NI v Denmark(20/11/2023)

Pat has double-handedly put Newry on the map, creating a photo op for footy fans keen to make a pilgrimage in the footsteps of our modern day patron saint. Georgie Best may have had a feature film made about his life (Best, starring John Lynch, 2000), but I doubt Tinsel Town moguls are developing Pat Jennings: The Movie. If they did, mind you, I wouldn’t put it past them to cast Ryan Reynolds in the starring role. What Ryan and his business partner and fellow actor Rob McElhenney did for Wrexham FC is in a league of its own. By buying the Welsh team and turning its season into Disney+ TV series Welcome to Wrexham, they brought the Roy of the Rovers twists and turns of these EFL League Two incomers to a whole new fanbase. But they’re not the first Stateside celebs to cross the pond and throw their fortune at English league footy. Showbiz sparkle was sprinkled on Liverpool FC when LA Lakers basketball megastar LeBron James became a shareholder in 2011. Exploiting every money-making opportunity, the Space Jam star’s business kudos later extended into a LeBron x Liverpool branded clothing range. That has certainly laid down the shinpad for American Football icon and Super Bowl supremo Tom Brady who has recently invested in Birmingham City FC. I bet Brummie fans are raging Brady’s split from supermodel wife Giselle means they’re unlikely to see her gracing the Blues’ stadium! But they should expect celebrity friends joining Brady at a game, like Hugh Jackman, Will Ferrell, Reynolds’ wife Blake Lively and even Beckham himself did at Wrexham. Not since Elton acquired Watford has football been so star-studded. Coleraine fan James Nesbitt is the closest we have to big names investing in local league football. And now that Notts Country has dispelled rumours of Taylor Swift’s plans to buy the club, perhaps she’ll turn her attention to her Dungannon namesakes. An invasion of Swifties and Taylor’s A-list coterie at Stangmore Park? Now that I’d pay to watch.

There’s no doubt footballers are high-end commodities both on and off the pitch. Here we need look no further than George Best to see how many’s a buck has been made in his name. And when footballers themselves have something insightful to share, a TV crew is never far behind. Harry Gregg’s emotional 2008 BBC NI documentary Re-United followed his journey back to Munich and the scene of that fateful Busby Babes plane crash. George Best’s Body, a 2001 Channel 4 documentary, took a unique angle on the superstar’s oft-told story by mapping his life through his decades-old physique. Beckham went big on David’s highlights and controversies with Posh offering her take on their goldfish bowl existence. It was an absorbing soap opera but, unlike Harry’s and George’s programmes, you could never get past the fact that this particular protagonist keeps close control of Brand Beckham. The outcome is a social media self-narrative for TV screens all across the world. And who can blame him? Certainly not his accountant. George Best aside, our local heroes have never really climbed the dizzy heights of global football fame. Aside from Stuart Dallas sharing his surname with a glossy US soap, it’s slim pickings when it comes to soccer celebdom on our wee shores. And maybe that’s no bad thing. It certainly plays into our thran-ness and abiding underdog ethos. Remember the #weexist wristbands? That just about sums us up. We do, though, love a mural and are partial to a statue of our football heroes, which leads neatly on to Big Pat. If ever a city needed a shot in the arm, surely it’s Newry? Picking itself up and drying itself off after the recent floods, who should come along - and in his own inimitable style - to save the day but Newry’s most famous son, Pat Jennings. Norn Iron’s illustrious goalie returned to his childhood town to witness the unveiling of a fantastic statue showing Jennings in full flight.

IRISHFA.COM

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