The final of the Carabao cup final ended with an exciting match between Liverpool and Chelsea. Liverpool fought till the very end to clinch the prestigious cup to make it their eighth EFL title. The match was decided on penalties after it ended nil in extra time. The reds won the cup after Kepa Arrizabalaga missed the shot from five yards. Meanwhile, Liverpool goalkeeper Kelleher remained the topic of discussion due to his performance.
Moreover, the second-choice goalkeeper Kelleher received praise from the manager, Jurgen Klopp. Therefore, in this article, we will talk about a less known journey of a goalkeeper from Ireland, Caoimhín Kelleher. So without any delay let’s get into it:
Early Life
Caoimhin Kelleher was born on 23 November 1998 in Cork Ireland. He was born as the youngest of five children to father Ray Kelleher and mother Jacquiline Kelleher. The goalkeeper comes from a background of athletes. His older brother, Fiacre plays currently for Bradford City as he had spells in Celtic and Oxford United. Also, his other three older brothers play hurling, one of Ireland’s native Gaelic games.
Furthermore, he got into football from the early days thanks to his supportive father. He started playing as a striker for the Ringmahon Rangers Under-14 side. In no time he impressed Stephen Bermingham who had an eye for the young talents. Therefore, Stephen directly advised Kelleher’s mother to change his position and become a goalkeeper.
Moreover, during this time Kelleher was involved in the FAI’s emerging talent program with the help of Stephen Bermingham. This helped him to become a subject of interest to Ringmahon Ranger a club based in Ireland. He started playing for the club as a goalkeeper.
Kelleher’s Career
Kelleher played for a year in Ireland and continued giving trials for different top clubs. He tried with Blackburn and Aston Villa in England before signing for Liverpool in 2015 at age 17. Since then he was featured regularly for Liverpool, during pre-season in the 2018 squad that traveled to the United States. However, his official debut came in 2019 during the EFL Cup and kept a clean sheet against MK Dons.
However, despite being on the bench for Liverpool, he impressed his manager Klopp during the training and pre-season games. Moreover, Klopp praises Kelleher saying ” “Outstanding, he is very cool with the ball. He played in front of 100,000 people in a pre-season game, he has played in front of 60,000 — so he isn’t bothered about that. It’s a very important skill.”
Subsequently, the Irish contributed to the Liverpool Champions League win during a game against Ajax with a clean sheet. In no time he made frequent performances for the Mersey side club and got promotion as the permanent second choice goalkeeper behind Alisson and ahead of Adrián. More to that, Kelleher signed a long-term contract with Liverpool on June 24, 2021.
As of now, Kelleher has become a big prospect for Luiz Diaz side Liverpool after the performance against Chelsea in the Carabao cup. Therefore, it will be a difficult job for Jurgen Klopp to choose between his goalkeeper. Also, Kelleher’s demand must have surely increased after Sunday’s final where he scored the winning goal for the club.
