Football mourns Cork City title-winner Paul Bannon

Irish football is mourning one of Cork’s favourite adopted sons, following the sad news of the death of Paul Bannon at the age of 59.

As a centre-back who’d originally made his name as a striker, you could say the Dublin-born Bannon really knew the game from back to front, amassing huge experience over the course of a long playing career which saw him turn out for clubs in England, the Netherlands, and Greece, before returning to Ireland to line out for both Cork City and Cobh Ramblers.

And after his retirement in 1995, he applied his knowledge to coaching, helping to bring through a new generation of footballing talent on Leeside.