Katie Taylor will retire from boxing tonight when she takes on Flora Pili at Croke Park – but she also has 11 caps to her name in football
Katie Taylor in action for Ireland(Image: Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Donall Farmer)
Tony Poutch was minding his own business when a darting, diminutive figure caught his eye.
Several decades in football coaching had taught him a thing or two about talent. But even he was taken aback by what he saw on that evening 20 years ago. “I was on my way to look at a few boys playing,” said Poutch. “But on my way to the field, I passed these other kids, and one of the 10-year-olds stood out.
“This kid, she was buzzing all over the place and I stopped to look for a while, and I asked somebody who she was, and they said, ‘That’s Katie Taylor’. Poutch knew the Taylor family because he had coached Katie’s dad Peter to the Irish lightweight boxing title.
“I carried on anyway, and I had a look at the lads, and I forgot about Katie,” he added. “But I remember thinking to myself, ‘God, that kid’s very busy. Then about two years later, I got a phone call from her dad, and he said to me, ‘Tony, Katie’s 11 now, do you think you could get her a team to play for?’
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‘As it happened, I was coaching a team called Newtown Juniors with my two pals, Dave McGrogan and Hughie Nolan. I rang Hughie and told him about Katie and he nearly jumped off his tractor and ran down the field straightaway to sign her there and then because he had seen what she was like.”
Taylor the footballer sounds a lot like Taylor the boxer. “Katie kind of tore up the rule book because she was better than most of the boys,” Poutch said. “It seems to be in everything she does, she seems to find a way to win or get out of trouble. I used to say the best way to coach Katie, is don’t coach her, just give her the play and put her in there.
“She could read what was going on. Footballers go out there and play to instruction but if something out of the ordinary happened, Katie would find the solution herself, without you having to be shouting it at her. She was very easy to coach, she was a ferocious trainer, and has a ferocious will to win, irrespective of what the sport was.
“If you were playing tiddlywinks, she’d want to win. She was very strong and her football intelligence was very high. She was a natural, that’s the best way to describe her. The higher you put the bar, Katie would always reach that height. She had a great engine, she had great skill, and what she has between her ears, that never changes. No matter how much the game changes, or how good it gets, if you have that bit of football intelligence… she’d be a star today, there’s no doubt about it.”
As Taylor progressed in the club game, she began to attract attention on the international stage. She represented Ireland at Under-17 and Under-19 level, and was named International Player of the Year for the latter in 2004 It was inevitable she would go on to earn full honours. “I was there helping with a girls’ team and Tony brought her up training,” said former Ireland boss Noel King.
“She was just a normal kid. She was very competitive and very talented; I’ve said it many times that I felt that she would have made a career in football. She played wide, but I would say central or attack would have been her position and that’s really what she played as she got older. She could play in several positions.
“Her physicality and her touch were good. She was good for a challenge and she was good for a goal. She played against Italy and scored a goal from 30 yards, straight through the middle. That was an outstanding goal at the highest level of women’s football. She had what it took, there’s no question.”
Taylor went on to win 11 caps for her country, scoring two goals. But her parallel interests of boxing and football could not co-exist for ever. “She was never going to make a living in women’s football, they’re not going to make enough money to retire,” added Poutch. I remember at that time, we had a girl who went over to Arsenal, and she was playing but I think she was getting very small money and working in the laundry at the same time.
“She got to go to the Olympics in the boxing, and after that she’s made a life for herself.” Taylor admits her decision to focus on boxing was an easy one. But she has been sure not to forget her footballing roots. The beautiful thing about it is, the Katie we knew as a 12-year-old is still the Katie we know today,” said Poutch.
“She would come back to the club and play with the kids, and she’d just go about her business. She is a very, very humble girl. I asked her to do me a favour once; I wanted an autograph for a kid who needed a little boost. Katie didn’t give me the autograph, she made a video for the child and sent it to him. That’s the kind of person she is.
“Even now, if the local kids win something, Katie’s liable to send them a little video, saying well done and the kids are over the moon. She’s never forgotten what it took for her to get to where she was. She epitomises everything that’s good about sport; she’s Ireland’s darling.”