Stefan Okunbor’s rekindled passion sees him chasing more glory with Kerry

He comes bounding gently into the room and the first thing strikingly evident about Stefan Okunbor is his neat combination of size and athleticism. Not in any overburdened way, like some Gaelic footballers, and almost straight away gets me thinking he’d make a great 400-metre runner.

“What height are you?” I ask.

“About six-two, six-three, these Converse help though,” he says, pointing down to the thick midsole of his runners which would do a pair of Vaporfly proud.

A little later I ask did he play any other sports growing up in Tralee, suspecting that he surely did.

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“I played a lot of soccer as well, at right back, with [St Brendan’s] Park FC, up to age 16, 17, but you come to a crossroads, around that age, you have to choose one.

“We did some athletics at school, cross-county, sprinting, which was good. Builds resilience. Have you run cross-country yourself?”

Haven’t we all? A loss to Irish athletics and soccer perhaps, Okunbor is unquestionably to Kerry football’s gain, even if only now striving for it all over again.

For the most part, growing up in Kerry was amazing, and that’s why I was saying I was never painting the whole county, or whole nation I should say, with the same brush

We’re talking at the Sport Ireland Campus in Abbotstown on Thursday, and Okunbor makes for instantly open pleasant company. He’s here to lend his face to the Changing the Game campaign, Sport Ireland’s Diversity and Inclusion Policy, and Okunbor is eminently qualified in every sense.

He’s spoken before about the how Gaelic football helped in his inclusion into Irish society, beginning with the Na Gaeil club in Tralee, after his Nigerian-born father Mike and Moldovan-born mother Lidia moved there when he was aged just three, along with his sister Iren.

He’s spoken before too about how the diversity he helped create didn’t always sit well with everyone, even if there were only a few isolated incidents which stuck. Things are always advancing on that front, Okunbor later pointing to the glowing social medal response among his Nigerian friends after Israel Olatunde and Rhasidat Adeleke, both born in Ireland to Nigerian parents, went about their Irish-record breaking feats at the European Athletics Championships in Munich last month.

“That’s the new generation coming through, I love seeing it, how [Olatunde] claims Ireland, and he’s Irish, that’s great.

“For the most part, growing up in Kerry was amazing, and that’s why I was saying I was never painting the whole county, or whole nation I should say, with the same brush. Those were just the incidents that stuck, but the world is moving at such a fast pace, the new generation coming through, people are more open minded, have seen the world, and I’d be very, very shocked if that happens again in Gaelic football down in Kerry.

“Look, my club now have a few kids of colour, playing underage, that’s great to see. It was only myself, and one other mate, growing up, and no one really on the Kerry team.”

It’s six years now since Okunbor became one of the new faces of Kerry football, part of the 2016 All-Ireland minor winning team managed by Jack O’Connor, which included the likes of David Clifford, Seanie O’Shea, his Na Gaeil club mate Diarmuid O’Connor, Graham O’Sullivan and Dara Moynihan too.

Two years after that he was Munster Under-20 footballer of the year, Kerry losing their 2018 All-Ireland semi-final to Kildare by a point, and a few months later Okunbor was on a plane to Australia, after landing a contract with AFL club Geelong Cats.

Fast forward through three mostly injury-riddled years, he returned home at the start of last October, O’Connor freshly reinstalled as Kerry senior football manager, Okunbor’s stars perhaps realigning with Kerry’s now vicious appetite to win back the All-Ireland.

I had my comeback game for the club, got a concussion from the throw-in. So out for another small bit

Five days into the new year, Okunbor played the first half of Kerry’s McGrath Cup win over Limerick, marking his arrival back at Austin Stack Park with a fetching catch at midfield straight from the throw-in; it ended up being the only 35 minutes of county football he played in 2022.

Now aged 24, he effectively spent six months trying to get back, making the 26-man panel for Kerry’s All-Ireland win over Galway in July, just shy of getting back on to the field of play.

So how’s the body now, I ask him, and with that he begins rubbing his right hand over this left shoulder, as if checking in on the healing process which will ultimately decide when he returns.

“So I dislocated my shoulder in January (during Na Gaeil’s loss to Derry’s Steelstown Brian Ogs, in the All-Ireland Intermediate semi-final), got back from that and was able to play along for a little bit, just about.

“Then I had a calf strain, set me back about another month, then Achilles tendinitis, that set me back a bit, but it was the shoulder really, that was the main thing, that was niggling me all year. And I ended up in surgery, right after the All-Ireland final, so recovering from that.

“So for quite a long time, the last year, I was chasing arse really.”

At least I think that’s what he said. Okunbor speaks in the same sweet melodious tones of any Kerry footballer, prone to the occasional drop in key, his passion for the game evident the more he talks about it.

“Oh, jeez, it was turmoil,” he says of his lost season. “Got back from the shoulder, got back into the panel for the Cork game, the Munster championship, strained my calf in the warm-up, out for a month.

“I had my comeback game for the club, got a concussion from the throw-in. So out for another small bit. So eventually wriggled my way back on to the panel for the All-Ireland final. After that it was get the shoulder right, get the surgery. So it was just that half a game, against Limerick. That was it.”

The Wednesday after Kerry won the All-Ireland, he went under the knife at the Santry Sports Clinic (“took some bone graft, put that on top of it, two screws in, so a pretty big operation, but on the mend now”). On Friday night, his Na Gaeil club made their debut in the Kerry senior club championship, the youngest club in Kerry, against defending champions Austin Stacks, one of their three Tralee rivals along with Kerins O’Rahillys and John Mitchels.

Okunbor is clearly keen to play some part in that club campaign. Still, whatever about running cross-country in school, his three years in Australia gave him plenty of lessons in resilience. He won’t be rushing it either.

“I’m very blessed to be down in Kerry, a great environment, everyone is very supportive. I had the chat with Jack O’Connor, no pressure on that front.

“It was such a huge change coming back from a professional sport, in Australia, when that didn’t reality work out, that’s something you have to deal with internally. Then back to college, playing for your club, your regional team, and then county. I think I was lucky with the coaches I had for club and county, they understood it, help me deal with it.”

The boys just make you smile. It was a massive year for Kerry. I haven’t looked too far ahead, but I’ll do what I can

Still few regrets about his time in the AFL, especially not his choice of club: “With Geelong, an hour outside of Melbourne, it’s a one-club town, 250,000 population, whereas Melbourne has six clubs, and you’re just another number. I felt Geelong was quite similar to Kerry really, even Gaelic football in general, the sort of one county, one club.

“I did a trial just after my minor year, five or six clubs, didn’t get a contract that year, then second time round Geelong came back with a contract, and I took it with both hands.

“But out of three years, I’d say I spent a year-and-a-half to two years fully injured. Bad luck followed me. My first year, I played eight out of 27 games, second year I ruptured my Achilles tendon, I’d bad Osteitis pubis, inflammation of the pubic bone, that was intense.

“I came back from the Achilles after six months, then Covid hit, so at least I had all day, every day, to do my toes raises. So lots of low points, but highs as well, age 22, 23 it’s monumental in terms of how you grow as a person. I was very lucky to experience it. I wouldn’t change it, I’d still chose to go over there. It’s not for everyone, but for me growing as a person, it was invaluable.”

When asked what ultimately brought him home. he starts wrapping softly on the table, as if to emphasise each individual factor on its own.

“College ... homesickness ... injury ... having to start college all over again ... a lot of emotional time weighing all that up, so I just said I’d come home.

“There were definitely whispers about Jack O’Connor coming back too, I’ve seen eye-to-eye with Jack over the years, I think he’s very black and white, I respect that, so maybe subconsciously that may have been on the mind as well, but I was concentrated on coming home, seeing family and friends and getting my life back together, before playing football.”

He’s back in his final year at the University of Limerick, completing his degree in Bio-Medical Engineering, one of the questions about his Kerry comeback being where and not just when.

“Probably midfield, or centrefield,” pointing to his preferred position, before pointing to the support of his team-mates which ultimately saw him through those six months on the sideline.

“You’d walk into the dressing, and there’s no one you wouldn’t sit beside. I don’t know how other counties operate, but everyone is happy in each other’s company, which is very rare in a football team, really.

“The boys just make you smile. It was a massive year for Kerry. I haven’t looked too far ahead, but I’ll do what I can.”

No looking back either, especially not on the AFL.

“Nah, not at all. I might go back for a trip, a small holiday. But in terms of playing, the taste of winning an All-Ireland with Kerry was amazing, I definitely want another crack, have a bit more of an impact on the field.”

His neat combination of size and athleticism suggesting to me it could be anywhere on that field.