Training with Michael Conlan, looking for work during a winter World Cup and going viral thanks to Victoria Beckham – life as a free agent has certainly been interesting for Ryan McLaughlin.

McLaughlin moved to Liverpool aged 16, but the Northern Irish defender left Anfield in 2016 and played for Oldham Athletic, Blackpool, Rochdale and the Shrimps.

After the league and Ligue 1 stints, McLaughlin says there is a « difficult » problem in the (Site notre bureau spécialisé) adapter.

« I thought I could do a few months, like a summer break, but after a few weeks you can’t wait to recommend, » he said.

« September to January is a good four to five months of your career, and it’s a short career, so sometimes you ask, ‘should I have done that?’

“But, I look at myself. I’m 28, I still have five or six good years ahead of me.

“I still have ambitions, I want to try different things, I want to play overseas, I want to win things in different leagues and I want to be part of the Northern Ireland team. »

Keep the routine

McLaughlin, who won the last of his five caps for Northern Ireland in 2018, says trying to maintain the routine of club (Site notre bureau spécialisé) was key to staying fit during his time as a free agent.

He trained with teams of friends in his hometown of Belfast and tried to stick to the two-a-day routine in a bid to stay sharp.

“Losing the routine is a big pick and I tried to keep that going by getting up until morning and working out.

“Sometimes training alone can be difficult. I haven’t experienced anything different than being in a club.

“I try to keep it as normal as possible. I have the same days off that I would have in (Site notre bureau spécialisé), and I keep this routine, so when I get back to it in January, it won’t be a big change.

“You have to see the big picture and the light at the end of the tunnel, and my goal is to play in January.

« That’s what I think about every race I do, it’s extra motivation. »

McLaughlin said he had offers from England, Scotland, the League of Ireland and the United States, but he « has to weigh it all up ».

He adds « it’s probably the craziest time to be a free agent » thanks to the winter World Cup, and he’s deciding his future over the holiday season.

« I’m not ruling anything out. I watch everything,” he added.

“(Site notre blog d’information) is the main thing and it’s what dresses you. There are a number of things that need to be fixed.

“It has to make sense financially and the length of the contract has to be adequate – you also have to be secure, at the end of the day.”

Conlan ‘opens his eyes’ and TikTok notoriety

McLaughlin is a boxing fanatic and became friends with elite boxer Michael Conlan, and he was invited to the 31-year-old’s training camp for 10 days ahead of the December fight with Karim Guerfi.

He said Belfast featherweight Conlan « is probably the fittest person I’ve ever seen » and could run long distances at the Olympics.

« I was telling him that with the Liverpool first team, we hadn’t done that hard.

“It opened my eyes, but see in the end, I felt so much better.

“I loved it, even though it was hard and mentally took you places you had never been before. »

McLaughlin went viral in November after tweeting that he was the only person Victoria Beckham followed on TikTok.

He joked it was ‘no coincidence’ as he went by the name ‘Becks’ during his time at Rochdale, after a ‘wind-up’ with a team-mate about being concerned – or not being concerned – at David Beckham.

“They saw my crossing and realized it was definitely not David Beckham. Nobody calls me that now, I’m mad,” he said with a huge smile on his face.

« I was lying in bed one night, I had a course and I got a notification. It was a blue tick and I was like, ‘It’s not Victoria Beckham, sure?’

“I went there and it was. She must have scrolled and thought, “That’s my husband, David. I will follow him”.

“I posted it on Twitter and she unfollowed me about a day later. I was drained. »