Around the block

Richie Sadlier had his football dreams smashed just as they were all coming true. In a revealing interview coming up to the tenth anniversary of his retirement from the game, he recalls his journey from the light into the dark and back again

His shift over as an RTÉ studio analyst for a Confederations Cup game this summer, Richie Sadlier went out with his fellow panellists Ronnie Whelan and Ray Houghton to celebrate a special occasion — it was the 25th anniversary of Ireland versus the Soviet Union at Euro ’88, the 1-1 draw fondly remembered for Whelan’s celebrated goal.

“Which was weird,” Sadlier observes, “because back in 1988, when I was nine, I would have been out practicing after that game, trying to do an overhead kick, with my left shin.”