By Jamie Moore
Famous for its exports, with Wes Hoolahan (Norwich), Richie Foran (Inverness), David Forde (Millwall), Stephen Kelly (Reading), Stephen Henderson (West Ham) and Matt Doherty (Wolves), to name just a few, following in the footsteps of Curtis Fleming and Mark Kennedy to make their mark in the UK having played for Belvedere, the club has always produced players who have done well in the League of Ireland.
By our calculations, there are 36 former Belvedere players who learned to play 'The Belvo Way' playing in this seasons SSE Airtricity League and seven working as managers or coaches covering a total of 13 clubs, that’s 65% of the league. Many more of our former players are playing the U19 League.
We couldn’t even count the number of medals they have between them from their time at Belvedere and their time in the League of Ireland.
Ahead of new season which kicks off on Friday night, we take a look at the former boys in blue currently playing in the league.
ATHLONE TOWN:
Sean Byrne
Barry Clancy
Kealan Dillon
Neil Harney
Mark Hughes
Craig Sexton
BOHEMIANS:
Keith Buckley
Daniel Byrne
Dinny Corcoran
Jake Hyland
Roberto Lopes
Philip McCabe
Anto Murphy
Lee Murphy
Derek Pender
Darragh Reynor
Stephen Traynor
BRAY WANDERERS:
Jamie McGlynn
DUNDALK:
Darren Meenan
Nathan Murphy
Keith Ward
LIMERICK FC:
Mick Leahy
SHAMROCK ROVERS:
David O’Connor
Chris Lyons
Emeka Onwubiko
DROGHEDA UNITED:
Alan McNally
SHELBOURNE:
William McDonagh
SLIGO ROVERS:
Ross Gaynor
ST.PATRICKS ATHLETIC:
Chris Forrester
Mark Quigley
UCD:
Michael Barker
Gary Burke
Hugh Douglas
James Kavanagh
Tom O’Halloran
WEXFORD YOUTHS:
Sean Skelly
THE MANAGERS
Four ex Belvo players are current LOI managers, with three more taking their place in the dugout as coaches.
Stephen Kenny(Dundalk manager)
Johnny McDonnell (Shelbourne manager)
Trevor Croly (Shamrock Rovers manager)
Tony Cousins (Longford Town manager)
Martin Russell (St.Patricks Athletic coach)
Graham O’Hanlon (Bohemians coach)
Jamie Moore (Shamrock Rovers 1st Division coach)
We will be keeping an eye on the progress of all of our former players in the league this season. Features and interviews with different players will be on belvederefc.com throughout the season with regular updates on the Belvedere FC facebook page and on Twitter @BelvedereFCDub.
Chris Forrester, Mark Quigley, David O’Connor and Ross Gaynor will be playing in the Champions League and Europa League qualifiers for their clubs, so keep an eye out for them.
The best of luck to all the lads for the new season.