If you Google 'Lee Chin job', the result which comes back is 'Athlete'. The Wexford hurler doesn't have a traditional nine-to-five job - it's approximately three years since he did. At the moment, the hurling pitch is his office.

"I don't like when people ask me or refer to me as a professional, ask me am I living as a professional athlete - I'm not, I'm far from that," Chin told Balls while sitting in the Croke Park players' lounge for the launch of the 2018 Beko Club Bua award scheme.

"I mentioned before that I'm trying to live as much of a professional lifestyle as possible with diets and recovery and sleep; obviously just working on my game every now and then.

"Other than that, most of my training is done with the team collectively. I'd do my bits on my own but the rest of the Wexford panel that I know do the same thing."

The 25-year-old makes a living by working with various sponsors.

"I work with Fulfil, recently I signed with O'Neills and iPro Sport in the UK. They're my main sponsors at the moment and you'd have your other sponsors as well.

"You know, I do an awful lot of work with them and financially that's where I get some type of income and I'm happy with that at the moment."


Being one of the GAA's most marketable players undoubtedly helps when it comes to attracting brands - as does having a reasonable social media following.

Chin wasn't even on Instagram until a year-and-a-half ago. It's now a platform he looks at every day. Though, he still would not count himself as a "huge" social media user.

Even if there was not an income from sponsors, concentrating on his sport is still a road the Faythe Harriers player would have taken.

It's something that I probably decided to do regardless of what came my way in terms of that. When I left school, I tried my hand at college a year or two later and it just didn't work out for me. I went working for a while and I didn't know what I wanted to do. I went barbering for a little while, I did a course there. I enjoyed it for a small term and then I just kind of got fed up of it. I walked away from it. It was kind of just more something that I decided when I was 20-years-old, that someday I'd like to concentrate on the game completely and just see where it goes.

On this path, he has the support of his family. From time to time, he pitches in at the family business - a takeaway restaurant in Wexford named 'Chin Can Cook'.


"Look, we have a family business at home that I get involved in every now and again.

"In some ways, I know it might sound like I don't do much, in terms of the work side of things but when I'm back at home, I get involved with the family business, that's something that we have in our family for the last 20 years.

"It's not that they put a massive pressure on me to do whatever, it's just that I decide what I want to do with my life and they support me through it."

What he'll do once his GAA career is finished, once the sponsors stop calling is an eventuality he considers now and again. An easygoing sort, it's a step he'll take once his hurling adventure is over.

"Obviously, there are things that will cross your mind along this journey. I'm one of those people that never knew what it is that I really wanted to do.

"I have a lot of friends that are involved in this game also - they're in their jobs and they have their degrees and they're in their careers and yet, they still don't know what they want to do; they don't know what they want to be doing when they're 30-years-old.

"Then there's a lot of guys that are comfortable in their lives but, of course, those things cross your mind. I'm the kind of guy that's a bit laid back about it all.

"Lookit, I'll cross those bridges when I come to it."

Wexford hurler Lee Chin in attendance in Croke Park, Dublin, at the launch of the 2018 Beko Club Bua award scheme, Leinster GAA’s accreditation and health check system for clubs in the province. For more information visit leinstergaa.ie/club-bua/. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile