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About Tim CahillAbout Tim Cahill

For a kid growing up in Australia, most youngsters tended to play either rugby union or rugby league in the winter months – but that was never going to be me!

My mother, Sisifo, who is Samoan, would never allow me to go near a rugby pitch or the oval ball as she deemed the sport too dangerous! As for my father, Tim Snr – a Londoner who emigrated down under – was on her side because he’s always been a massive soccer fan. I have to thank them for this decision, however, otherwise I might never have embraced the game I now love to death.

For as long as I can remember, I have always played football and I recall playing as a youngster with my dad, older brother Sean, and younger brother Chris in the local parks in Sydney, where I was born and raised. I can remember it getting a bit tasty between us boys and I think it was my dad’s way of installing a work ethic and competitive streak in all of us. At the time I didn’t really appreciate it as all I wanted to do at a young age was have fun but, looking back, those early days of getting stuck into my brothers set the tone for my future.

I think anybody who has watched me play over the years will agree that I’m not known for shirking too many tackles, even if it does occasionally land me in a bit of hot water with the referees!

 


My first club was the Tigers boys team who were based in the Sydney suburb of Haberfield. I was six years-old when I first played for them and I can remember getting so nervous that I sometimes even cried before the matches but when I got out on the pitch, all the anxiety melted away and I could then focus on my game.

When I was a little older I played for Balmain Police Boys Club and I attended two quite rough and tough schools, Bexley North Public Scholl and then Kingsgrove North High School.

I have cousins who play – and have played – top flight rugby league and rugby union and we are all very proud of each other’s achievements and I am fortunate enough to have grown up in a sports-orientated family. When you have Samoan heritage, you always have plenty of relatives because of the big size of families over there – I have got some cousins who I have never even met!

We lived over in Samoa for a couple of years as kids, in the capital, Apia, and the Samoan influence is definitely a big part of my life; so big that I even represented the Samoan national football team at the age of 14, but I will come onto that a little bit later on!

I knew by the age of 10 that I wanted to be a professional football player; I used to watch the games beamed in from England with my dad and brothers and that only fed my obsession. There was no real Plan B for me and I knew that one day I would come to England to fulfil my dreams…I didn’t have a clue when but I knew it was going to be an adventure and a massive part of my life.

I remember when I was 14 years old telling my dad that I’d had enough of school and that I wanted to concentrate on my football career. Within three years, I had managed to get myself a trial at Millwall and the dream was starting to become a reality…

My parents ended up borrowing the money to get me over to London for the trial after I had continued my football education with three more clubs: Melmore Hercules, Sydney Olympic and Sydney United. It was a massive thing for my parents to send me to England and it took a lot of thinking; they didn’t have a lot of cash and I will never forget the sacrifices they made for me to further my career and follow my dreams.

I think, on the whole, that it came as a bit of a surprise to my whole family when I brought “soccer” into the family because, traditionally, Samoan’s were brought up playing rugby league and rugby union.

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