Galway football star is heading in the right direction!

A sublime score by Galway footballer Shane Walsh had the GAA world enraptured on Saturday night . . . but it was a tweet by a pop star which earned the Kilkerrin-Clonberne attacker a whole new set of fans.

Walsh (20) showed brilliant control before firing over a sensational point late in the first half of the Tribesmen’s 4-17 to 4-12 victory over Tipperary in Tullamore, producing a piece of skill which was the talk of social media on Saturday night.

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While praise from the likes of Sky Sports commentator David McIntyre and former Tyrone footballer Owen Mulligan hardly came as a surprise, it was a “tweet” by One Direction star Niall Horan which saw Walsh’s fame spread far and wide.

“Watchin @officialgaa in England is a different experience, good to see though,” wrote Horan from his Twitter account on Saturday evening, along with a screenshot of the Galway footballer being interviewed after the All-Ireland qualifier on Sky Sports.

Horan, also aged 20, is a native of Mullingar, Co Westmeath, and is a well-known GAA fan as well as being a member of boy band One Direction.

His photo of Walsh was retweeted by over 42,800 people within a couple of hours and ‘favourites’ by just under 77,000 One Direction fans.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.