Over the years, some very famous footballers have played for a spell in the League of Ireland with clubs enticing major stars of international football to spend brief periods of their later careers entertaining League of Ireland supporters.
In this series, Colm Murphy gives a rundown of some of the top “superstars” who “graced” the League of Ireland over the years.
Bobby Charlton
Bobby Charlton ended his association with Manchester United in May 1973. Charlton was 36 years of age when he played his last game for Man United against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
He had retired from International football following the 3-2 defeat by West Germany at the 1970 World Cup Finals in Mexico. Following his departure from Old Trafford, Charlton went to Preston North End as player-manager along with fellow World Cup winner Nobby Stiles.
That experience proved to be traumatic as Preston suffered relegation at the end of the season. Charlton though still managed to score eight goals in 38 appearances.
Charlton’s arrival at Waterford was announced following a 2-1 league defeat at Limerick on January 11th 1976.
The man responsible for the transfer was Waterford Chairman Joseph Delaney. He revealed that the length of Charlton’s commitment to Waterford was dependant on the response of the Waterford public to the club and whether other clubs would pay a percentage of their gate receipts when Waterford and Charlton came to town.
Charlton’s debut against St. Patrick’s Athletic on January 18th attracted a big crowd to Kilcohan Park where the gate receipts were £1,900.
To put that in context, the average gate receipts taken at Oriel Park at this stage were around the £1,000 mark. George Best had swelled Cork Celtic’s coffers to the tune of £5000 for his debut – but unlike Best, Charlton produced a virtuoso display.
From start to finish, Charlton pulled the strings in the Waterford midfield. The home side emerged victorious following a 3-2 win.
Pat’s had taken an early lead but Charlton was fouled in the box to allow Mick Leech to equalise from the spot before half-time.
Charlton began the move that gave Waterford the lead after 71 minutes when he set up McCarthy to score from 25-yards and the young ex-Man United striker made it 3-1 soon after. Byrne pulled one back but Waterford held out for the win.
Charlton’s next outing came against Finn Harps. Waterford manager John McSeveney was confident that the club could better the modest sum of £1,900 at the gate.
“We have had enquires from all over the country about this game and I believe we could well have a record gate”.
In the end, 6,000 people braved the snow to witness another superb Charlton performance as Waterford won 3-1.
Charlton looked like the fittest player on the pitch and scored a late goal to seal the victory. The issue of compensation in away matches arose on February 8th when Charlton appeared at Dalymount Park in a 2-0 defeat.
Charlton only announced that he would be available to play late in the previous evening. Therefore, not many people knew that Charlton would be in action and the gate only brought in £793.
Bohs, incidentally, refused point blank to give Waterford any share of the gate receipts. Turlough O’Connor scored Bohs’ second goal.
It was announced that Charlton’s final appearance for Waterford would be in their Cup match with Finn Harps at Ballybofey.
Again, Charlton produced a fine display of passing and went close with a few of his trademark thunderbolt strikes. But it was not going to be his or Waterford’s day as Finn Harps ran out 3-0 winners.
