“People thought we were daft,” confirms Harrington, who coached Kelleher for six years. “Caoimhin was our only player representing the Cork county side – our talisman in attack. We then found out he had always felt he could be a keeper, but he didn’t want to upset the lad we were playing in goal. That’s the type of guy Caoimhin is, you know. It was only when he saw there was a window there that it was mentioned to us.” 

Kelleher was not a complete novice to the role. He had caught the goalkeeper bug after having a go in training with Cork, and by the time he was full-time between the posts his outfield skills enabled him to shine. 

“It was obvious from the first game how cool he is on the ball,” says Harrington. “He brought calmness with the ball at his feet. Because he was a striker himself, he was one step ahead and knew what the striker was going to do. 

“Things started to happen fairly quickly after that. The big tournament in Ireland for the Under-14s is the Kennedy Cup, where all the English scouts go and watch. That’s where the county sides play each other. Caoimhin started to become big news in the area. 

“First it was Blackburn approached him, and then Aston Villa were interested in giving him a trial. I remember the Blackburn scout telling he would make it in England. He was worried Blackburn were not moving quickly enough because he knew bigger clubs would come in for him.” 

Then, Liverpool’s head of recruitment in Ireland, Clifford Ferguson, started to pay attention along with other Premier League scouts. 

“In his final season we were an unbelievable team and we started to get some crowds coming to see us,” says Fitzgerald. “That was when we heard about scouts from Villa and United and Liverpool watching him, and wanting to get in touch with the family. 

“There are a lot of Liverpool fans at our club, so when it was United calling we’d all joke to each other that we should hang up the phone! Once Liverpool made the call and said they would like to look at him, that was it. Caoimhin had been with us since the Under-5s and was always a Liverpool fan.” 

The Mahon area has become something of a talent hotspot, Kelleher one of several youngsters making the move to England. 

His brother, Fiacre, joined Celtic and currently plays for Bradford City, and the roll of honour and mementos in the Ringmahon clubhouse has been steadily expanding in recent years. 

“We have one of Caoimin’s jerseys on the clubhouse wall,” says Fitzgerald. “Hopefully he will get plenty more games in the Carabao and FA Cup. An appearance at Wembley would be great. It’s fairytale stuff, really.”