Sligo star Boco fights for future in Tallaght showpiece
Saturday November 21 2009
HE IS the only League of Ireland footballer currently plying his trade on the international stage, and next January he will join players of the calibre of Didier Drogba, Emmanuel Adebayor and Michael Essien in the African Nations Cup.
However, Sligo Rovers star Romuald Boco has admitted that he is still playing for his professional future in tomorrow's FAI Ford Cup final.
Having scored the winner for Benin against Sudan in the World Cup/African Nations Cup Qualifiers last weekend, Boco returned to Sligo from a 26-hour journey last Tuesday with another huge match on his mind.
Sligo face the newly-promoted and in-form Sporting Fingal in Tallaght Stadium with the ultimate prize Ireland's blue riband trophy and a place in Europe.
But for the moment, the versatile 24-year-old, who has played as a defender, midfielder and striker for the Bit O' Red, is just focused on fighting for his job.
"It's a massive game for the people of Sligo and a massive game for the club. I think the players will get a lot from it too because there are not a lot of players under contract for next year," said Boco, who has been linked with Premier Division champions Bohemians in recent weeks.
"At the end of the day we all know what's happening in the league, with Cork and Derry and other clubs, everyone's worried about their future, no one can say they are not worried."
He added: "So if we get the Cup and we know we have Europe, the money it brings into the club can help the club offer some contracts so at the end of the day it's about our future."
Boco's insecurity is not one currently shared by the players of newly-promoted Sporting Fingal, who have climbed to the pinnacle of Irish football in just two years in existence, on what is now all but a fully-professional set up.
investment
The big-spending north Dubliners have been working off a full-time model -- with the exception of 11 part-time players in their 23-man squad -- for the whole First Division season, but a win tomorrow could lift the public/private-run experiment to a new level and go some way in justifying the big investment made by property developer and backer, Gerry Gannon.
"For us, it's going to be a fantastic occasion," said manager, Liam Buckley.
"The journey of the club has brought us to places we could only have dreamed of when we entered the league last season, so we won't stop believing."
With a full squad to choose from and their Premier Division status now confirmed, the north Dublin side will be brimming with confidence while the suspension of Sligo captain, Conor O'Grady, gives them a further boost; Danny Ventre will stand in as skipper.
The fans are expected to flock from the west and make up a large majority of the 6,000 sell-out crowd in their first FAI Cup final in 15 years.
With the two sides coached very much under the ethos of open, passing football, this final has the makings of an extremely entertaining one, despite suffering one of the most muted build-ups ever in a week that has seen the Irish international team put under the spotlight of the world's media.
Sporting Fingal's creative midfield and clinical strike force has helped them to 68 goals in the First Division -- more than any other team in both tiers of the League of Ireland -- but their adventurous 4-3-3 formation also leaves them susceptible to the counter-attack, which players with the pace of Rafael Cretaro, Boco and Owen Morrison would be only happy to exploit.
Buckley's charges may have taken huge strides since the club's inception, but with (just two years of) history, experience and the crowd all transpiring against them at Tallaght, this could prove a step too far.
Verdict: Sligo to win 3-2.
Sligo Rovers v Sporting Fingal,
Live, tomorrow, RTE 2, 3.0
- Cork City have appointed Liam Meaney as the club's new General Manager. The role encompasses supervision of the day-to-day running of the club, along with implementing plans and structures for the club's future, and also sees Meaney take on the role of Club Licensing Officer.
- Neil Ahern
Irish Independent
