Josh Magennis has revealed how he is fighting hard to prolong his career with club and country.
The 34-year-old from Bangor joined the goalscoring party in the 5-0 rout of Bulgaria at a time when so much praise is being lavished on emerging stars.
Since making his senior international debut against Turkey in an end-of season tour of the USA in May 2010, the experienced frontman has never taken these opportunities for granted.
Fresh from scoring a hat-trick for Exeter City in the FA Cup, the former Wigan ace wants to savour many more golden moments before the curtain comes down on his career.
“I have to do everything to prolong my career,” said Magennis, who has scored 12 goals 81 appearances for Northern Ireland.
“I have been so blessed. I refuse to take my life for granted.
“I never wake up and think today is a slog. Some people might think it is a slog for footballers, but I genuinely don’t believe in wasting the talents God gave me.
“People will say I have probably got the max out of my career and overachieved. Listen, I am happy with that. I have played with hundreds of kids who have underachieved. They had all the talent in the world but never got it out of themselves.
“If I am overachieving, then fine. I say to my wife all the time that when we get to a stage where I am retired, I just want to wake up and say I gave it everything I had; that I emptied the tank.
“Once the game is done with you, as much as it is the beautiful game, it’s harsh. And once football is finished with you, it doesn’t look back.
“So for me, I am going to ride this until the wheels come off. As long as there is tread on the tyres, I will keep trucking on.”
A footballer’s career can pass by quickly and Magennis urges the younger players to appreciate all of it.
“When I signed for Cardiff, my head of welfare was a man called Steve Ellis. He was an amazing man,” he added.
“He had all the first and second-year scholars in and he said ‘before you know it, you will be 35 and your career will be over’. I remember looking around my team-mates and thinking ‘what is he talking about?’ — but he was so right.
“I am 34 now, and I do tell the young lads that you can’t waste a day. You can’t get it back and the games come and go.
“And once football is done with you, you’re finished. It is about having those conversations with young players without sounding patronising.
“The lads are open and honest and seem to take it on well.”
Being part of Michael O’Neill’s young and dynamic Northern Ireland, squad has also given Magennis a new lease of life.
Northern Ireland sit top of Nations League C Group 3 with seven points after two wins, one draw and one defeat from their four fixtures to date.
The group pacesetters take on Belarus at Windsor Park tonight before travelling to face Luxembourg on Tuesday.
“It’s massive because obviously the worst thing to happen to a footballer is you get a new number of your age every year and after you get 30 and above start dithering away, but I’m fully of the mindset that if you’re invested in your craft and you use every ounce of what you’ve been able to get, nowadays, with sports science and the technology, it’s mental, it’s just down to you and whether you can be bothered, whether you can be a*sed putting in the work,” said Magennis.
“And for the likes of me and so many Northern Ireland players before me, playing well into their late 30s and having amazing careers at that stage.
“It was always the case for myself where I’m never going to walk away and Michael would be honest with me, or any Nothern Ireland manager would be honest with me and tell me if I’m no longer needed or no longer wanted. But I didn’t want to just be here to be here, just because I’m a senior pro and just to carry pom-poms, that wasn’t me.
“I always wanted to be part of a squad where if Michael felt that the team needed to change, he wouldn’t hesitate to put me in the team and I think that’s been the case.
“I’ve had an open and honest conversation with him but obviously you’ve got to be able to perform at your club which I’ve been able to do and coming away, I’ve just got to treat every day as though you’ve never been here and that’s what I do every time.
“People say to me all the time, you’ve got 80-odd caps and I tell them — and sometimes they laugh — I treat every camp as if it’s my first camp. Playing for your country, you can’t take that for granted, like it’s a gimme. Once you’re here, you have a a great time but for me every time I get that letter, I still get goosebumps and every time I come away I train 100 miles per hour.
“And good, bad, or indifferent I get noticed. I might have a stinker but I’ll get noticed. Seeing the young lads come through, Pierce and Shea’s (Charles) mum and dad must be over the moon, both of their boys are playing for Northern Ireland — incredible. Isaac (Price), Conor Bradley… the stories that we have with the boys coming through, they’re writing their own legacies, they’re writing their own fortunes and to go on and do amazing things.
“Some of these boys here, it’s their first proper major group, I know it’s the Nations League and some people don’t understand what it is, but we have a real possibility of winning that group and the naivety of it, that they don’t maybe realise how big it is until they retire, is absolutely brilliant.”