He shares a birthday with former team-mate Evan Ferguson – and the aim for Gavin Molloy is to, eventually, follow his friend into a cross-channel career.
But his focus, now that he has taken a year out from his college commitments, is on making sure that Shelbourne can compete with the best, as a bruised Shamrock Rovers cross the Liffey to face the Reds in Tolka Park tonight.
“We showed last season we can battle it out with the champions and we’ll do that again, show the same fight and not make it easy” he says.
The derby is another important date in what’s been a big week for Molloy: for Monday’s game away to Dundalk, Shels’ boss Damien Duff opted to trust Molloy with the captain’s armband, a vote of confidence in a 21-year-old – and a big deal for the family, as his recently deceased grandfather, Theo Dunne, also skippered the club.
“Luke Byrne is the club captain but he was rested on Monday, so I got the nod. It was a huge honour, to get picked to captain a massive club at the age of 21,” says Molloy.
“But even more so, as my grandad was Shels captain back in the 1960s – it was huge for me and my family.
“I know he was proud to see me play for Shels last year, but he would have been so thrilled to see me wear the armband like he did.
“Sadly, he didn’t get to see that as we lost my grandad a few weeks go, but he was in my thoughts – and I hope it made the family proud.”
Duff does not make many bad decisions and giving the captaincy, even on a short-term basis, to a player in just his second season of first-team football was a sign of the manager’s faith in the youngster who, since his full league debut in Sligo last summer has started 19 of their 20 league games.
“The manager trusts the young players, if you are good enough he will pick you,” says Molloy (left).
His path to the Shels side came via spells with the academies at Drogheda United and Bohemians, where he first encountered Ferguson.
“Me and Evan played together for Bohs U-19s, we roomed with each other when we were in Greece for the UEFA Youth League game.
“We even have the same birthday,” Molloy says.
“You could see even then that he was special. His technical ability was second to none – he had the strength, even at 14, to play against older players. We knew Evan would get to the top.”
While Ferguson makes the most of his opportunities in the Premier League and the Ireland squad, Molloy has been overlooked, uncapped at any level and with just one cross-channel trial (Stevenage).
“Playing abroad is the end goal, this is a great league here but if you do want to go on in the game, play for Ireland, you want to play against the best,” he says, with unfinished business at Shels to attend to.
“We should have more than four points, we need to see out the game, defend better.
“We’ve conceded too many late goals and we need to fix that.”