Mitchlestown's own female version of Messi, young Aideen O'Shea, who plays for Park United, has already been capped twice for Ireland at just 15 and she has been appointed as captain of the Cork U16 team this year, in her first year playing with them. 

Aideen who is going into third year in the Presentation Secondary School, Mitchelstown, has been playing soccer since she was 11 and as she grew up with three brothers and two sisters, she always understated her talents, but her accolades so far have shown that she is one to watch in the coming years.

When Aideen was 14 she played for Ireland twice against English teams and Chairman of Park United, Paddy Moloney said that it is a big achievement, as most players wouldn't play for their country until they are well into their twenties, if at all.

The young centre back was picked for the Cork team for the past three years and she also captained the U14 team before progressing up to the U16 team, which she now also captains. She also won an award for Player of the Year in Park United last week.

Just last week, her team played against two touring teams from San Francisco and she has also come up against the Arsenal women's team.

Within Park United, Aideen would have started out under the coaches Pat Murray, Colm O'Grady and Tony Murphy and then moved to Matt Robinson and Josephine Meaney and in years to come, she would love to get involved in coaching herself to encourage more girls to try the sport.

Every one of the coaches saw something special in Aideen's talents and Paddy Moloney said that there is no doubt that she has great talent.

"She was head and shoulders above most of the players up along, including the boys. There's very few that go on to represent their country at underage level and while many boys try out for their county teams, some of them are very good and don't even make the panel, while Aideen is captain. That's a huge achievement, when you think that they have the cream of the crop to choose from in Cork," Paddy said.

Speaking about how she got into soccer, Aideen had to play with the boy's teams first as there were no girl's teams for her age group, but she said that if there were teams for young girls from U10s right up, it would get them interested in soccer from a young age and they wouldn't feel as if they have to prove themselves against the boys.

Aideen explained that there is a lack of women soccer players in Ireland and while they get a big following at matches when they play away, it wouldn't be in the public eye as much as male soccer matches.

She added that a women's soccer league in Ireland was only set up last year, while there has been one for years in England, where almost every major soccer club would have both male and female teams.

Aideen trains three times a week for over an hour for the soccer, but she also does boxing two nights a week, GAA twice a week and dancing to improve her flexibility - no day is unfilled in the O'Shea household.

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