The Mayo connection to this year’s Champions League final
by Caoimhín Rowland
Watching the World Cup winner Lautaro Martinez squeeze the ball inside the near post of AC Milan’s net to secure Inter's place in Istanbul for the Champions League final against Manchester City brought Internazionale fans the world over to their knees.
Becoming the first Italian team in football's most glamorous tie since Juventus, and they could be the first to win “ol’ big ears” since Inter themselves did so in 2010.
Serie A has been a poor relation to the bloated Premier League, Spanish La Liga and German Bundesliga of late, but that looks to have changed.
Napoli reclaimed the footballing zeitgeist the world over with their league win this year, Jose Mourinho’s career rehabilitation at AS Roma is going swimmingly as he has another European final against Sevilla next month and even Fiorentina booked a date with West Ham in Prague in the Conference League Final.
A hat-trick of finalists for Serie A, a remarkable achievement. “Calcio Italia” is regaining a semblance of its 20th-century glory.
While at Inter superstars such as Belgian Romelu Lukaku, Bosnian striker Edin Dzeko and Cameroonian keeper André Onana are all a mainstay in Simone Inzaghi’s side.
A global assortment in their starting XI is a testament to a club founded on a dispute with city rivals AC Milan over the number of international players allowed to play, thus birthing Internazionale.
Dubliner Robbie Keane of course wore the famous black and blue strip as well as former Shamrock Rovers wonderkid Kevin Zefi, who currently ply’s his trade in Inters youth set-up.
I suspect few however would know the strong connection Ballina has to the underdogs set to face Pep Guardiola’s treble-searching juggernaut in the Ataturk Arena on June 10.
The story was unearthed by the talented team at the North Mayo Heritage Centre.
Derek O’Flaherty spoke to me about a Mayo man who managed Inter to a league win and brought Turkey to their first-ever international tournament at the behest of the father of Turkey, Kamal Ataturk.
Jim Donnelly was born on Clare Street, Ballina in the 1890s, along the banks of the famed salmon fishing river.
He joined the British army to fight in the First World War and was spotted excelling in Barracks games.
A modest post-war playing career followed when he lined out for Accrington Stanley and Blackburn Rovers amongst others, but his coaching career far outstrips his playing time.
He is believed to have begun with a stint in the Netherlands cutting his teeth with Amsterdamsche (now a third-tier Dutch side) then rocking up in Croatia, taking the helm of Gradjanski Zagreb, now known as Dinamo Zagreb, the most successful team in the Balkan state's history.
I once met famed football writer and historian Jonathan Wilson in Dublin and asked him about Jim Donnelly.
He told me there are records of his successor in Zagreb calling Donnelly “a coach who pretended to know the revered 4-2-4 formation but evidently didn’t."
Records do show that under Donnelly, Gradjanski Zagreb suffered a humiliating season and that successor, Marton Bukovi, went on to coach the ‘Mighty Magyars’ and fine-tune the 4-2-4 formation that famously humbled the English, 6-3 in Wembley.
Our hero Donnelly, still hungry for wanderlust, sees him make the switch to Istanbul, just at the time Ataturk was building the Turkish state after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
While in Turkey, the records are predictably hazy. We know he won the league title with the now-disbanded Gunes SK, a breakaway side formed from Galatasaray.
This achievement seemed to have caught the eye of the aforementioned Ataturk, whom it is believed asked Ballina-born Jim Donnelly to manage the national side to their first-ever international tournament, the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, a controversial event where Jesse Owens stole the show and Adolf Hitler showcased the strength of what we now call “sportswashing.”
Turkey didn’t get up to much under Donnelly’s guidance and a disappointing first-round exit to eventual third-placed Norway saw him depart the Bering Strait for the city of Milan.
As fascism crept over Europe, Italy found itself no stranger to dictatorial regimes during the 1930s.
Under the rule of Benito Mussolini, Internazionale faced unenviable strife, a club founded on an internationalist ethos, was forced to change its name to “Ambrosiana” after St. Ambrose, the patron saint of Milan.
There was an embargo placed on foreign players at Inter, therefore Donnelly’s name is not put down as the manager of the side, he’s pencilled in as an assistant, scout or consultant.
During his time there, however, Inter won the league title. No surprise as the side comprised of striker Giuseppe Meazza, an Inter legend whose name bears the San Siro whenever they play at home.
In an interview with an Italian publication, Donnelly spoke about his expressive style of play and his footballing philosophy of using all 11 players, including full-backs while in attack.
Something contemporary managers like Pep Guardiola would certainly align with.
While this year's Champions League has noticeably not had that typical oomph of capturing football fans' imagination, perhaps due to stalwarts such as FC Barcelona and Juventus exiting early, Ronaldo opting for Saudi Arabia or the 100 or more counts of cheating by Manchester City who will contest this year’s final.
It might help the tournament recapture its former glory for you dear reader to think of a son of Ballina, Jim Donnelly, whose former club Inter will take to the field in the Ataturk Arena against Manchester City.
For behind I Nerazzuri (The Black and Blue) amongst the annals of history, there’s a streak of green and red.