Ryan O'Donoghue could have been the next Seamus Coleman at Sligo Rovers had he opted for the 11-a-side game. That's according to the man that coached the All-Ireland winning Mayo star during his spell at The Showgrounds as a promising academy prospect. O'Donoghue's potential as a soccer player was recognised on the international stage, where he played alongside current senior Ireland star and Celtic defender Liam Scales. The pair were in the same Ireland schools side that also featured Aaron Drinan, who scored 28 goals for Swindon Town last season and finished top scorer in League Two. Northampton Town's Conor McCarthy, Conor Kane of Drogheda United, Killian Brouder (Galway United) and BJ Banda (ex-Finn Harps) also featured in the same Ireland team as the Westerners full-forward. O'Donoghue even scored at international level, despite playing as a right-back, in a 3-1 Centenary Shield win over Scotland in 2016. At club level, he was blazing a trail with Sligo Rovers - and given his position and his style of play, his coach at the time, Brian Dorrian, felt he might have another Coleman on his hands. 'I would have thought he was quite similar to Seamus; really tenacious, big heart, wild drive, determination and will to win,' Dorrian told the Mirror Sport. 'It's the same thing all good professional footballers would have, and he had that in abundance. Obviously he had it in abundance in Gaelic football. 'Probably at that stage the Sligo Rovers academy wasn't as well set up as it is now, and it's different now where we have kids that stay and train full time from different parts of the northwest. 'Then there was a lot of travelling, so we probably weren't set up at that stage for him. 'But a Seamus Coleman type player? Definitely. You can see it when he plays Gaelic football as well, he has that wild drive and determination to beat men. It's just something that's in them.' O'Donoghue put in the hours at Sligo Rovers during his three seasons with the Bit O' Red, making the three-hour return journey from Belmullet twice a week for training, and again for matches at the weekend. At the same time he was rising through the ranks in the world of Gaelic football. As a 17-year-old playing in the newly-established Under-19 League of Ireland, the physicality he developed through the GAA and boxing stood to him. 'He was a very good young man with a great attitude, never say die, teak tough, a really hard player who looked after himself and demanded standards of himself all the time, and the boys around him,' recalled Dorrian. 'Physically, even at that stage, he was well developed. He wasn't massively tall, but he was strong in stature. His build was a massive plus for him. 'Even in his play you could see that he was tough. There was no fear. 'He was a really tenacious right-back, really fit. He looked after himself and trained really hard. 'He was coming to Sligo three days a week at that stage from Belmullet, which was an hour and a half from Sligo. That was a big undertaking for himself and his parents. 'We trained Tuesday and Thursday, and we would have had a match on the weekend, but the match could have been in Donegal or over in Dublin. So there were different treks. 'You are talking an hour and a half to us, an hour and a half back, so you are looking at over five hours of a day, including training. 'He was basically coming in from school and going up to us. It was a lot of hard work, but he was always eager to learn and improve.