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 Tambling
There have been many other players who have spent some time in the League of Ireland with varying degrees of success.
Bobby Tambling was one of the more successful characters to have come from top-flight English football.
He played 302 times for Chelsea scoring 164 goals between 1959-1970 before departing for Crystal Palace.
Tambling became a Jehovah’s Witness and was sent to Munster as a missionary in 1973 where he joined Cork Celtic.
He played a major role in Cork Celtic’s 1974 league title success and also had a spell as player-manager. Tambling left Celtic in 1977 and had spells with Waterford United, Shamrock Rovers and Cork Alberts.
He was also the first manager of Cork City FC when they entered League of Ireland football in 1984. Tambling is still regarded as a legend at Stamford Bridge where, if you have enough money to spare, you can enjoy the hospitality of the Bobby Tambling suite.
He still lives in Cork and is manager of Crosshaven FC.
Terry McDermott
The former Liverpool and Newcastle legend joined Cork City in the 1984/85 season. McDermott had played a major role in the Kevin Keegan inspired Newcastle side that won promotion in 1983/84 but a falling out with manager Jack Charlton forced him to seek new pastures.
He was without a club for eight months and didn’t even own a pair of boots when he agreed to sign for Cork City in January 1985. McDermott made his debut in a 3-1 win over Shelbourne on January 13th.
He scored his first goal in a 1-0 win over Longford Town in February. Soon afterwards, McDermott departed to finish his career in Cyprus.
Mick Channon
Another strange one! Tommy McConville ended his Dundalk career at the end of the 1985/86 season and took over the reigns at Finn Harps. One of his first actions was to sign Mick Channon.
Now one of the most successful racehorse trainers, Channon was capped 46 times for England between 1972-1977 scoring an impressive 21 goals.
He had two spells at Southampton where he played over 400 games and scored 175 goals. He won a Milk Cup winners’ medal in 1985 with Norwich before ending his career in England with Portsmouth in 1986.
Tommy Mac signed Channon on a match-by-match basis and he made his debut on October 5th1986 in a 2-2 draw against Cobh in the League Cup. He retired injured after 49 minutes. He did not play again.
Ian Callaghan
Ian Callaghan played the last of his 857 matches (still a club record) for Liverpool in 1978 and was on the bench in that year’s European Cup Final.
On January 18th1981, Callaghan made his debut at the age of 39 for Cork United as they defeated Home Farm 3-1 at Tolka Park. He was soon off to Norway for a coaching role.
Alan Sunderland
Ex-Wolves, Arsenal and Ipswich striker Alan Sunderland joined Derry City in 1986 to help them win promotion to the Premier Division.
The 33-year-old made a big impression at Derry as they also reached the quarter-finals of the FAI Cup before being beaten by Bohemians.
Frank Worthington
Frank Worthington was one of the most colourful characters of English football during the 1970s.
He made his name at Huddersfield before spending his peak years at Leicester City between 1972-1977 where he scored 72 goals in 210 games.
During this period he also won eight England caps. After spells with Birmingham, Leeds, Sunderland, Southampton and a host of others…he ended up at Galway United in early 1989.
He made his debut, at the age of 41, against St. Pat’s on February 12th1989. He performed well and set up Galway’s goal in a 1-1 draw. Worthington was not the oldest import that season – Alfie Hale signed former Chelsea player and manager John Hollins for Cobh Ramblers a few weeks later. Hollins was 42 years old.
