Chiedozie Ogbene has opened up about the moment when he decided to pursue a career in soccer ahead of Gaelic football.

The Luton Town and Ireland star scored his first ever Premier League goal in last weekend's 2-2 draw with Nottingham Forest.

But he might never have made it to the highest level in the 11-a-side game if it wasn't for a fateful meeting with his Cork City underage manager.

"I go back to when I was 11, my brother was playing for Tramore Athletic when I was playing Gaelic football," he told Sky Sports.

"I always played street football but I never really joined a football team. So my brother used to come back and talk about how his football games went and I used to aspire to be like him.

"Football took over when I was 17. I was playing Gaelic football and football at the same time and I had to make a decision to pursue one career.

"I remember I was 17 and there was a county final with my local club, Nemo Rangers, and we had to have a replay.

"The manager sat me down and said, I know you are a valuable player for us, but it's going to be unfair for other players who train everyday if you go off and play Gaelic football and come back and fight for your spot in the team, it's going to be a difficult decision for me to make.

"So I had to make that decision at 17, that I needed to chase my dreams and chase my career that I wanted to have. It was a difficult decision."

Ogbene was delighted with his first ever Premier League goal, but said that the circumstances meant his celebrations were muted.

Luton were two-down when the 26-year-old scored and he said: "It's a great feeling. Obviously the manner in which I scored, getting the first goal to make it 2-1, I didn't really celebrate the way I wanted to.

"I celebrated more for Elijah (Adebayo)'s goal than mine.

"But just to have that on my CV that I'm a Premier League goalscorer is something I never actually thought would be possible.

"I dreamed of it, but it was like a far-fetched dream. But I'm just so happy that I could have registered one."

Ogbene reflected on his journey from Cork City - via Limerick, Brentford, Exeter and Rotherham - to the Premier League with Luton.

"It's surreal, honestly, because I always wanted to be a professional footballer but you didn't know how far you were going to go," he said.

"At the time in Limerick, if you told me that I was going to play Championship football I would have probably taken that there and then.

"And if you told me that the Championship was the ceiling, I would have been delighted to be at that level.

"But when I got to the Championship I became more ambitious, I wanted more.

"But six years to get to this point in my life, I'll be honest with you, I didn't think I was going to get this far so soon. Six years is a short period, especially in this business.

"I had to go to the Championship, back to League Two and League One, and all crammed in with international (football) in six years is something that my manager said one in 200,000 people achieve."

Next up is Sunday's trip to Aston Villa and a reunion with an old Brentford teammate.

"Ollie (Watkins) was actually a player that I looked up to," said Ogbene. "He was playing in a similar position to me.

"He is very professional and what he is showing now is what he has always been. He has always worked hard and he has always worked on his weaknesses.

"People might say Ollie Watkins is playing a fantastic game, but I've seen the days when he has had bad days and he has worked really hard.

"I'm proud of Ollie. I had a good relationship with him during my time at Brentford. He was the one holding my position, so I actually wanted to be like him. I wanted to learn like him."

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