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When David Joyce took the field in Istanbul on 1st July 2017 he joined a select band of Tipperary men to represent their country at a major European final. It marked the height of a remarkable journey for David from playing Schoolboy soccer for his club to playing international football for Ireland at the UEFA Regions Cup Final in Turkey last July. The baking heat of Istanbul last July was in sharp contrast to the cold and wet of winter training in Elm Park that David would have been accustomed to when he started out on his soccer journey. From a very early age his style of play was characterised by energy, commitment and a never say die attitude. Apart from his abundant range of skills the loyalty he has shown his club since he started is unique in both amateur and professional sport. He played all his Schoolboy soccer with St Olivers (a constituent of Clonmel Celtic) before progressing to Clonmel Celtic Juniors. Despite many offers and opportunities to move to other clubs and the attraction of instant success he choose to remain with Celtic and he was duly rewarded as Clonmel Celtic enjoyed a successful period between 2009 and 2015. David was instrumental during these years that saw Celtic win two TSDL Premier Leagues, three Tipperary Cups and a Munster Champions League. During this period the club also enjoyed provincial and national success reaching the Munster Junior Cup final in 2012 and the FAI Junior Cup semi final in 2013 and 2015. Probably the highlight for David during this period was scoring the only goal of the game away to St Michaels in May 2015 that clinched Celtic their second Premier League title in three years. A measure of David’s huge influence is that last year Celtic won 87% of games he played and this figure dropped to 20% when he missed games through injury. In May 2015 David was called up for provincial trials and not too long after he played for Munster in their 1-0 victory against Leinster. The prize for this victory was that Munster would represent Ireland in the UEFA Regions Cup qualifiers that took place in Italy in September 2016. A few weeks prior to this game David won his first international cap in a warm up game against Northern Ireland. David then played in every game in the UEFA Regions qualifiers that saw Ireland come through a group that contained teams from Italy, Macedonia and Slovenia unbeaten to become one of only eight teams to qualify for the UEFA Regions Final. David was part of the Irish squad that travelled to Turkey and once again they came though a group of teams from Russia, Spain and the Czech Republic without a loss to qualify for the final where unfortunately they just lost out 1-0 to Croatia. From Elm Park to Isanbul it has been a remarkable journey for the popular Clonmel man.
Last night at the Annerville Sports Award the wider Tipperary Sports community recognised David Joyce's acheivement when he was presented with his award by Tipperary United Sports Panel Chairman, Muiris Walsh (pictured).