Harry Arter is caught between trying to keep his feet on the ground, while simultaneously celebrating his fairytale promotion to the Premier League with Bournemouth and recent call up to the Republic of Ireland squad.
Bournemouth have just been promoted as champions, while Arter also received a call-up to the Ireland squad for the Poland match in March.
And while Arter didn’t play against Poland, he will be hoping for an appearance when Ireland face England in June.
Fresh from the Cherries’ open-top bus celebrations yesterday, Arter told RTÉ Sport that his achievements haven’t really sunk in yet.
He said: “You know what? They (achievements) haven’t really. Today was a step towards realising what you’ve done for the club and the town.
“It was a real good day. A proud day for the fans and the players and it was kind of overwhelming to see everybody out there really. So as much as it hasn’t completely sunk in, it has started to settle now.”
Arter was released early in his career by Charlton, and then spent time in non-league football before joining Bournemouth in 2010.
Two promotions later sees the goalscoring midfielder in the Premier League and in the Ireland squad, however, Arter believes that he still has a lot to prove in his career.
Arter added: “I’m obviously proud of what I’ve achieved but in my head I’ve still got a lot of goals I want to try and accomplish and a lot more challenges that I’m setting myself.
“This is probably one of those things that I’ll look back on when I finish my career with a bit more pride, because at the moment I want to just look forward rather than looking back.”
In the immediate future, however, Arter wants to get some rest and stay ready in case he gets another call from Ireland boss Martin O’Neill.
“I’ll just kind of chill out really. If I get called up I’ll try and give my best. I’ll have to keep up my fitness in case I do get called up and look forward to enjoying it if that moment does come.
“But for the time being I want to savour these moments, especially things like the open-top bus and all the fans there. At the moment it’s quite rare in football, so I’m trying to savour every moment and not try to look too far forward.”
For more, watch Soccer Republic on Monday night on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player
