Anthony Molloy believes that Jim McGuinness still has a role to play in Donegal football.
McGuinness’s playing career with the county team overlapped with the back end of Molloy’s though it’s his managerial achievements that set him apart most, with Donegal winning three Ulster titles and an All-Ireland in 2012 during his four-year reign.
Having stepped down following the 2014 All-Ireland final loss to Kerry, McGuinness has since channelled his energies into soccer though his progress has stalled since being sacked as manager of US club Charlotte Independence in 2019.
He has been linked with numerous inter-county roles since and has taken training sessions in some counties but soccer remains his priority for now.
Molloy said: “I would love to see Jim come back, and maybe we will see Jim back. Any county job comes up, Jim McGuinness's name is linked to it.
“Jim McGuinness, we understood that he might have been around the set up when Rory Kavanagh put his name forward. Rumour had it that he was going to come in as a consultant maybe a couple of times a month to assist. That didn't materialise anyway.
“Jim hasn't gone away. He has a lad coming there, and from what I hear, he's a very good lad as well, albeit he's only U14 or something. He's capitano of that group down there.
“I know in the last few years that his mind was focused on soccer. I wouldn't rule out him coming back at underage or whatever.”
Molloy said that McGuinness always stood out to him as somebody with great managerial potential.
“Funnily enough, the very first day Jim came into the senior set-up – and I’d have known him before that – he was a big tall lad with long black hair and he stood out as an individual.
"For me he always had leadership qualities from a very early age and he always listened intently. He was very young at the time.
“I knew myself, no more than Michael Murphy, that he was destined for that sort of role. Jim McGuinness was a good player but maybe didn’t get what we got out of the game at county level even though Donegal had a great team at that time.”
Following Donegal’s win over Cork in the 2012 All-Ireland semi-final, McGuinness asked Molloy to address his players in order to focus minds ahead of the final.
“I knew that they had huge potential. I just went into them that day and said, ‘Look, you’re here on merit. You have one crack on it. An hour flies by out there. Don’t leave it behind you here in the dressing room. Give it everything you have. Win your own corner.’
“And no doubt they done that. But I was glad to get to have a few words with them. I knew most of them anyway.”
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