HE is Ireland’s first choice goalkeeper but it isn’t that long ago that David Forde was forced to look after number one.
Having just become a new dad, having just been rejected by West Ham, he considered quitting football. Then he signed for Derry City and put retirement plans on hold.
He knows now that it was the right call. Two managers — Giovanni Trapattoni and Martin O’Neill — have made him Ireland’s first choice.
It all started going wrong at West Ham, where his hopes of upstaging the then England keeper, David James, ended when the club signed Raimond van der Gouw as their second-choice stopper.
Within two years, at the age of 23, he was playing for peanuts at Derry City while his family were based in Galway.
Back then his head was torn between his profession and his family. Part of him wanted to jack his career in and ‘play a bit of GAA back in Ireland’. But another part of him wanted to stay true to his dream.
“The thing was, I always felt I could play for Ireland,” he says.
And at the age of 30 he became Ireland’s oldest debutant since the Second World War. Now he’s keeping Keiren Westwood and returning legend Shay Given on the bench. It is quite a turnaround for a man whose early career was spent at Galway United, Derry, Bournemouth, Luton Town and Barry Town.
“My long-term aim is to play in the Premier League and I think I’m ready. I’ve hit form and the Ireland call-up really boosted my confidence.
“If one man can be credited with turning my career around it’s my former Derry manager Stephen Kenny. He believed in me. He was there when nobody else was.
“When I first signed for Derry in 2004, driving up from Galway through one small town after another, getting tired behind the wheel, I asked myself ‘Why am I doing this? Why not play GAA and get a job in Galway and be with my family all the time?’
“And I know now why I stuck at it because I believed in myself, my dream and career and knew how important it was to hang in there.”
Derry gave him an avenue into the big leagues. They were a club on the up, a club that went from the relegation play-offs to a home and away UEFA Cup win over Gothenburg within two years.
Cardiff spotted him and from there, Millwall, where he has spent the last six years.
“I always knew I’d unfinished business in the UK,” he says. “So when I played for Derry I never let my self-belief dip.
“I got myself in the correct shape so that if a scout was looking at me, I’d be ready to make the move up. The hard work has paid off.”
Was that work ethic always there? David James suggests not.
“He was good when he was at West Ham,” said James. “But coming back to Ireland kind of straightened him out.
“He has grown up. He wasn’t even my number 2 at West Ham so in a sense you can tolerate someone in your camp being good fun. I spoke to him briefly a couple of years ago, after he had come back to England, and he seemed to be a more mature man than the young cheeky lad he was 10 years ago.
“And I heard through discourse in dressing rooms that his return to the League of Ireland had made him focus more on football than elsewhere. He always had talent and is a really, good goalkeeper now. At 34, he still has many years ahead of him.
"My best years as a player came when I was 36. I had moved to Portsmouth, had been told by Steve McClaren that I was no longer his first choice and psychologically the trajectory was downward. But, once I got into the environment at Portsmouth, my performances went up and I felt better at 36 than at 26. Fordey just needs one or two very good seasons and he could get the chance to move.”
He certainly hopes to. “I want to play Premier League football. That is one of two boxes I have yet to tick.”
The other ambition is to defend Ireland’s goal in Euro 2016. “I went to Poland for Euro 2012. And it was special. To be there was a great experience.
“But when you get a taste of something, you want more. I won one cap. And decided I wanted two. And your ambitions keep being redrawn.
“I want to help Ireland qualify and I want to play a part in a major tournament. Yes, we know it will be difficult because of the group we are in. Poland are strong, so too Scotland. Teams will find it difficult to win in Georgia and Germany are world champions. Nothing else needs to be said about them.
“But we believe we can get there. We are in it to qualify and we won’t give up.”
See More: David Forde, Euro 2016 Qualifier, Ireland
