Cork youngster making his name at Rangers
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When Alan Smith first stepped in between the posts for Springfield Ramblers as a fresh-faced schoolboy at nine years of age, nobody would have imagined that shortly after his 17th birthday Rangers would hand him a professional contract.
An Irish player signing for the club on the blue side of Glasgow might be very much a rarity in the footballing world, but it’s not the only unusual story in Smith’s rapid rise to prominence.
Having originally made his name playing for Springfield and the CSL inter-league side, the Cobh-born stopper earned a deserved call-up to the Irish underage setup. Although there was nothing unusual about that, as a host of local players find themselves representing their country at various age groups every year, what soon followed was the first surprising turn in the burgeoning career of one of the most promising Irish goalkeepers around.
After other teams around the country took notice of his authority in the area and terrific shot-stopping ability, Smith was approached by Dublin side Crumlin United to become their goalkeeper, not too long before a new rule was implemented by the SFAI blocking such moves. Nowadays, it is impossible for a player to sign for a club so far from his home, meaning long distance commuting to play football at underage level is now banned.
Smith’s move, though, came before the ruling was introduced and he has reaped the rewards since he was spotted by the Dublin side. Firstly, the transfer meant he established an even bigger role in the international setup under the guidance of Sean McCaffrey, with arguably more emphasis placed on Irish scouts watching players plying their trade nearer the capital, before finally he was spotted by the Scottish club while starring for Crumlin.
“I started with Springfield when I was six or seven,” he says of his beginnings at the seaport town. “Originally, I was playing outfield but I finally moved into goal when I was playing at under-9 but then once I was about 11 everything started to happen for me.
“I played in the Kennedy Cup then for the Cork inter-league team and an Ireland call-up came for a tournament called the Hibernian Cup. That call-up came just after I played in the Kennedy Cup, so for my first full international I was still playing at Springfield.
“From the Irish games I played that year, the Crumlin manager spotted me and invited me to the Milk Cup in Northern Ireland to play and be involved for the week. That went well and it just kind of happened from there. I was then spotted by Rangers playing for Crumlin by a scout called Paul Hammond, and that would have been at around under-16 level.”
Moving to a big club cross-channel is always a daunting prospect, with droves of players failing to settle down due to homesickness every year, but Smith believes he has fitted in well despite the big change in scenery from the playing fields of Cobh and Crumlin to Rangers’ state of the art Murray Park base.
“I was at some other clubs on trial, but there weren’t any other serious offers at the time. Just things like offering me another trial. To be honest, I settled in at Rangers fairly quickly,” he says with an air of coolness.
“I had been away from home a lot for the past few years so it wasn’t a major change. I had been on trial at other clubs since I was 13 and my first trial was at Nottingham Forest, so I haven’t found it hard settling in at all.”
That initial bedding in period was helped, of course, by making a solid debut for the under-19s in a pre-season game against Wolves just a short few weeks after signing. The result was a positive one too as Rangers ran out 3-1 winners. Since then, however, he has very much been an understudy to Belfast-born Wayne Drummond who was also signed last summer from Millwall – but with two years of a gap between them both, it’s not like there’s any rush and Smith is quite happy with how things have gone so far.
“Yeah, it was good to get that 90 minutes in pre-season and I think I have settled in well,” he adds. “I’m happy with my progress so far. I signed last summer, around July, and I have a two year contract here and I’m happy with how I’m progressing. All the players are brilliant as well, it was great to settle in so early after that game in pre-season.”
Despite the aforementioned attention from other clubs such as Notts Forest, after impressing in a couple of trial games in Glasgow, the youngster was offered a full-time deal and he accepted, becoming the first Republic international at any level since American-born Joe Lapira to sign a deal at Ibrox.
Even New York’s Lapira, who was handed one cap by Steve Staunton in 2007 and failed to make any impact in Glasgow because of injury, can’t be counted as Irish born so it places Smith in a unique list of players from the Republic to play in blue. Alex Stephenson, Alex Craig, James Lowry McAuley and Reuben Evans are the only other Irish-born players on record to have played for the club, making him only the fifth player south of the border ever to play for Rangers.
Being part of such an exclusive group makes the move abroad even more special but Smith is, perhaps understandably, keen to play down the rareness of it all. He has a certain air of confidence in his ability though; you can hear it in his voice. He is entirely focused on just getting as far as he possibly can in the cut throat world of professional football and being in such a unique position at Rangers doesn’t seem to have any affect.
“My ambition is to just go as far as I can and make the most of this opportunity that I’ve been given,” he concludes. And on the evidence so far, that could be very far indeed.
This article originally appeared in the Evening Echo.
An Irish player signing for the club on the blue side of Glasgow might be very much a rarity in the footballing world, but it’s not the only unusual story in Smith’s rapid rise to prominence.
Having originally made his name playing for Springfield and the CSL inter-league side, the Cobh-born stopper earned a deserved call-up to the Irish underage setup. Although there was nothing unusual about that, as a host of local players find themselves representing their country at various age groups every year, what soon followed was the first surprising turn in the burgeoning career of one of the most promising Irish goalkeepers around.
After other teams around the country took notice of his authority in the area and terrific shot-stopping ability, Smith was approached by Dublin side Crumlin United to become their goalkeeper, not too long before a new rule was implemented by the SFAI blocking such moves. Nowadays, it is impossible for a player to sign for a club so far from his home, meaning long distance commuting to play football at underage level is now banned.
Smith’s move, though, came before the ruling was introduced and he has reaped the rewards since he was spotted by the Dublin side. Firstly, the transfer meant he established an even bigger role in the international setup under the guidance of Sean McCaffrey, with arguably more emphasis placed on Irish scouts watching players plying their trade nearer the capital, before finally he was spotted by the Scottish club while starring for Crumlin.
“I started with Springfield when I was six or seven,” he says of his beginnings at the seaport town. “Originally, I was playing outfield but I finally moved into goal when I was playing at under-9 but then once I was about 11 everything started to happen for me.
“I played in the Kennedy Cup then for the Cork inter-league team and an Ireland call-up came for a tournament called the Hibernian Cup. That call-up came just after I played in the Kennedy Cup, so for my first full international I was still playing at Springfield.
“From the Irish games I played that year, the Crumlin manager spotted me and invited me to the Milk Cup in Northern Ireland to play and be involved for the week. That went well and it just kind of happened from there. I was then spotted by Rangers playing for Crumlin by a scout called Paul Hammond, and that would have been at around under-16 level.”
Moving to a big club cross-channel is always a daunting prospect, with droves of players failing to settle down due to homesickness every year, but Smith believes he has fitted in well despite the big change in scenery from the playing fields of Cobh and Crumlin to Rangers’ state of the art Murray Park base.
“I was at some other clubs on trial, but there weren’t any other serious offers at the time. Just things like offering me another trial. To be honest, I settled in at Rangers fairly quickly,” he says with an air of coolness.
“I had been away from home a lot for the past few years so it wasn’t a major change. I had been on trial at other clubs since I was 13 and my first trial was at Nottingham Forest, so I haven’t found it hard settling in at all.”
That initial bedding in period was helped, of course, by making a solid debut for the under-19s in a pre-season game against Wolves just a short few weeks after signing. The result was a positive one too as Rangers ran out 3-1 winners. Since then, however, he has very much been an understudy to Belfast-born Wayne Drummond who was also signed last summer from Millwall – but with two years of a gap between them both, it’s not like there’s any rush and Smith is quite happy with how things have gone so far.
“Yeah, it was good to get that 90 minutes in pre-season and I think I have settled in well,” he adds. “I’m happy with my progress so far. I signed last summer, around July, and I have a two year contract here and I’m happy with how I’m progressing. All the players are brilliant as well, it was great to settle in so early after that game in pre-season.”
Despite the aforementioned attention from other clubs such as Notts Forest, after impressing in a couple of trial games in Glasgow, the youngster was offered a full-time deal and he accepted, becoming the first Republic international at any level since American-born Joe Lapira to sign a deal at Ibrox.
Even New York’s Lapira, who was handed one cap by Steve Staunton in 2007 and failed to make any impact in Glasgow because of injury, can’t be counted as Irish born so it places Smith in a unique list of players from the Republic to play in blue. Alex Stephenson, Alex Craig, James Lowry McAuley and Reuben Evans are the only other Irish-born players on record to have played for the club, making him only the fifth player south of the border ever to play for Rangers.
Being part of such an exclusive group makes the move abroad even more special but Smith is, perhaps understandably, keen to play down the rareness of it all. He has a certain air of confidence in his ability though; you can hear it in his voice. He is entirely focused on just getting as far as he possibly can in the cut throat world of professional football and being in such a unique position at Rangers doesn’t seem to have any affect.
“My ambition is to just go as far as I can and make the most of this opportunity that I’ve been given,” he concludes. And on the evidence so far, that could be very far indeed.
This article originally appeared in the Evening Echo.
About Alan Smith
Alan Smith works as a sub-editor for the Guardian newspaper in London. Originally from Cork, he freelances for several other newspapers and websites. Follow him on twitter @alansmith90. View Full Profile