Declan Gallagher’s journey from prison to European Championship

Declan Gallagher was a young footballer back in 2013 with an insane amount of opportunities in Scottish football ahead of him back in 2013, but one night outside a Lanarkshire hotel, his life completely changed, he was charged in involvement in a severe assault that brought him a three-year jail sentence in 2015.

Gallagher spent the next 11 months behind the bars, which completely changed him. He said that this incident opened his eyes to a second chance in football and made him want to succeed more. Not just for him and his family and all the hate that they had to go through at that time.

Gallagher moved to an open prison towards the end of his term in jail and started training with Raith Rovers for four months and playing for junior side Lochee United. When he got released from jail in 2017, he was resigned by his old club Livingston and he played for them and scored against Peterhead that week. Gallagher also talked about Davie Martindale’s constant support of him in his dark time and how he helped in getting back to the pitch with all dignity.

After a great season with Motherwell, he got recognition and was included in the Euro 2020 Scotland squad for this summer’s competition. He didn’t let the negativity win and survived his dark times to become much stronger and grabbed the opportunity that he got after that dark period.

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