Kingdom dominate Team of the Year as Clifford is cream of the crop

Kerry's 39th All-Ireland SFC triumph has been recognised with the inclusion of eight players on The Sunday Game’s Football Team of the Year.

The selection includes the RTÉ panel’s Footballer of the Year David Clifford and All-Ireland final man of the match Gavin White. Runners-up Donegal have four representatives on the team, while semi-finalists Tyrone and Meath along with Armagh have one each.

“David Clifford is Footballer of the Year, and there’ll be no veering away from that,” Kerry legend Tomás Ó Sé proudly said on behalf of the panel, which also included Cora Staunton, Mark McHugh, Ciarán Whelan, Paul Flynn and Enda McGinley.

“He’s just on a different level from everybody else.

“Early on in the season when things weren’t going well, David Clifford was still performing. You even go back to the Meath game, they were destroyed on breaking ball, on kickouts, on hunger, yet when the ball actually got in, he was still doing damage. He was just at it, at the right level, all year long.

“He was the guy that was like The Pied Piper. The Kerry people are too busy taking money in the middle of the summer to be going up to Dublin, they don’t travel for quarter-finals. He came out, people do listen to him. He was celebrating, he brought them along with them. He’s obviously a leader in the dressing room.

“I think this year will be his third Footballer of the Year, he’s really smoked it!”

The Sunday Game Football Team of the Year 2025

1. Shane Ryan (Kerry)

2. Seán Rafferty (Meath), 3. Jason Foley (Kerry), 4. Brendan McCole (Donegal)

5. Brian Ó Beaglaoich (Kerry), 6. Gavin White (Kerry), 7. Kieran McGeary (Tyrone)

8. Joe O’Connor (Kerry), 9. Michael Langan (Donegal)

10. Seán O’Shea (Kerry), 11. Paudie Clifford (Kerry), 12. Oisín Conaty (Armagh)

13. David Clifford (Kerry), 14. Michael Murphy (Donegal), 15. Conor O’Donnell (Donegal)