{"id":309151,"date":"2026-02-25T08:24:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T08:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/309151\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T08:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T08:24:07","slug":"teens-dream-mayo-debut-was-no-surprise-to-under-20s-boss-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/309151\/","title":{"rendered":"Teen\u2019s dream Mayo debut was no surprise to under-20s boss \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keith Higgins was at home with his two young children on Sunday when the most famous teenager in Mayo<\/a> football came of age. Kobe McDonald<\/a> had arrived.<\/p>\n

Higgins is manager of the Mayo under-20s and will have McDonald available to him when the Dalata Under-20 Championship throws in next month. Having spent most of Saturday away from home at a challenge game, Higgins was on parenting duty the following afternoon when McDonald threatened to break the internet.<\/p>\n

The influx of messages appearing on his phone was the first indication to Higgins that something was afoot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018oh no, what\u2019s after happening here?\u2019. I had to go on Twitter straight away and I just seen 1-1,\u201d says Higgins with a smile.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018right, I know what\u2019s going on now\u2019. Yeah, it\u2019s funny when you\u2019re looking after a three-year-old and a 20-month-old, football sometimes goes out the window, you don\u2019t get first choice of what\u2019s on the television. <\/p>\n

\u201cI did have a bit of a giggle all right. I was like, \u2018of course he had to announce himself in a special way\u2019. You can always go down the route and say it could be an awful thing and it could build up the hype even more. But sure what harm \u2013 if the guy\u2019s good, he\u2019s good. Just let him at it and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDonald came off the bench against Monaghan in Clones<\/a> on Sunday and marked his senior debut with a personal haul of 1-4. His potential has been known for quite some time but only the most bullish might have predicted the 18-year-old Leaving Cert student would mark his bow in such stunning fashion.<\/p>\n

\"MayoMayo under-20 manager Keith Higgins at the launch of Dalata’s sponsorship of the All-Ireland Under-20 Football Championship. Photograph: Dan Sheridan\/Inpho <\/p>\n

\u201cAndy [Moran] tried to play down the hype for the last couple of months and all of a sudden he comes on and hits 1-4 in 20 minutes,\u201d jokes Higgins. <\/p>\n

\u201cLook, what can I say about Kobe? Everyone has known he\u2019s a phenomenal talent but you just have to realise the lad literally turned 18 in December. He\u2019s really young. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt that age, you have to let lads go and play a bit of schools football as well and let them enjoy themselves. And you can kind of see even from the celebration [last Sunday], he\u2019s enjoying it. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s what you want to see from him at that age, don\u2019t be putting too much structure or too much pressure, saying \u2018you have to make this run, you have to do that\u2019.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Kobe McDonald makes statement Mayo debut: Five things we learned from the weekend\u2019s GAAOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no point trying to tie him down. Just let him go and let him off and let the shackles off and see what happens.\u201d <\/p>\n

Higgins captained Mayo to an All-Ireland under-21 title in 2006 and was named Young Footballer of the Year later that same season, so he is perfectly placed to help McDonald through this period of his development.<\/p>\n

But the kicker for Mayo fans is that McDonald has signed for AFL outfit St Kilda, so it\u2019s possible this will be the Crossmolina man\u2019s one and only season in the green and red.<\/p>\n

\"CiaránCiar\u00e1n McDonald (left), father of Kobe McDonald, in action for Mayo against Padraig McMahon of Laois in the 2006 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship quarter-final replay at Croke Park. Photograph: Lorraine O’Sullivan\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Higgins and senior boss Moran<\/a>, two former county teammates, have agreed the likes of McDonald and Darragh Beirne will be given the freedom to focus on the Under-20 Championship when it begins \u2013 the All-Ireland final is scheduled for mid-May. <\/p>\n

Higgins, who announced his intercounty football retirement in early 2021, played alongside Kobe\u2019s dad, Ciar\u00e1n, for three seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny, when I came in Ciar\u00e1n Mac was the god and the idol. I remember at a training camp over in Portugal, he gave me a pair of boots and I thought this was the greatest thing ever. <\/p>\n

\u201cNow, all of a sudden, I\u2019m dealing with his young fella. It\u2019s funny how these things turn around.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s a very different player. Even though Ciar\u00e1n was really deceptively strong for a guy his size, I think Kobe\u2019s obviously more of a runner.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see the goal he got the last day, once he got the ball, he just took off. Whereas Ciar\u00e1n Mac was just more of a footballer on the ball, if that makes sense. I think there\u2019s a bit more athleticism to Kobe.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for what the future holds, Higgins feels the best plan is to focus on the here and now.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe could go out [to Australia] in six months, it might not be for him and he could be back home,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

\u201cOr he could have five or six great years and comes home, he\u2019s still 24 years of age. You just don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgain, without being boring or repeating the same line as Andy, we just make the most of it while we have him and enjoy him while we have him, whether that\u2019s with the seniors or the 20s.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Higgins was speaking at confirmation of the Dalata Hotel Group entering a second year as sponsor of the Under-20 Football Championship through its \u2018For Difference Makers\u2019 campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keith Higgins was at home with his two young children on Sunday when the most famous teenager in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,155155,155156,105],"class_list":["post-309151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-kobe-mcdonald","tag-mayo-gaa","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}