Search icon

Movies & TV

12th Mar 2015

David Bentley: Gaelic Football is what soccer used to be

The former Tottenham winger was talking to Off The Ball this evening

Tony Cuddihy

The former Tottenham winger was talking to Off The Ball this evening.

The Toughest Trade premieres on TV3 at 10pm tonight, with David Bentley, Aaron Kernan and Jackie Tyrell all trying their hands at new sports.

Bentley lines out for Crossmaglen Rangers, while former hurler Tyrell plays baseball for Miami Marlins and Kernan joins up with Sunderland.

Speaking about his week with Crossmaglen, Bentley told the Newstalk show: “I’d seen little bits and bobs [of Gaelic football] when I was a kid, when the BBC had it on years ago but I didn’t know too much about it.

“It was a great experience. Things like that are exciting. Certain things you get offered are a bit standard and boring and this definitely wasn’t.”

The 30-year-old feels that Gaelic Football now has some of the qualities that soccer – which he famously fell out of love with – has lost as business interests have taken over.

“It’s an old-school way. Soccer, it’s the way it used to be with the commitment and family environment that they play within. It’s the whole community.”

LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Conor Sketches | Tiger Woods loves Ger Loughnane and cosplaying as Charles LeClerc