Tipperary's Jimmy Carr will fly the flag for Ireland at UEFA Regions Cup finals in Spain

On Monday next, June 5, St Michael’s long-serving player and captain Jimmy Carr will board a plane bound for Galicia in northern Spain.
The quiet spoken and unassuming Cappawhite man, will once again take his place with the 20-man Irish squad, chosen to play in the UEFA Regions Cup finals.
No stranger to representing his country, with 39 caps already, he has been a consistent member of Irish amateur squads since he made his debut in 2012, on his home pitch in Cooke Park against a Scottish selection.
Since then, he has donned the green jersey across Europe in Italy, Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria and Scotland. It has been a successful time, culminating in winning the Regions Final in 2015.
Eight years later, Jimmy is just one of two players still on the squad, sharing that accolade with goalkeeper Brendan O’Connell of Rockmount in Cork.
It has been quite a while since Jimmy turned up as a frail 11-year-old, at St Michael’s schoolboys in Tipperary town, but his talent was immediately recognised by the sage coaching staff at the famous footballing academy.
He starred as a young player right through the ranks from u12 to youths, and quickly on to the honour of playing with the junior team, starting in 2009.
Since then he has won every honour available to a junior footballer in Ireland, with two FAI Junior Cups, four Munster Junior Cups, three Munster Champions titles, eight TSDL Premier League winners medals and after last Saturday night’s win in Cahir, eight Tipperary Cups.
He was also a key member of the St Michael’s team that won the inaugural President of Ireland Cup against Northern Junior champions Enniskillen Rangers and the Tom Hand Cup against the national Intermediate champions Avondale United. Nationally he was the winner of the FAI Junior Player of the Year in 2014, and the Annerville soccer award in county Tipperary.
Despite his huge success, his appetite for the game shows no sign of waning. When one considers the thousands of players at junior and intermediate level playing across the country, making the squad for the upcoming European finals shows the esteem he is held in by the Irish coaching squad.
There is no doubt that his caps tally will increase over the next few weeks in what will be a gruelling tournament.
The Irish team has been drawn in a very tough group with Spain, Germany and Bosnia / Herzegovina, between June 9-14.
Hopefully they will still be there by the finals on Wednesday, June 14.
Everyone in Tipperary football will be wishing Jimmy the very best of luck on his travels in Spain, and are sure that he will be, as he always has been, a worthy ambassador for Tipperary and Ireland, and a true role model for any young player walking into a schoolboy or schoolgirl club across the local and national leagues.