BY MATTHEW WILSON
DONEGAL’s Jack Keaney is enjoying the American experience as he settles into life at his new club, Corpus Christi FC in Texas.
Keaney enjoyed a successful stint in the League of Ireland, lining out for Sligo Rovers and UCD before a move to Drogheda United where he won the FAI Cup in 2024.
He made the switch to NIFL Premiership side Cliftonville FC in January of last year, scoring 10 times in his 47 appearances at the Belfast based club.
But at the start of the year, the Donegal Town man went in pursuit of a journey in America as he put pen to paper at Texas USL expansion club Corpus Christi FC.
It’s always been a goal of Keaney’s to apply his trade in the United States and he’s enjoying his time since his move in January.
“I’ve loved it. Moving to the States is something that I’ve tried to do over the last three or four years and it worked out perfectly.
“I had it in my contract that I could leave if an American club came in January and it all worked out.
“There’s been ups and downs like a lot of the things off the field because it’s a first-year club, just getting used to all of that and getting used to the heat.
“Thankfully over the last month we’ve kicked into form, we’re five points off the play-offs so we’re trending in the right direction and hopefully we can have a big end to the season.”
Keaney joined the Sligo Rovers Academy in 2016, having come through the underage setup at Donegal Town FC, and he went on to commence his senior career at the Bit O’Red.
Since then he played his entire career on the island of Ireland through his spells at UCD, Drogheda United and Cliftonville.
With contrasting environments and climate, the switch to life in the United States was going to take time to adapt to for the Donegal man.
Speaking to the Donegal News, Keaney expressed that the most noticeable difference to his sporting life is the travelling time for away fixtures.
“Yeah, I think travel is the biggest thing. In Ireland, you’re normally going on the same day but here we play on Saturday’s and we might go on Thursdays depending on where we are.
“It’s about getting used to the away games especially, a lot of teams are good at home here and struggle away. We’ve probably had that effect, with a lot of new players getting used to the league.
“Our first six games were away from home and that probably helped us to know what you need to do on the road to pick up points. Getting used to that has probably been the biggest difference to what it was like in Ireland.”
The first-team manager of Corpus Christi FC is Éamon Zayed, a League of Ireland winner with Drogheda United in 2007 and an FAI Cup winner with Sporting Fingal in 2009.
He had a prestigious career in the League of Ireland which also saw him named the PFAI Player of the Year in 2011 while lining out for Derry City.
Keaney has been in contact with Zayed in recent years and expressed that he was a big factor behind his decision to move to the Texas club.
“Yeah, of course, I’ve chatted to Éamon for the last three or four years about trying to get over. He didn’t have a club last year and once this came up I was always keeping in contact.
“That was probably the main decision in coming here over a few other clubs. You know that they’ll look after you and that was the main thing for me when you’re moving to a country, knowing someone you can trust.
“Éamon’s been brilliant, he’s had a great career over here as well. He knows the league inside out so he knows what it takes to win over here and that’s shown recently with a few good results.”
Corpus Christi FC are currently positioned 12th place in the USL League One standings at the halfway stage in their campaign.
The top eight at the end of the regular season enter the USL League One Play-Offs, with Keaney and his side sitting five points adrift of eighth place as of now.
The Donegal Town man has enjoyed a fine run at the heart of defence in the team and has also received the vice-captaincy role by his manager.
They’re next in action on Saturday night when they make the trip to The Big Apple for a meeting with the New York Cosmos.
They’ll be aiming to build on their win over Chattanooga Red Wolves last time out and Keaney is hopeful that they can continue the form that they’ve found.
“We probably have a smaller squad than most teams here with the budget so I’ve loved being in the team.
“Eamon’s given me the vice-captaincy role which has been brilliant. He puts a lot of pressure on myself and Paddy (Langlois) to get things sorted on the pitch.
“I’ve had that role before in other teams so it’s just about using my bit of experience along with the other lads I’ve spoken about to drive the team.
“I think that’s been really key over the last few weeks, putting the team first. I think when we do that then we’re a match for any team in the league. Hopefully we can keep it up now until the end of the season and make the play-offs.”