"I’ll never represent Derry City on the pitch but in Switzerland I felt like I was representing Derry City in Europe."

​Callaghan, who has been a City supporter for more than decades, was part of the club’s official delegation at the Europa Conference League draw at UEFA headquarters in Switzerland.

And fully aware that he’s never going to don the Candy Stripes jersey on the field of play, the Recruitment Consultant with Brook Street Recruitment said he was delighted for the opportunity to represent the club off the pitch.

“I’ve been very lucky and I feel very honoured to be in Nyon,” he explained. “I have been standing on the terraces for 30 odd years and I’ll never pull on the jersey, I’ll never represent Derry City on the pitch but in Switzerland I felt like I was representing Derry City in Europe.

“I was speaking to people from UEFA and meeting representatives from other clubs and introducing Derry City to other clubs, that’s a massive honour.

“For me, after volunteering with the Derry CIty FC merchandise group, I was nominated by shareholders to be on the Board and that was an enormous honour for me as well. Coming here to Nyon in Switzerland, this is not just a journey for me. It should show other supporters that if you really want to get involved volunteering at the club, then the club will back you.

“The club backed the merchandise group in 2017, so there is that journey available for fans who want it and want to get involved. The club is always looking for more volunteers.”

’Chalkie’ described the behind the scenes networking with other clubs as crucial and was pleased at how well received the Brandywell club’s name was amongst a host of European clubs.

“I have to say the trip has been really positive. It’s good to see what happens over here, to see how things work but the best thing about it was the networking,” he added.

“The amount of stuff that we were doing with other clubs; we did workshops with UEFA towards the end of the day as well, so while it was a very, very long day, for someone like me it was an amazing experience.

“What the club is doing is succession planning. I was there along with Dodie McGuinness and she has been there, done that and worn the t-shirt when it comes to this type of stuff. Dodie was letting me understand what the process is about and that was brilliant.

“One of the things that I really enjoyed was just speaking to other clubs. One of the first fellas I spotted was Alex from Dinamo Minsk, whom I met just a few years ago and it was great to see him again. There was other clubs as well that I met, like Pyunik whom we played a number of years ago, so it was good to see representatives from those clubs.

“The name Derry City is well received and very easily recognised by some of those European clubs. The networking is invaluable at events such as European draws. Even networking with other League of Ireland or Irish League clubs was also brilliant.”