
Conor McGregor laced up his soccer boots to join in a match for his local pub team last Saturday. The former UFC champ took to the left wing and played out a scene typical of his dynamic style.
In the amateur United Churches Football League match-up between Black Forge FC – named after McGregor’s pub – and Harding FC, ‘The Notorious’ swapped the MMA cage for the football pitch donning the number 11 jersey.
The game wrapped up with a 1-1 stalemate and it appeared to rile up the Dublin-born fighter; footage caught him venting frustration on an adversary.
After nabbing the ball from a successful Black Forge throw-in, McGregor, who once graced the Sunday league football before scaling MMA heights, signalled for a pass as his teammate battled two challengers. Conor fumbled over the incoming gentle ball and slipped, only to witness a Harding player seizing the moment.
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Rising from the tumble with vengeance in mind, he obstructed the Harding player’s path. As the opponent attempted to pass by the ex-UFC champ, Conor floored him with a tactic that wouldn’t be out of place inside the octagon.
A bystander’s voice can be heard saying, “great takedown”, and play resumes after the ref awards Harding a free-kick following the scuffle. Later on, McGregor is spotted sprinting down the flank, struggling to rein in an ambitious pass, when a defending player’s sliding challenge brings the play to an end.
As a Harding player attempts to keep the ball in play, McGregor throws himself into the player as the ball goes out of bounds. This sparked comments about his UFC rivalry, with one person remarking: “Damn Khabib is even better than him at football.”
Another critic said: “He might be the worst footballer on earth.”
However, aside from comparisons to Vinnie Jones, the most frequent criticism of McGregor’s performance was his first touch. “That touch is criminal,” one observer noted.
Many more comments echoed this sentiment. Some users found it amusing that an opponent referred to McGregor by his number, “I have 11”, instead of his name, to avoid giving the famous athlete special treatment.
“Lads saying ‘I got 11’ as if they don’t know who he is,” one person commented. The UCFL is one of several amateur leagues in Dublin, and McGregor’s team currently ranks second in the table with four victories from seven matches.
Before the game, McGregor shared a photo of a pair of purple Nike boots on social media, captioned: “Today we ball”. He followed this up with: “I break jaws with my shoulder, and noses. I get the ball any pitch, any where. Moses”.
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Footage of ‘the Notorious’ making a hefty challenge on an opposition player has since gone viral on social media.
Conor McGregor showed an interest in acquiring two Irish football teams, which led to Drogheda United—a recent cup champion—making it clear they want no affiliation with the MMA celebrity. Earlier in the week, McGregor celebrated on social media as his cousin’s team clinched the league title, but he bungled it by tagging Dundalk FC, a fierce rival of Drogheda, in a post that featured his own brand of Forged Irish Stout.
Following the mishap, Drogheda United issued a statement to publicly distance themselves from McGregor, who had been nominated for the Daily Star’s tongue-in-cheek Bellen D’Or award. The fighter also queried on X, where Elon Musk has floated the idea of buying Liverpool FC, about the cost of owning an Irish football club, captioning a snapshot of the FAI trophy with: “How much is it to buy a League of Ireland team? I might buy two”.
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