Kevin Grogan

Kevin Grogan (born November 15 1981 in Dublin) was an Irish professional football player.

A uniquely talented youth player, Grogan was signed by Sir Alex Ferguson for Manchester United in 1998 just before playing a major role on the Ireland Under 16 team, on their way to becoming European Champions in Scotland.

However a series of injuries stopped Kevin from making the breakthrough expected and in the summer of 2000 he left Man Utd. He decided to combine football with studying and joined Eircom League Premier Division side UCD and decided on a Diploma course in Sports Management. After a long hard battle it seemed his footballing career would be revived when he join Millwall in 2002. However, on November 15 of that year, he was told by Millwall doctors his body could not take it after a series of operations and injections. The Pelvic injuries had taken too much out of him. He returned home disappointed but finished his college course and for a while worked with Cork City FC in a marketing role before becoming a football agent.

In July 2006, Grogan decided to make one last attempt to resurrect his career. He went to Belgium to undergo major surgery and intense functional rehab for eight months in Antwerp after which he was offered a pay as you play deal with St Patrick's Athletic to give himself a chance to gain match fitness before attempting to return to England to play. He made his league debut for St Pats on September 1 2006 in a 1-0 defeat to Waterford United.

On the 13th of January 2007 Kevin signed for Irish league side Glentoran on a loan until the end of the 2006-2007 season. During that time Kevin traveled back and forth to Millwall to test his fitness at a professional level.

In June 2007 he was appointed Director of Football at his first club Belvedere FC [http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/grogan-back-at-belvedere-alma-mater-892257.html]

He was capped four times by the Republic of Ireland national under-21 football team.

External links

* [http://www.soccerbase.com/players_details.sd?playerid=32695 Kevin Grogan on soccerbase]
* [http://indigo.ie/~bvr/Kevin1.htm Kevin's self penned story]
* [http://www.playerhistory.com/Default.aspx?page=player_details&playerID=91316 Kevin Grogan @ playerhistory.com]