The bald truth about Mancini

IT’S one of those Irish football yarns that is so delicious you almost have to assume it’s apocryphal. But here, from the horse’s mouth, is confirmation that every word of the great Terry Mancini ‘national anthem’ legend is true.

Talking to a Queens Park Rangers website recently, the defender recalled the circumstances of his debut appearance for the Republic of Ireland back in the early 1970s. One of the pioneering Anglo-Irish internationals, the centre-half had been born in London to an Irish father.

Terry’s surname at birth was Sealy but after his father died when his son was just seven, Terry’s mother changed their name to Mancini - hence, inevitably, his enduring football nickname of ‘Henry’.