Duff got 100th cap in Heathrow pub
And the retired international has revealed how, instead, he took possession of the cap in the rather less glamorous surroundings of a pub in Heathrow Airport.
Duff, who hit the ton mark when he captained the side in what turned out to be his last game for Ireland – the match against Italy at Euro 2012 – explained: “Roy Hodgson [Duff’s former boss at Fulham and Blackburn] rang me two weeks ago, I think he must have met [FAI chief executive] John Delaney somewhere and he offered to get my 100th cap presented to me on the pitch at Wembley against England last week. But I was like ‘gaffer’ – I still call him gaffer – ‘no chance, you must know me by now, it’s not going to happen’. As much as it would be something to look back on, it wasn’t for me.
“I actually got the cap in a different way rather than in front of 80,000 at Wembley. About six months I was with my dad and we bumped into John Delaney in a pub in Heathrow Airport and he said ‘fucking hell Duffer, funny I should bump into you’. He had the cap on him — he was supposed to meet me in London but he never tracked me down. So I had a pint of shandy looking at my 100th cap, some way to bow out. I think it was in a Wetherspoons — yeah, I’m a classy type of guy. But I prefer it that way.”
Duff never considered coming out of international retirement, despite much speculation to the contrary. 100, as he puts it, was “a nice round number”. In his usual laidback way, the player wasn’t inclined to make too much of the milestone at the time but admits he was “bullin’ a bit” when his achievement was briefly threatened by suggestions that Ireland’s pre-Euros warm-up game against Hungary would not count in the official records because of the ineligibility of one of the match officials. Happily, the matter was resolved in the player’s favour but, had it not been, Duff was asked would he have been tempted to come out of retirement just once more to confirm his 100th cap.
“No,” he replied, “but I would have been knocking down whoever’s door — Platini, Blatter – and if they didn’t answer the door they’d have been getting a right hook.”
The Duffer’s visit to Dublin yesterday might have coincided with an Ireland World Cup game but the reason for his trip home – accompanied by his two-year-old son Woody — was much more important, the player being unveiled as the new charity ambassador for Heart Children Ireland on the occasion of the presentation of €20,000 worth of potentially life-saving medical equipment to the Maurice Neligan Congenital Heart Clinic in the Mater Hospital.
Explaining the very personal nature of his involvement, Damien said: “It’s because of Woody. He was born with a hole in the heart. As soon as he was strong enough and hit six months, he had the operation done and everything was repaired. We spotted it before he was even born. I think it was a 32-week scan that showed he had a hole in his heart. It’s the end of the world at the time but he’s kicked on and it’s no problem now. He’s made a full recovery.”
Needless to say, an experience like that puts anything that can happen on a football pitch into perspective.
“It does yeah. The Euros last year was a horrendous time for Irish football and from a players’ point of view, but I suppose when you go home to your kid, especially when they have an issue as well, it puts things in perspective. Football is only a game though it doesn’t feel like it at the time.”
As for his own footballing future, Duff has another year in his contract with Fulham and would like it to be extended. At some point beyond that he can see himself getting involved in coaching kids. He also wants to bring his family – wife Elaine, Woody and new baby Darcy – home to Ireland, where he wouldn’t rule out playing League of Ireland football. Or maybe even at a lower level.
“Yeah listen,” he concluded with a smile, “I’ll be playing for the Dog and Duck until I’m 60.”
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