Q: So, that’s quite a name you have there! Where does it come from?
A: I’m half Irish, half Costa Rican, but I was raised in Costa Rica. My dad is Costa Rican, and my mum is from Northern Ireland. We came back to Northern Ireland because the opportunities over here are better than in Costa Rica.

Q: How old are you?
A: I’m 17 and trying to get over to England to pursue professional soccer.

Q: During lockdown, you noticed that your sight wasn’t the best when on Zoom calls. What did you do?
A: Spending a long time close to a screen, while not spending much time outside looking far away, caused issues for my sight. We went to the opticians to see what was wrong, and that’s where I found out I had short sight.

Q: You started with soft lenses; how did they work with soccer?
A: They were alright for seeing day-to-day stuff, but when I was playing sports, especially soccer, they were really uncomfortable and they would sometimes fall out of place. Other times sweat and dust would get in them, making it really hard to see. Sometimes they would fall out during a game, so I’d have “half and half” vision with one eye right and the other wrong. I asked the optician what to do if one fell out during a game, and she told me to leave it, as if the lens had touched the ground, it couldn’t go back in my eye. It was also impossible to find on the ground anyway!

Q: Did you have any problems where you had to play with only one lens in?
A: There were quite a few matches where a lens would drop out. When it was raining, they would always come out, and that would really affect my performance and just really bother me.

Q: Would these day lens problems affect your concentration on the game?
A: Yes, I would get anxious mid-game thinking: “this lens is going to fall out!”, instead of concentrating on the game and doing what I’m supposed to do.

Q: What’s the main difference between night lenses and day lenses for you as a soccer player?v
A: Probably just the freedom of not worrying about day lenses falling out, or just knowing that you are set and ready to go for the day. Night lenses give you normal vision and have made a huge difference. I haven’t thought about lenses mid-game for a long time now. It’s just been really, really good.

Q: Would you ever switch back to day lenses?
A: No, I would not go back ever. Just too much stress for something that barely does its job. If it did stay in my eye, it would still move around a lot. If I would move my head quickly and sharply, it just wouldn’t stick, and it wasn’t a nice feeling.

Q: Would you find it odd if a professional sports player chose day lenses over using night lenses?
A: Yeah, definitely. There are so many benefits from night lenses and disadvantages with day lenses, and they make a huge difference to your performance.

Q: Some people who haven’t heard of night lenses might be skeptical of them. What would you say to them?
A: There’s no trick. It literally makes you feel so refreshed as you wake up with perfect vision with no side effects during the day. It’s like resetting your eyeballs every day, which is great, and not using anything during the day to correct my vision feels so nice! For any athlete, I’d really recommend them!