Bred A Blue: Episode 29. Sean O'Hanlon

Our latest Bred a Blue podcast guest is the answer to a great quiz question! Who is the only player to have been a teammate of Paul Gascoigne, Wayne Rooney and Jordan Pickford? Top marks if you went for former Everton reserves centre-half Sean O’Hanlon. Known throughout football as ‘Chief’, O’Hanlon never quite made the breakthrough at Everton after joining as a 10-year-old, but he did share a dressing room with Gazza and Rooney along the way. Indeed, he was Rooney’s roommate when the 16-year-old ‘Boy Wonder’ embarked on his first ever senior pre-season trip in 2002. After gaining some loan experience at Swindon Town, O’Hanlon decided to make the break from Everton in 2004 – realising that it was going to too tough to oust Alan Stubbs, David Weir, Joseph Yobo, David Unsworth or Peter Clarke from the central defensive berths. From Swindon he moved to MK Dons, for whom he scored at Wembley in the EFL Trophy final, then north of the border to Hibernian, before seeing out his playing days with Carlisle United and Stockport County. It was at Carlisle that O’Hanlon played in front of a teenage goalkeeper on-loan from Sunderland. "You could see even then that Jordan [Pickford] was heading for the top," O'Hanlon said. The former Blue hung his boots up in 2016 and then four years later, his young son became an internet sensation when, during the Covid lockdown, he recreated many famous goals in his back garden! The little fellow attracted the attention of the world’s media and O’Hanlon senior found himself conducting radio interviews for stations in Brazil, Italy and many more besides!