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Jobs4Football meets Conor O’Keefe

Jobs4Football spoke to Conor O’Keefe, an English Goalkeeper playing in the Swedish Second Division showcasing his lifestyle through YouTube to his fans worldwide. I discussed with Conor his journey from Macclesfield to Sweden, and how his influence helps young people progress in the footballing world. 

Raised in Macclesfield, Conor played for their team from the age of 12 as a goalkeeper. He was progressively kept on each season, which made him think he has a talent for being in between the sticks. “I was 16 when they offered me a contract and that led me to thinking, let’s see where it goes.” 

Conor was able to come out of his school education with 2 A’s and a B in his A levels and was able to then get a pro contract at Macclesfield. O’Keefe was 3rd choice keeper for the side and after a few loans to the likes of Winsford United, he decided to attend Loughborough University studying International Business. For his third year, Conor needed a year to study abroad and that’s when he thought of Spain. During his time in Spain, Conor played for FC Fuenlabrada in the third tier of Spanish Football. 

“The benefit of playing in Spain was that I saw a completely different side to not only my position but the approach to the game in general. I really saw their emphasis on technique, especially as a Goalkeeper. I learnt a lot in terms of my positioning and my technical ability as opposed to, when I was growing up a lot of the emphasis was on my physical ability and what I can do with that. I feel quite grateful that I had the opportunity to go to Spain because it meant that I could learn the other side of my position and since then I have tried to marry the two together.” 

I was intrigued on the height topic while conversing with Conor, as it is well known in the English Leagues specifically, that to be in the net, taller keepers are more likely to get game time. I wanted to know Conor how he broke past this barrier. “When I went to Spain, it was the first time that no one ever asked how tall I was, whereas in England it was the first question I was asked. I’m 1.83m, so extreme height isn’t something I’ve been blessed with, it’s something that has been held against me and I had to fight against it. Especially, when I was younger that is something that you can get frustrated about. Overtime I learnt to control the things that I can control, like building up my speed and power.” 

During the summer of 2017, Conor had started to document his journey of playing and studying in Madrid on YouTube through his series Keeping Goals. “I didn’t have an agent, I didn’t speak Spanish, I just knew that I was going to be in Spain because of my studies and I wanted to continue playing. I ended up writing letters in Spanish and sending them in golden envelopes to try and get a trial. I ended up getting pre-season training at Rayo Vallecano and then I was invited into Fuenlabrada after the pre-season. At that point I sat down and thought this is really weird and cool that you don’t need a high-flying agent that sorts out all your deals, you can play abroad by going off your own back and trying to create your own opportunities. I thought, maybe I should start documenting my journey, because if I was a kid, I’d love to be able to see that this is possible. It’s amazing now that there’s so many people who watch the videos and get value out of them, and helps them in their own careers and their own enjoyment of playing in goal at no matter what level.” 

Conor’s channel on YouTube has evolved exponentially since 2017, he now has amassed over 61 thousand subscribers and is now on his 6th series of Keeping Goals. Ben Foster, an English international Keeper currently playing for Watford, has also gained a big following online with his YouTube channel and I was excited to hear Conor’s view on a Premier League regular documenting his footballing lifestyle. 

“It’s amazing for people to see what it’s like at the very top level of the game, a premier league regular and English international for so many years, to be able to offer that insight is insane. From my personal point of view, I thought it was brilliant that more people were starting to do something similar and seeing the value of sharing their stories, because football in the past has been very closed off and it’s developed into a fear of opening up, whereas I have found that if you are being honest, and being clear about when things are going well as well as badly, you’re not hiding anything but you can really impact someone else and improve their own journey, which if I was a kid I would’ve loved to have. That’s always been the aim of it, as long as you keep that central as to why you do it, then it can never be harmful. I love Ben Foster’s stuff, he said he has watched some of the videos, which is ace to see someone I looked up to supporting me.” 

Conor returned to Loughborough to complete his degree whilst also being their number 1 Keeper for the club. In 2019 Conor was transferred to Gibraltar to play for Europa Point FC before singing for Bruno’s Magpies in the January transfer window. 

Conor now runs his Goalkeeper Training Programme where he provides insight and education through his plyometrics and distribution programmes. I was intrigued on how this business came to fruition. “I enjoy having lots of stuff to do because it makes me more productive in the thing I’m doing, I did a business degree and I was always interested in business and I saw that a lot of the people watching my videos didn’t have goalkeeper coaches. They were either at amateur clubs or Sunday league teams, they didn’t have the luxury of having a Goalkeeper coach that could help them every day with their training like I had. I try an offer that value for free and create a lot of tutorials, gym videos, nutritional videos or technique videos. I saw the opportunity to condense that into actual training programmes that people could use, because I had so many viewers that have the mindset of perseverance regardless of the level they play at.” 

After the cancellation of the league in March 2020 Conor now plays in Sweden, playing for Pitea IF in the Third division. O’Keefe was gifted Men’s Division 2 Goalkeeper of the Year 2020 for his outstanding contribution to the club’s success that season. Conor had 8 clean sheets in 11 games helping Pitea gain promotion to the 3rd tier of football in Sweden called Ettan Nora. He is currently playing in pre-season in the same division, after astoundingly finishing in the top half in the 2020/21 season. 

I wanted to hear Conor’s reflection on his journey from speaking to the camera in 2017 to being the Custodian for his Swedish club. “I’m 26 now, I feel like I’m starting to reach that level of maturity as a Goalkeeper, I’ve been a number 1 now for the last 3 seasons and I’ve learnt a lot from that as I did as number 3 when I was a youngster. This stage now is about performance and 3 points on the weekend, it’s something I’ve really enjoyed especially over the last 2 years. I want to keep progressing that and I want to keep performing at the highest level I possibly can. I still feel like I’ve got a lot of years left to continue pushing myself to see how high I can go. I’m glad I’ve documented it, it’s nice to look back on the stages I’ve been through, but this stage definitely feels exciting.” 

After the phenomenon of gaining promotion and finishing in the top half the next season, I had to ask Conor on his future in Pitea this season and his future as an evolved Goalkeeper. “As a team it’s a good test for us to try and improve on what we did last year, a lot of people underestimated us and we probably overachieved based on external perception. I’d like to see push higher up the league this year and finish even higher than last year. Individually, I was second in clean sheets and was nominated for Goalkeeper of the Year, but those are one step off were I’d like to be, I’d like to be the winner again! That’s always the focus, and that’s what excites me about this season.” 

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