Sam Byrne goes on loan to Dundalk

Everton terminate forward's contract

They stated back in March 2017: There has been no announcement from the Merseyside club about Kinsella leaving, and the player still has a profile on the official Everton website. – And that is still true today.

It seems he continued to play for Dundalk (senior and U-19 sides). His name crops up (sometimes mis-spelt 'Stephen') in Dundalk match reports through October/November of last year (the end of their season).

I've been relying more and more on Transfermarkt but they still have him listed as an Everton U23 player through 30 June 2018. However, they show his loan with Dundalk ending 31 December 2017.

This list of Dundalk Squad Numbers for 2018 is from last week and shows him as having departed, presumably at the end of last season (although that would have been the end of his loan spell from Everton).

There's no other mention I can find... If that Football Insider story was true, then his registration would presumably have switched to the FAI if he is still playing.

Why would Everton still list Steven Kinsella among the Under-21 Players (Contract and Scholars) in the squad this season? But then again... how much can we trust The Red Echo?!?!

We had a Gerard Kinsella for a while, starting from 2007-08 in the Under-18s, so fitting that 'decade' comment pretty closely. However, his last season at Everton was 2010-11 with the Reserves. I have a note that he was released in June 2011 and subsequently joined Plymouth Argyle, but he never played for them.

A search throws up this poignant article from The Independent 5 years ago that sheds light on the darker side of being a professional footballer who fails to make the grade; in this case, his older brother Michael Kinsella. But this passage is about Gerard:

Kinsella's determination to make a difference has been cemented by his success in helping his younger brother, Gerard, to rebuild his career. After rejection at 19 by Everton, the club who nurtured his talent from the age of seven, Gerard went to Plymouth with hopes of earning a contract but suffered a cartilage injury and ended up with nothing. "It kills you. It happened so quickly," the 21-year-old, now at Fleetwood Town, says of rejection and the loss of the focus that football had provided.

Gerard concedes that he came "very close" to stepping into a world of crime, but for his brother's intervention. "I heard he was in and out of cars with some of the lads in our area, the local drug dealers. I found out about it, made a few phone calls and told them to stay away," explains Michael, who, though in prison at the time, arranged for an old friend to help his younger brother. "He put Gerard on a bricklaying course. After that he did a personal trainer diploma. Then he started training again and went on a trial for Fleetwood and signed a two-year deal."

But he would then get banned for two years:

"Gerard Kinsella, of League Two side Fleetwood Town, admitted an FA charge after a sample he gave in February contained the anabolic steroid Nandrolone. His brother, Michael, said that the 21-year-old midfielder did not know that he had taken the banned performance-enhancing drug – which increases muscle mass – and thought it was a painkiller."

That was in June 2013. He played a few games for Telford before that, but apparently nothing since. Perhaps he tried to come back after the ban, and eventually let his registration lapse in 2017? Sad story, puts into perspective our love-hate relationship with the current multi-millionaires who don't seem to be trying hard enough...