By John Harrington

Shairoze Akram is a fine example of the theory that success is what happens when talent meets opportunity.

He’s about to graduate from DCU with a degree in Sports Science and then embark on a post-grad in Business and Entrepreneurship, the sports apparel company he runs with fellow Mayo footballers Tom Parsons and Cian Hanley is going from strength to strength, and the former All-Ireland U-21 winner is still determined to make the grade as a senior inter-county footballer.

The thread connecting all three spheres of his life is gaelic football, which is remarkable really considering he was a late convert he was to it.

His family moved to Ireland from Pakistan when he was four years old and settled in Ballaghaderreen in Mayo, but it wasn’t until he was 11 that he started playing Gaelic Football properly.

It was Andy Noran who first steered him down the path when he started taking him for PE classes in primary school and then encouraged him to get involved with Ballaghaderreen GAA club.

Other mentors there like Paul McHugh and Dessie Lynch could also see what Moran had spotted – Shairoze was a diamond in the rough.

Thanks to their help and patience he eventually shone, but he admits himself it was a frustrating process at times.

“I struggled a bit at the start, to be honest,” Akram told GAA.ie “I just couldn't grasp the rules of getting the toe under the ball, I just kept picking it off the ground.

“I was just so used to soccer and was basing my approach on soccer. When the ball was on the ground I was picking it up or just playing it like it was soccer.

“The guys were great with helping me out with the rules and the skills of the game at training sessions. They really helped get me up to speed.

“They would have spent loads of time helping me develop even though I wouldn't initially have had the same skill-set the other guys would have had.

“When we had 16 or 17 players I would have been one of the only two subs for the first year and a half until I improved and got to know the rules. The rules were the big thing because for a while I was just giving away free after free after free.

“Once I got used to them I got more and more game-time and just developed over time. My team-mates would have been a big help too. Cian Hanley, especially, would have helped me out a lot when it came to developing my skills.”

No-one was more influential than Andy Moran, though, in terms of helping Shairoze fulfil his potential.

The former Footballer of the Year went out of his way to mentor his fellow club-man, something that Shairoze is hugely appreciative of.

“Andy worked on everything with me,” says Akram. “Skill, physio, fitness sessions. Anything and everything. He was on the phone if I ever needed any advice. He worked on my skills, brought me over and back to physio. He'd help out with gear, even. He did an awful lot for me.

“I wouldn't have known much about Andy at the start because I didn't really follow county football until 2012. Before that I didn't really watch it at all and I wouldn't have known how big of a deal Andy was or what calibre of player he was.

“I would have just seen him as a guy who was teaching me the skills and rules of the game. It was only when I started playing myself at county level and started watching inter-county games that I got to realise how good a player he was.

“I'm really grateful to have had a mentor like him. I've learned so much off him and I'm still learning from him.”

Shairoze quickly proved himself to be a natural and went from strength to strength as a Gaelic Footballer, but for a long time he simply regarded it as a social outlet rather than his main sporting one.

Andy Moran kept fanning the flame though, and it was his persistence that ultimately persuaded Shairoze to really start taking the sport seriously.

“He pushed me to go for county trials and then to go for the minor trials as well,” says Akram.

“I would have been big into the soccer, I preferred playing soccer. I was mainly playing Gaelic Football just for the social aspect because my friends were playing it.

“Everyone around the town was playing it and would be talking about the games and training in school, so that was the main reason I was playing it, to be involved with my friends.

“But soccer was definitely my passion, I loved it, I played with a Mayo representative team and played with Sligo Rovers and a couple of other clubs as well up to the age of 15/16, and that's when GAA took over.

“Andy and the other guys in the club like Paul McHugh, Dessie Lynch, Declan Dunne, encouraged me to go for the county trials.

“So I went for them and made the Mayo U-16 team and was actually vice-captain, and we ended up winning a Connacht title. It was the same for minor, Andy pushed me big-time. At that stage GAA took over and soccer started taking a back seat.”

Akram flourished in the hot-house environment of underage inter-county football.

It wasn’t just the opportunity to improve by mixing with the best footballers in the county. The realisation of what Gaelic Football meant to the wider community was another Eureka moment that fanned the growing flames of his passion for hte sport.

“Initially I didn't get the big deal of playing for Mayo,” he says. “But once I got involved and saw how much it meant to the club and the local people around the town that you're representing the club at county level, and once I got to play, you realise what it's all about.

“You're priveleged to get to pull on the Mayo jersey and get to represent your county and your club. My first year at minor was a real eye-opener. We played the Connacht Final at home in MacHale Park before the senior game and there was a huge crowd there.

“There was a load of people there from the town and they're cheering you on and so proud of what you've done after winning the Connacht title and talking to your parents and family. It was a lot to take in and you realise that you're part of Mayo not just your club.”

By now Akram was focused on becoming the best Gaelic Footballer he could be, and the next important step in that journey was taken when he qualified for a degree in Sports Science in DCU after his Leaving Cert.

“I actually chose my course so I could get up to DCU and be involved in the football side of stuff,” he admits.

“Listening to people who had gone up, they had won the Sigerson a year or two before it, and I wanted to learn from the best around the country.

“Michael Kennedy the Games Developement Officer in DCU at the time was brilliant and supported me in every way.

“He was there to help me through college as well as football and give me all the support I needed.

“Once I was playing a club game and I had been racially abused and Michael took me aside and said if that ever happens up here you let us know and no way will we continue on with the game.

“He provided support in all aspects from getting me sorted with accommodation, helping me with my football, getting any injuries I had looked after.

“I also had great support from Enda Fitzpatrick who was Head of Athletics and Dr. Niall Moyna who was my lecturer and also my Sigerson Cup manager for three years.

“I think DCU was a critical part of my development from getting from minor to U-21. The team we had of Freshers and then in Sigerson was all inter-county players and brought me on in leaps and bounds.”

Akram was now such a prodigious talent that he was drafted straight into the Mayo U-21 team in his first year out of the minor grade in 2016.

He was a key member of the team that defeated Cork in the All-Ireland Final that year, an achievement that still means an awful lot to him.

“It's one of my greatest memories. You have people coming celebrating with you and you can see it means everything to them which is the best part too because as a player you just go out and play the game.

“I know it's an All-Ireland Final and it does mean a lot more but going into the game you're not really focused on that. And then the crowd was a huge, especially for an underage game, it was something special.

“Mayo fans are a special bunch, and you could see just how much it meant to everyone. We had lost a few senior All-Irelands and you could see how much it meant to the whole GAA community the way they greeted us at the homecoming.

“They were scenes I'll never forget, they'll live with me forever.

“It was the first time my parents would have probably realised how much it meant to people and how much it meant to the local community.

“My father was working in Castlerea in Lidl and people would be coming up to him and congratulating him while he was working and stuff. People who wouldn't even have known him, but they'd have known he was my father. So I think it was nice for him too.”

The 2016 U-21 All-Ireland Final win opened up an unexpected door into business for Akram.

His success as a sportsman in Ireland made the news back in Pakistan, and prompted business-people there to get in touch with him to see if he would be interested in selling sports equipment they could produce that would be suitable for the Irish market.

Their bona fides checked out, so, while still a college student, Akram set up ‘Game Ready Gear’ with the help of Cian Hanley and Tom Parsons and in the space of just two years their sports apparel company has gone from strength to strength.

“At first I was questioning it and wondering what would guys in Pakistan know about producing GAA gloves and gear, but then I saw the quality of it and found out that a lot of that sort of stuff is made out there,” says Akram.

“We started off with just gloves then we expanded it to socks and shorts and then a full range of gear for a variety of sports.

“It was slow developing at the start but then I visited Pakistan and we've a good relationship with the supplier and then we got suppliers in China as well. We've actually grown quite a bit over the last two years.

“We expected it to be something small on the side but it's grown a lot more than we thought it would, to be honest, which is a great complaint to have.

“It seems to be growing and growing. The more we get our brand out there the more people get to know our stuff and get to know us.”

Between his studies, burgeoning business, and Gaelic Football with club and county, Akram was being pulled in a lot of different directions.

It got to the stage where he needed to give himself a breather, which is why he dropped off the Mayo senior football panel last year.

“At times it can be hectic,” he says. “There's no days off, you're going from one thing to the other. Last year I had too much going on at one stage between College, the business, football, and stuff going on at home.

“I had a chat with James Horan to fill him in on what was happening and I left the panel at that stage after the Roscommon game.

“It was just too hectic. I was putting in crazy hours over a three year period between College, GRG and inter-county, club and Sigerson football and I just needed a bit of a break to clear the head.

“But I enjoy it all. I enjoy the business side of things, I enjoy college, and I enjoy the football too. You wouldn't put yourself through it if you didn't enjoy it.

“Hopefully I can have a good year with the club and get involved with the county again next year if I've a good enough year.

“I'd love to be back involved with Mayo to see if I'd be good enough for it and able to play at that elite level.”

Shairoze was a late convert to Gaelic Football, but now he can’t imagine his life without it.

It has brought opportunities, and he’s had the natural talent to make the most of them.

“Without the GAA I definitely wouldn't have gone to DCU to do Sports Science and I wouldn't be involved Game Ready Gear.

“So I think a lot of things have come from Gaelic Football, really, it's played a huge part of my life.

“Most importantly of all, maybe, I've made so many friends and contacts because of GAA throughout the county and country.

“I'll have those forever.”