Grady McDonnell Interview

The sun was beaming down as I drove across the 25 Ponte de Abril bridge to Amora, Portugal. I was looking forward to watching the U-16 teams of Ireland and Portugal play in the UEFA Development Tournament.

By the time I arrived, both sets of teams had begun warming up. As I sat down, I started surveying the players. There was one player I was specifically looking forward to watching: the CPL’s youngest signing and Republic of Ireland youth international, Grady McDonnell.

A former Vancouver Whitecaps academy player, Grady has represented both Canada and Ireland’s youth National Teams, and his most impressive accomplishment to date, getting signed by Vancouver Football Club at the young age of 15.

Undoubtedly, one of the most exciting stories to come out of the CPL this season, I have been fascinated by Grady and his story from the moment he was announced to the VFC roster.

Since I currently live here in Lisbon, you can imagine how thrilled I was to hear he would be representing Ireland in the UEFA development tournament held in Portugal. I thought what an amazing opportunity to highlight his story for my podcast/YouTube show “Soccer Stories.” 

Grady was awesome to interview, and was very open and friendly! I loved getting into his journey and understanding the “person” behind the player.

A huge thank you to Grady and Vancouver FC for setting this up this interview!

In His Own Words

When you watch Grady you quickly notice that he is a special player, speaking to him you are struck by his mindset.

During our conversation, I asked him “why” he feels he has been able to excel in the beautiful game at such a young age? His answer: hard work and consistency.

In his words, prior to Covid, he felt he was, “… more of a mediocre player…” but during the Covid year he decided to take the sport seriously. Things started to change shortly after that.

Putting in the extra work, he started seeing all his efforts come to fruition. He became a pro in a matter of a few years – a true testament to the power of hard work, dedication, and persistence.

Kobe Bryant said:

“If you want to be a great player and you play every single day, 2 or 3 hours.  Over the course of a year, how much better are you getting? Most kids will play, maybe, an hour and a half two days a week? Do the math on that. That’s not gonna get it done. So if you’re obsessively training 2 or 3 hours every single day over a year. Over two years. You make quantum leaps.”

And, I feel like that’s what Grady was describing. A switch flipped, he put in the extra work, and now as Kobe described, he has made quantum leaps.

Key Elements

So what did Grady do to achieve that type of transformation?

Grady says the process included lots of work on his technical skills and ball mastery. He said improving those parts of his game was key. He mentioned how he had specific days to work on various aspects of his game. He never had to waste time thinking about what to do, he was very systemized.

He also did a lot of tiny things to optimize his performance.

An example is when he did his assessments with the youth Irish National team. I became curious and wanted to know what goes through his head in trials and situations like that. How does he make sure he stays focused and achieves optimal performance? 

He said, “I feel like, a lot of it has to do with the preparation before actually training, like sleep, food, and then work hard. Do, what you can control. Work very hard, and be polite, and I think that maximizes your chances of getting selected.”

I loved his take on my question and thought it was a fresh, insightful answer. As I said above, it’s not just his practice that he optimizes, it’s his lifestyle.

VFC and Grady's Play Style

After that, we moved on to talking about how his time with VFC.

Grady says, “Getting his pro debut was a dream…” and that he feels like he has been improving and developing so much from the training.

I asked him, “What is the biggest surprise coming into the pro game?” Grady highlighted how he has had to get used to playing bigger, faster, and stronger players but the biggest difference has been the speed of play, “You just have to make sure you are always turned on,” he says. 

We also got into his play style. From watching him, words that come to mind are:

• Intensity 
• Tenacity
• Great at turning and going forward
• Sharp passer 
• Makes lots of dangerous and intelligent runs forward (reminding me of a modern 8.5)

From what I’ve seen, Grady’s looking like he’s adapting well to the speed of play and I can see him becoming a very important cog in Vancouver’s midfield in the future. In fact, Grady just recently got his first start for VFC against York United.

Advice for Young Players

Finally, I ended the interview by asking if he had any advice for young players who want to take their game to the next level.

Since I have asked every pro player I have interviewed this question, and because Grady is so young and has made it to the professional game already, and achieved so much, I was looking forward to hearing his answer for youth players. Grady’s advice:

“Keep your head down, keep working, and do the extra work. It helps a lot.”

I think Grady gave so much valuable advice in the interview, and if you are a young player, there is a lot you can take away from Grady’s journey, and what he’s shared.

In Conclusion

I believe VFC has struck gold with Grady McDonnell.

When Grady signed with the club, Rob Friend, President of Vancouver Football Club iterated that he believed Grady to be the top young talent in the country.

And one thing I particularly love about the CPL, and VFC specifically, is that they are taking chances on young players and giving them amazing opportunities to grow as people and players.

Grady is the epitome of a dedicated athlete and I’m excited to see what he achieves in the future. A player to keep your eye on, his potential is sky-high.