George O'Callaghan has had a more interesting career than most, aged only 35, the Corkman has togged out for 11 clubs, including three stints at Cork City FC and a spell in Brunei, as well as owning and running a sports agency.
His latest adventure, managing and coaching Malaysian Premier League (which is actually the second division) team Sabah, has come to an end. While most managers are sacked for a poor run of form, it would seem O'Callaghan was let go for going AWOL from coaching sessions, as well as doubts as to whether he was even qualified to coach.
Quoted in theemeraldexiles.com, Sabah CEO Datuk Seri Panglima TC Goh said:
After almost a week in which he did not look at the training sessions with the team, George O’Callaghan has been dismissed from the team.
In addition, management have also sacked Fazrul who also did not attend the training sessions in the same period.
This had come after it emerged that O'Callaghan was not qualified to coach the side despite also occupying the role, when questioned about this, he simply denied he was the coach to fourthofficial.com.
O'Callaghan recruited both Eamon Zayed and EL Hadji Diouf to the club and both will be left disappointed by his departure. Zayed particularly will feel let down, knowing the Corkonian from their League of Ireland days, Zayed would not have joined the club were it not for his presence as manager, speaking to The Mirror on joining, Zayed said;
I wasn’t aware he had taken over a team and I wasn’t sure whether to believe him when he got in touch.
But he sent me links to articles in the press over there to prove it was true and said he wanted a striker and said he believed in me as a player.
The last thing I had in my head was to be flying over to Malaysia to sign for a new team – I must be the most open-minded player in the league!
Aged only 35, we hope this isn't the last we hear of O'Callaghan, with Caleb Folan recently joining a club in Myanmar, he could yet have a future in Asian football obscurity.
