Ambassador: Ciaran Duffy

Ciaran Duffy started as a young boy with a dream of becoming a professional footballer. Unfortunately, the system in Ireland was not in his favor. He trained three times a day, seven days a week, in pursuit of making his dream a reality.

From a young age, he was active on social media, becoming one of the fastest-growing YouTube platforms at the time. He competed against the F2 Freestylers in various challenges, and his talent took him around the world. In 2014, he had the opportunity to travel to Brazil for the World Cup, where he filmed a trick-shot-based advertisement with McDonald’s, even taking Ronaldo’s role in the ad as the football star was too expensive for the company. He also had the honor of walking out with Iker Casillas at the World Cup.

Duffy appeared on the German talent show Kids Got Talent, which was an incredible experience for him. He also made appearances on The Late Late Show and various other Irish television programs.

Throughout his journey, he secured multiple partnerships and streamed one of the most famous football videos on YouTube as a young boy—“Ciaran Duffy vs. Gangnam Style”, which amassed 180 million views.

At a young age, he faced jealousy from others, which led him to step away from social media and fully commit to football. He earned a spot at Manchester United’s academy, where he played from ages 11 to 13, but was eventually released due to circumstances within the academy. Returning to Dublin, he continued playing but found himself on the bench week in and week out, which deeply impacted his passion for the sport.

Despite training daily to improve, he struggled with the challenges of the system. In the summer of 2024, he moved to Spain to play for LaLiga 2 side Alcorcón but was not offered a paid contract, which was a major disappointment.

Returning to Dublin, he felt he had lost his love for football and its true meaning. He played for another three to four months but found that the level in Ireland was not where he wanted it to be. Eventually, he left his team and decided to give social media another try at the start of 2024.

Initially, he had no idea how to start. He experimented with gym content but didn’t achieve the results he was looking for. He then focused on football, a field in which he excelled. Posting three TikToks a day at first, he saw little success and considered giving up multiple times. However, after a month, he decided to increase his output to five posts a day. Seeing some progress, he later pushed himself to post ten times a day, which significantly boosted his growth.

By May, he had reached 50,000 followers on TikTok and was overjoyed. In June, he expanded his efforts to Instagram, starting with just 2,000 followers and figuring out how to grow. Around the same time, he revived his YouTube channel. Now, in January 2025, he has reached 100,000 followers on Instagram and gained 120,000 subscribers on YouTube in a short span. Since June, he has been posting over 40 to 50 times a day across all platforms.

Currently, Duffy has 312,000 followers on TikTok, 417,000 subscribers on YouTube, and 100,000 followers on Instagram. His goal is to show people the true essence of football and challenge the misconception that skills are a separate entity from the sport itself. He believes all great footballers possess unique talents and skill sets that define their style of play.

His mission is to inspire people to love football in every way possible—not just in its simplest form. To him, football is more than just a sport; it is something that lives within a person. Even those who don’t play the game still appreciate and admire it.

Check out his content through his Instagram page – @cduffy1001 or on his YouTube channel – Cduffy101