Footballer Alan Power talks about growing up with Conor McGregor in Crumlin
This afternoon Alan Power will take part in the biggest game of his footballing career as Lincoln City travel to Premier League opponents Burnley, .
The club’s longest serving player has played over 200 league games in six years with the Imps, but his biggest moment was surely his equaliser in last month’s FA Cup fourth round tie against Brighton.
His penalty paved the way for Lincoln’s 3-1 victory, following a 1-0 replay upset over Ipswich Town, which saw them progress, alongside Sutton United, as a rare non-league team to reach the fifth round.
Power’s celebration spread all over the internet, too, as he imitated fellow Crumlin-native Conor McGregor’s ‘billionaire strut’ at Sincil Bank.
Power told The Telegraph that a teammate told him beforehand that he should do the celebration if he scored from the spot: “We’d been talking about it for a while because we follow UFC and Conor really closely as a team.
“We used to knock around in the same circle of friends back home when we were growing up. He played Sunday League football where I did, actually he wasn’t a bad footballer, but he chose a different path.
“I’ve not spoken to him in years, he’s a superstar now. The last time I spoke to him he was cage fighting in Dublin and wasn’t too sure if he was going to continue with it, but he’s a phenomenon. When he went over to America to fight in the UFC, we lost touch, but everyone who knew him then, we’re so proud of everything he has achieved.
“The celebration was just my way of paying a little tribute. There has been a lot of hype surrounding it since but I’ve not heard from him. I know BT Sport tried to contact him on Twitter, but I doubt he even looked at it.
“He’s a busy man, he’s got bigger things to worry about than a footballer he used to know from Lincoln, but I hope he’s seen it.”
