3 days Ago By Vincent Whelan
BRIAN Fenton stunned the GAA world on Monday evening when word of his impending inter-county retirement broke. The seven-time All-Ireland winner is still only 31 so it's very much a case of someone walking away in their prime . Combined with the recent exit of fellow midfield stalwart James McCarthy and suddenly Dublin have a huge playing and leadership void to fill in the middle of the park.
Here, SunSport delves into the Raheny man's life beyond the Gaelic football pitch: The 2018 and 2020 Footballer of the Year is 31 years of age. His birthday is March 2. The six-time All-Star works as a surgical sales executive for Uniphar Medtech.
He took up that role in 2017 having previously worked as a physio in Dublin's Beaumont Hospital. He'd done his undergrad in physiotherapy at University College Dublin between 2011-2015 before completing an MSc in Business Management between 2019-2021. He has been engaged to partner Katie Molloy since last December.
In an interview with Evoke , he explained how they met through work over Zoom during the Covid pandemic in 2020. He recalled: "We work in separate sections but with the same group. "The first time I saw Katie was on a Zoom call and it was during Covid, and I was like, who is that!" The Kildare woman then added: "You know what I love was that I didn't know what Brian was about.
"I didn't know Brian at all. I played football. "I never would have watched it.
.. It was only after that I realised.
" The midfield giant has been one of the rocks their dominance was built on over the last decade. But this news will be a major hit to Dublin’s hopes — and follows on from McCarthy’s decision to walk away, which he announced a fortnight ago. Fenton won seven All-Irelands with the Dubs and will go down as one of the greatest midfielders in Gaelic football history.
He was nominated for an All-Star this season but did not win a seventh gong at the recent gala event in the capital. But according to a report in The Irish Times , he will not be seeking to rectify that next year — instead finishing up with inter-county football..
