Josh Key: Swansea City's Republic of Ireland hopeful aims to make his sporting family proud
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Myles Abraham was captain of the Ireland rugby team. His great grandson, Josh Myles Abraham Key, hopes he too can "make the family proud" by wearing the green of Ireland.
Key plays football rather than rugby, having given up the latter sport as a youngster to concentrate on a round-ball career which began in the youth set-up at hometown club Torquay United.
A call from Republic of Ireland boss Stephen Kenny looks a much more realistic possibility following his summer move to Swansea City, where Key has quickly established himself as a rising Championship star.
Should he make the international stage, he will have made considerable progress in his bid to "try to live up to" the feats of his great grandfather.
"I never met him but I have heard many stories about him," says 23-year-old Key.
"He was Irish rugby captain, Irish water polo champion, Irish heavyweight champion. He earned medals in the World War too.
"He was the one in the family everyone looked up to.
"My grandma will always say how he'd be proud of me and he'd love to see me doing what I'm doing. It means a lot to be able to make her proud and make my dad and my family proud too."
Abraham, who was born in 1887, played for Ireland prior to the First World War, during which he served in the Royal Field Artillery.
Myles Abraham, whose 14 children lived in Abbeyleix, County Laois, before much of the family moved to Devon
Many of his 14 children left Ireland for Devon, hence Key calls the south west of England home.
Sport runs in the family - Key's father, Myles, played rugby for Exeter Chiefs in their pre-professional days - while there are also "lots of musicians".
"My mum is a very good singer and pianist - my grandma as well," Key says. "Then my two sisters and cousin have their own band."
That band, Wildwood Kin, played at Glastonbury in 2017. Key plays the guitar, while his singing skills meant he was usually ordered to join in whenever new signings performed initiation songs at former club Exeter City.
He has not yet sung at Swansea, where initiation songs appear to be a thing of the past.
"I don't like singing in front of people but if I have a guitar with me, it makes it easier," Key says.
"It's like sport in our family, it's another thing we love doing. It runs quite deeply and keeps us together."
Key studied music at school, but by then his primary focus was football. He joined Exeter in 2015 after cost-cutting at Torquay saw the Gulls close their academy.
The move meant going to St Peter's School in Exeter, where Swansea captain Matt Grimes is a fellow former pupil.
"If you go in there it's basically Matt Grimes' school because there's pictures of him everywhere," Key says with a smile.
"He is someone I look up to. It's nice to have someone like me who understands me. We [Devonians] are not just farmer boys, we can play football too."
Josh Key (right) was part of the Exeter side who finished second in League Two in 2021-22, missing out on the title on goal difference
The decision to join Exeter proved a smart one. After loan spells in non-league football at Bideford and Tiverton, Key made his Grecians debut in 2018.
By 2020-21, he was a first-team regular and the following season he helped the club win promotion from League Two.
"That was something we all spoke about as young lads - imagine if we could all play and get Exeter promoted," Key says.
"We did it. There were six or seven academy players playing that season, so that was a dream come true for us."
Key continued to impress in League One in 2022-23, with Swansea attempting to sign him last January but failing to agree a fee.
With his contract up in the summer, Key turned down a new deal in favour of a move to Wales, with a compensation fee - because he is under the age of 24 - likely to be decided by tribunal with no agreement yet between the clubs.
Swansea are likely to end up paying a six-figure fee for Key, and his signing already looks a fine piece of business.
Despite having never previously played in the second tier, Key has started every Swansea league game this season, initially in an unfamiliar role on the left and now in his favourite right-wingback slot.
He has been arguably Swansea's best player during a dramatic start to the campaign, with new head coach Michael Duff failing to win in his first seven league games - and facing questions over his future as a result - before a run of four straight victories.
The most recent success came at Plymouth Argyle, with Key scoring Swansea's third goal in front of numerous members of his family.
Presumably, the singing was particularly harmonious in one section of the away end.
"It was a big moment to score my first Championship goal, and for it to be against the team who are rivals for all my mates, and myself being a former Exeter player, it was a really proud moment," Key says.
Josh Key scored his first Swansea goal in the win at Plymouth Argyle prior to the international break
Swansea's new-found confidence will be tested this Saturday, when they host a Leicester City side who have won 10 of their 11 Championship games following relegation from the Premier League last season.
"Two years ago, you are hoping you draw someone like Leicester in the FA Cup," Key says.
"Now they are in your league and you are playing against other big teams, the likes of Norwich, Watford, Southampton. For me it's a dream come true to be playing at this level."
Yet there are further targets to hit.
Key is eligible for the Republic of Ireland as his grandmother was born there, and hopes his move to Swansea will see him catch Kenny's eye.
At club level, meanwhile, having played in English football's eighth and seventh tiers, League Two, League One and the Championship, Key's ultimate goal is to tick off the Premier League.
Achieve that, he says, and his guitar may just make an appearance in Swansea's dressing room.
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