after undergoing hamstring surgery, making his return at the start of Pat’s Cup run in the first-round win over Longford Town.
Afolabi, meanwhile, missed the bulk of last season for Bohs with injury, and scored just twice in his first 18 games of this season. Then he scored against Shamrock Rovers and caught fire, scoring seven goals in his next five games, ultimately finishing as the Premier Division’s joint top-scorer and earning an Irish senior call-up in September. So what part of Afolabi’s game has impressed his Bohs manager?
“I think his mentality”, says Declan Devine.” It’s quite obvious his physical presence is phenomenal, as is his pace, running power and finishing. But I think his mentality in taking some of the beatings that I spoke about over the course of the season, he has to be the most fouled player in the league.
“For instance, if Dean Williams is in his position, Dean Williams gets all those free kicks. But because you are six foot three and built like Jonathan is, it’s still a foul in my opinion. I think he gets punished as well. That’s something I think he has managed really well because it’s easy to react when you are frustrated and you are getting an awful tanking in the back of your head from centre halves coming through at full speed.”
Tom Maher / INPHO Joe Redmond and Jonathan Afolabi battle in a league meeting earlier this year. Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO
Today that centre-half will be his old friend, Joe Redmond.
“We will have to park the friendship for 90 minutes or 120 minutes and then shake hands afterwards”, Afolabi tells The 42. Asked to remember his time playing with Redmond at Joey’s, Afolabi alights on an image.
“He had his braces then, but he has lost them now. Straight teeth, now he looks the part!”
Both players would surely agree that a better glint comes off a winner’s medal.
