Just over ten years ago a little known Irishman from Bray signed professional terms with Middlesborough. Despite never making a first team appearance at the Riverside, Ronnie O'Brien made such an impression for the Irish youth sides, which included Damien Duff and Robbie Keane that he was snapped up, amazingly, by Juventus in 1999. FFC Alex Brodie takes a look at where he went from there and where he's ended up.
Back in 1999, with the Millennium looming, America's Time magazine, which annually honours their Person of the Year, decided to launch an open, internet-based public vote for a Person of the Century. Names such as Martin Luther King and Bill Clinton would have been expected to be up there but mysteriously Juventus' latest acquisition, Ronnie O'Brien, surprisingly topped the poll. The magazine was suspicious, and rightly so.
As it turned out some Irish jesters had sent emails and set up a website urging their countrymen to get behind O'Brien who they saw as the epitome of an Irish good-time story. The editors at Time were not amused and disqualified O'Brien from the vote. Brilliantly, Juventus had been simultaneously running a Player of the Century vote so O'Brien's fans again got to work. Platini? Rossi? Vialli? Zidane? Nope, you've guessed it, Ronnie O'Brien was voted as the Old Lady's greatest ever player. Disappointingly, Juve took the same view as Time and decided to disqualify O'Brien from the vote but the young midfielder's place in football folklore was assured.
Despite playing well for the reserves at the Stadio delle Alpi and making his sole appearance for the club in the Intertoto Cup as a substitute, he was loaned out to Lugano of Switzerland, FC Crotone and Lecco of the Italian lower leagues, before appearing for Dundee United in the SPL. But after three years in Italy it was obvious that O'Brien would not take Serie A by storm, so he decided on a move to the nether regions of World football, the MLS in America.
Signing for the Dallas Burn, he made a solid start to his MLS career, scoring on his debut, but it was in his second season in Texas that he was expected to really take to the league. He scored a "memorable goal" (according to one US journalist) against the LA Galaxy before being cruelly cut down by Dema Kovalenko against DC United resulting in a broekn leg for O'Brien. Once again his career was in limbo, but to his credit he remained in America, fought for his fitness and came back even stronger.
"The operation itself and waking up and seeing what they'd done to my knee, was torture," O'Brien reflected later. His comeback season saw him amount ten assists and apparently perform like an "MVP player".
Internationally however he was isolated. He was ignored by former manager Brian Kerr but Steve Staunton tried to tempt him back under his doomed reign as national coach, but O'Brien stood fast and decided against it. In fact he will soon be available for selection for USA due to having only represented the Republic at youth and Under-21 level.
In his comeback season for Dallas, according to MLS.net, he was: "Named in the MLS Best XI for the first time...he lead the team in assists, was ranked first on the squad in games started (29) and minutes played (2,581)..And was selected to start in his first MLS All-Star Game." Impressive.
At the end of the 2006 season, O'Brien moved to FC Toronto after falling out with the Dallas manager Colin Clarke, the former Northern Ireland top-scorer.
Due to injury he was limited to 13 appearances for Toronto, managed by Mo Johnston, in David Beckham's first season in the MLS but gained four assists and had the privilege of lining up with football league legend Danny Dichio, who "had the honour of scoring the first goal in Toronto FC history against the Chicago Fire on 12 May 2007 before being sent off." Quality.
O'Brien may not have won the Premier League titles that Duff has, or ever actually played in Serie A like Keane did, but his Irish good-time story is just as, if not more amazing.
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Back in 1999, with the Millennium looming, America's Time magazine, which annually honours their Person of the Year, decided to launch an open, internet-based public vote for a Person of the Century. Names such as Martin Luther King and Bill Clinton would have been expected to be up there but mysteriously Juventus' latest acquisition, Ronnie O'Brien, surprisingly topped the poll. The magazine was suspicious, and rightly so.
As it turned out some Irish jesters had sent emails and set up a website urging their countrymen to get behind O'Brien who they saw as the epitome of an Irish good-time story. The editors at Time were not amused and disqualified O'Brien from the vote. Brilliantly, Juventus had been simultaneously running a Player of the Century vote so O'Brien's fans again got to work. Platini? Rossi? Vialli? Zidane? Nope, you've guessed it, Ronnie O'Brien was voted as the Old Lady's greatest ever player. Disappointingly, Juve took the same view as Time and decided to disqualify O'Brien from the vote but the young midfielder's place in football folklore was assured.
Despite playing well for the reserves at the Stadio delle Alpi and making his sole appearance for the club in the Intertoto Cup as a substitute, he was loaned out to Lugano of Switzerland, FC Crotone and Lecco of the Italian lower leagues, before appearing for Dundee United in the SPL. But after three years in Italy it was obvious that O'Brien would not take Serie A by storm, so he decided on a move to the nether regions of World football, the MLS in America.
Signing for the Dallas Burn, he made a solid start to his MLS career, scoring on his debut, but it was in his second season in Texas that he was expected to really take to the league. He scored a "memorable goal" (according to one US journalist) against the LA Galaxy before being cruelly cut down by Dema Kovalenko against DC United resulting in a broekn leg for O'Brien. Once again his career was in limbo, but to his credit he remained in America, fought for his fitness and came back even stronger.
"The operation itself and waking up and seeing what they'd done to my knee, was torture," O'Brien reflected later. His comeback season saw him amount ten assists and apparently perform like an "MVP player".
Internationally however he was isolated. He was ignored by former manager Brian Kerr but Steve Staunton tried to tempt him back under his doomed reign as national coach, but O'Brien stood fast and decided against it. In fact he will soon be available for selection for USA due to having only represented the Republic at youth and Under-21 level.
In his comeback season for Dallas, according to MLS.net, he was: "Named in the MLS Best XI for the first time...he lead the team in assists, was ranked first on the squad in games started (29) and minutes played (2,581)..And was selected to start in his first MLS All-Star Game." Impressive.
At the end of the 2006 season, O'Brien moved to FC Toronto after falling out with the Dallas manager Colin Clarke, the former Northern Ireland top-scorer.
Due to injury he was limited to 13 appearances for Toronto, managed by Mo Johnston, in David Beckham's first season in the MLS but gained four assists and had the privilege of lining up with football league legend Danny Dichio, who "had the honour of scoring the first goal in Toronto FC history against the Chicago Fire on 12 May 2007 before being sent off." Quality.
O'Brien may not have won the Premier League titles that Duff has, or ever actually played in Serie A like Keane did, but his Irish good-time story is just as, if not more amazing.
link
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