Aberdeen midfielder Killian Phillips hopes his loan move with the Dons can help him lay the foundation for a successful career after walking off a building site at 17.
The Crystal Palace midfielder is on loan at Pittodrie until the summer and he is determined to make the most of his opportunity to carve out a career in the game.
Phillips, who is on international duty with the Republic of Ireland under-21 side, turned to football after a sobering realisation as a teenager that manual labour on a building site was not a career choice he wanted to make.
He said: “I hadn’t a clue to be honest. I would have been goosed.
“I had been on a building site for 40 minutes but I just walked off.
“It was rubbish, it wasn’t for me and I said I am not doing that.
“It was either football or nothing.
“I was playing Sunday League up until I was 17 and I never really played football seriously until I was 18.
“I managed to turn professional and if you look back it is nuts.
“A couple of the boys I knew were playing with Drogheda’s under-19s.
“They told their gaffer about me, I went there and signed.
“Within a year, I was in the first-team and then I had signed for Crystal Palace.”
Drogheda move put Phillips on the path to Palace
The 21-year-old played youth football at Kilbarrack United in Dublin before moving to the academy side at Drogheda United in 2021.
After breaking into the first team he was invited to London for a trial with Palace where he was offered a deal in 2022.
He said: “I was lucky I got into Drogheda and then a year later I moved on to Crystal Palace.
“I was just playing football with my mates because that is all I was caring about.
“I wasn’t worried about much else.
“Things worked out when I signed for Drogheda and then I moved on to Crystal Palace.
“It is mad how it has worked out.”
Midfielder’s gratitude to Eagles coach
Following his move to England, Phillips spent the second half of the 2022-23 season on loan at Shrewsbury Town. Despite only being at the club for half of the campaign he was named young player of the season for his efforts.
Shrewsbury boss Steve Cotterill was full of praise for the Irishman’s contribution.
He said: “He has been immense for us on the pitch. We wanted Killian in at the beginning of the season, we just could not get him out then.”
Having returned to Selhurst Park he signed a new contract with Palace in August and was sent on loan to Wycombe Wanderers before landing another loan move to the Dons in January.
Phillips is indebted to Eagles youth coach Paddy McCarthy for giving him the chance to move to the Premier League.
He said: “Paddy McCarthy was the one who came over. He is the under-21s boss at Crystal Palace.
“He came over, he is from Dublin as well. He was over watching matches, he saw me playing and the rest is history.
“I’m not sure if he was there to watch me but he ended up at one of the games and must have seen enough to want to sign me.”
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