{{Short description|Irish Gaelic footballer}} {{no footnotes|date=December 2012}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2021}} {{Infobox GAA player | code= Football | sport = Gaelic football | image = | name = Willie Joe Padden | irish = Liam Seosamh Mac Pháidín | feet = 5 | inches = 11 | occupation = Auctioneer | county = Mayo | province = Connacht | club = Belmullet | clposition = Midfield | clubs = | clyears = 1970s–1994 | clapps(points) = Over 100 | clcounty = 1 | clprovince= 0 | clallireland = 2 Gaeltacht medals | counties = [[Mayo county football team|Mayo]] | icposition = Midfield/centre-half forward | icyears = 1977–1993 | icapps(points) = 111 ( ? ) | icprovince = 5 | icallireland = | nfl = 1 | allstars = 2 | clupdate = | icupdate = | birth_date={{Birth date and age|1959|2|6|df=yes}} | birth_place=[[Belmullet]], County Mayo }} {{Use Irish English|date=November 2021}}
'''Willie Joe Padden''' is a former [[Gaelic football]]er who received two [[GAA GPA All Stars Awards|All Stars awards]], and represented [[Mayo county football team|Mayo]] in a [[1989 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final|1989 All-Ireland SFC Final]] but lost to [[Cork county football team|Cork]]. His son [[Billy Joe Padden|Billy Joe]] also played for Mayo.
Willie Joe was born in [[Belmullet]] on 6 February 1959. He attended his local [[primary school]] in Aughalsheen just outside Belmullet. He went to the Convent of Mercy [[secondary school]] in Belmullet.
==Playing career==
Padden started playing Gaelic football at age 11, played Minor football for Belmullet GFC at 14 and started playing Senior club championship at the age of 16, joining the Mayo minor panel in the same year. In 1977, in which he turned 18, he played for Mayo at Minor, U21 and Senior levels, including captaining the Mayo minor team to a [[Connacht GAA|Connacht]] title. A year later aged 19 he played in a [[National Football League (Ireland)|National Football League]] final against Dublin in [[Croke Park]].
In his playing career, which ended with his retirement aged 34, Padden won one Minor Connacht title, one U21 Connacht title and five Connacht Senior titles. With Belmullet GFC he won a county league medal and two [[Comórtas Peile na Gaeltachta|Gaeltacht]] medals.
Padden received All Stars in 1985 and 1989. He was also named Mayo footballer of the year twice and Mayo personality of the year in 1990. Songs written about him include [[the Saw Doctors]]' "Hay Wrap", which features the line "Will Galway beat Mayo? Not if they have Willie Joe".
Willie Joe was voted 35th best GAA player ever. Ranked second in Mayo behind Tommy Langan. He was also voted 4th best ever midfielder in the ''[[Irish Independent]]'' newspaper.
==References== *{{cite web|url=http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-football/where-are-they-now-willie-joe-padden-former-mayo-footballer-2806108.html|title=Where are they now? WILLIE JOE PADDEN (Former Mayo footballer)|date=26 June 2011|publisher=Independent.ie|accessdate=15 December 2012}} *{{cite book|last=McRory|first=Séamus|title=The All-Ireland Dream|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EjeUU9GqWNwC&q=Willie+Joe+Padden |accessdate=15 Dec 2012|year=2005|publisher=Wolfhound Press|isbn=9780863279362}} *{{cite web|url=http://www.gaelicart.ie/item/Willie_Joe_Padden/8/139/8287/|title=Willie Joe Padden|publisher=Gaelicart.ie|accessdate=15 December 2012}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Padden, Willie Joe}} [[Category:1959 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:Belmullet Gaelic footballers]] [[Category:Irish auctioneers]] [[Category:Mayo inter-county Gaelic footballers]] [[Category:20th-century Irish sportsmen]]