Caoimhin Kelleher on Brentford, Liverpool, grief and fatherhood: ‘Being surrounded by good people helps’ – The Athletic
Googling the word Caoimhin reveals it is an Irish Gaelic name which means “handsome, beautiful and kind”.
It also directs you towards the Irish professional footballer, Caoimhin Kelleher, and points out there are two ways to pronounce his first name.
One is Keev–een. The other, the one most often applied to the 27-year-old Brentford and Republic of Ireland goalkeeper, is Kwee–veen.
As this correspondent can attest, having an Irish name in England, where Kelleher has lived since joining Liverpool’s academy at age 16, is not always easy. And it turns out Kelleher’s first name has been mispronounced hundreds of times over the past decade or so.
In an interview with The Athletic at Brentford’s Community Sports Trust hub in west London’s Gunnersbury Park, where he met local people who benefit from the various events and classes hosted there, he points out the correct way to say his name is “Keev-een”. His family call him “Keev” for short — a nickname he and I share.
Kelleher, whose demeanour is always set to calm mode, is unfazed by what people actually call him. The name that now matters most is the one waiting for him at home: Daddy.
In late February, he and his partner Eimear Murphy welcomed twins, a daughter and a son, into the world.
Caoimhin Kelleher engages with participants at the Brentford Community Trust event at the Gunnersbury Clubhouse (Brentford FC)
The only one of Brentford’s 33 top-flight games so far this season that Kelleher has missed since joining from Liverpool in June for a fee which could rise to £18million ($24.3m) was their 4-3 win away to Burnley on February 28. On that occasion, he was given special dispensation by head coach and compatriot Keith Andrews to be at home with Eimear and their two newborns.
“Life’s busy and it’s a lot of fun,” says Kelleher, who walked into the Trust’s cafe to loud applause. Those engaged in the club’s community projects will benefit from a new partnership Brentford have signed with the recruitment firm Indeed who, along with becoming the club’s front-of-shirt sponsor next season, will also be lead partner of the Trust. “The twins are as good as gold.
“My partner’s brilliant as well — we’re blessed. We’re very lucky, and it’s all going really well.
“It puts stuff into perspective (becoming a father). Sometimes, (other) things are a lot more important than football. My main priority now is being a dad to them and trying to be the best father I can be. You look at football after that.”
One month after Kelleher left Liverpool, his good friend and long-time Anfield team-mate Diogo Jota was killed in a car accident which also took the life of Jota’s brother and fellow footballer, Andre Silva. At the time, Kelleher posted a heartfelt tribute which included pictures of Jota and him together on the pitch as Liverpool secured the Premier League title with a home win against Tottenham late last season, as well as at the Portugal forward’s wedding in Portugal.
In his post, Kelleher wrote, “You became one of my closest friends in football”, and said losing Jota was going to “hurt for a long time”. That hurt showed up when he recently became a father.
“Maybe it does probably heighten what happened,” Kelleher says. “Yeah, maybe that does bring it into perspective even a bit more. But, listen, it’s grief. Everyone goes through it at some point, and it is difficult.
“You have your days; you have moments where it comes into your mind and it is obviously very sad, and it’s tough. But sometimes nice memories pop in as well, and you think of fun times as well. Grief is not easy. Being surrounded by good people here helps.”
Among those people are three other former Liverpool players now at Brentford — Jordan Henderson, Sepp van den Berg and Fabio Carvalho. Knowing them helped Kelleher’s transition to life from Merseyside to London after a decade in the north-west of England.
The Ireland goalkeeper has been a popular addition to Brentford’s ranks (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
Andrews, whose arrival also generated a big cheer when he strolled into the Gunnersbury clubhouse to greet those benefiting from community projects funded by the Premier League side, was an important figure for Kelleher during that time, too.
“He’s very passionate, he’s very hardworking. He loves the game and he has a lot of belief in us,” the goalkeeper says. “He’s been brilliant. (Management) suits him; he is a great people person, great at managing people. He has a great relationship with all the players. It’s been seamless for him, and I’m delighted for him.”
Asked how Andrews compares with former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, who handed him a senior debut in September 2019 in the Carabao Cup away to then third-tier Milton Keynes Dons, Kelleher points out the pair are similar when it comes to one thing: “They’re both very, very passionate and very good with people. They get to know you as the person first, before the footballer.”
Brentford have been working with the Change Please programme to up-skill those in danger of homelessness to be baristas (Brentford FC)
After being promoted from an assistant role for his first crack at management when Thomas Frank left last summer to be head coach at Tottenham Hotspur, 45-year-old Andrews has — with five games of their season left — put Brentford right in the mix to qualify for a first taste of European football in their history next season.
Going into their trip to Old Trafford to play Manchester United this evening (Monday), where Kelleher, as a former Liverpool player, is not expecting a particularly warm reception from the crowd, Brentford are ninth in the table with 48 points, 10 behind the home side in third and his former club in fourth. They have a game in hand on Liverpool, Aston Villa (also on 58), Brighton & Hove Albion (50), Bournemouth (49) and Chelsea (48), the five teams immediately above them, and can go sixth with a win against third-placed United or seventh with a draw.
After tonight, Brentford then play West Ham United (home), Manchester City (away) and Crystal Palace (home). Their final match of the season feels fitting — Kelleher’s first return to Anfield as an opposition player since his transfer.
“Hopefully, it’s an important game for both of us. But yeah, it’ll be nice to go back now and see old faces. And playing in the stadium again will be special,” he says.
“Liverpool is a special place for me. I lived in the city (centre) for five years and loved it there. I just miss the people at the club. I have a lot of good friends there. I miss them, and I miss the city and the Scousers. I think they are similar to the Irish. They’re quite funny. I do miss them.”
Even as club icon Mohamed Salah says a fond farewell to the Liverpool fans that day, alongside veteran full-back Andy Robertson — they are both leaving the club this summer after nine years — the man from Cork is hoping he can keep Arne Slot’s men from scoring.
“Hopefully I’m apologising to him (Salah) after,” Kelleher says, eager to add to his season’s league clean-sheet tally of nine.
Much of Kelleher’s confidence stems from training with the likes of Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino as a young, emerging goalkeeper providing backup to long-time first-choice Alisson. “If you’re making saves off them, that gives you confidence,” he says. “They were the best in the league. Just to see how they finished and the pace they finish at… you have to get used to it.
“Training with Alisson was obviously brilliant, too. He’s really calm in all situations and you watch him in one-v-ones, for example; how he goes about that and the technique he uses for them. Even just by watching him, you pick up a lot. He’s one of the best in the world, so I was trying to take little bits of his game and trying to mirror what he does in situations.”
Kelleher is already deeply rooted at Brentford and into his life in London, the city where his children were born. But he was partly raised in Liverpool and, when he speaks about the season his previous club have endured — struggling throughout and failing to make much of a fist of retaining their title — he articulates their toils better than most could.
Kelleher denies Tottenham’s Pape Matar Sarr from close range (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
“For Liverpool, I don’t think it’s a season about football, really, for me,” he says. “Of course it is, but I think the situation, what happened (with Jota)… it’s a massive shock to everyone. You’re going through a lot of grief, a lot of different emotions. It’s not easy for those players to play at the highest level and be going through that as well.
“It’s been a tough season for them.”
Kelleher was hoping to spend this summer honouring his late friend by achieving their shared dream of representing their country at a World Cup. Sadly for him, though Portugal have made it to the upcoming 2026 finals, the Republic of Ireland missed out, losing on penalties away to the Czech Republic in their UEFA play-offs semi-final last month.
Though Kelleher had carved out a name for himself as a penalty-saving hero — he was on the winning side in all four shootouts he took part in for Liverpool, including the Carabao Cup final against Chelsea in 2022, in which he also scored his spot kick — he was unable to stop the Czechs advancing into their section’s final, where they also beat Denmark on penalties to qualify for the tournament in North America.
Caoimhin Kelleher springs to his left to palm away a shot against Burnley (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
“It was disappointing for us, but we have a good group (of players), all at a good age, and we look to be moving in the right direction,” he says. “We’ve done some special things already. Hopefully we can use that experience, use the hurt from this one to push on and qualify for the next tournament (the 2028 European Championship, which his homeland will co-host with England, Scotland and Wales).”
Even though Kelleher is a Champions League winner, a two-time Premier League champion and has lifted the Carabao Cup twice (playing in both finals) plus the FA Cup and UEFA Super Cup with Liverpool, there is more he wants to achieve in the game.
“It’s nice that I’ve done that stuff for Liverpool, but I want to go on and do my own thing now as well with being a No 1,” he adds. “Hopefully that involves really good stuff for Brentford.
“I’ve been very lucky. I have been blessed in my life and in football. You’ve got to make the most of every day. You don’t know what’s going to happen.
“I’m grateful for everything that I have.”
