TWENTY FIVE YEARS to the day, David O’Leary still remembers it all.
The man whose penalty sent Ireland into the quarter-final of Italia 90 can picture the sea of green as he walked to the penalty spot. He can remember the last words before he took the long walk, and he can remember the surreal homecoming in Dublin.
Speaking on the Nicky Byrne Show with Jenny Greene RTE 2fm, O’Leary recalled the penalty and the aftermath of the most important shot of his life.
The former Leeds manager also revealed how he will never tire of hearing from people who want to tell him where they were on June 25 1990, after hilariously recalling one encounter with an Irish fan.
“For all the pressure on the penalty, and people applauding you for scoring, I’m really glad I did. Everywhere you go people are still buying you drinks, buying you a coffee in airport lounges.
“A young lad nearly jumped on me there at Gibney’s Pub in Malahide a while back, and he said ‘David, I’d like to thank you and buy you a drink because I was conceived after that penalty!’,” he added.
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Billy Stickland / INPHO
Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO
“And the amount of different things that have been said to me about where people were. You said it to me, where you were, you can remember it, and that’s what I’ve been living for the last 25 years.”
O’Leary’s lack of penalty taking experience was famously alluded to in Roddy Doyle’s ‘The Van’, but he says despite never getting the nod to take them in the past, he had always backed himself from 12 yards.
“I always fancied penalties, but as usual you don’t want a centre half taking a penalty, and teams I always played in had so many great players. I remember getting to a European final against Valencia in Brussells, and after we got to penalties and I wanted to take one, but there was so may great players ahead of me.
Billy Stickland / INPHO
Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO
“On this occasion I was one of the five. When the game finished that day I was the one that went round and asked who wants to take whet, and I could have easily have been taking the first.
“There was no plan, everybody went and showed, ‘I want this one, I want that one,’ and the fifth one was the one that was left and that’s how I ended up taking it.” he said.
When the time came for O’Leary to step up, he said he remembers the final words of advice he got from Kevin Sheedy, and the eerie silence of the previously deafening Irish fans behind the goal in Genoa.
“As I walked from the halfway line, the last person was Kevin Sheedy, and he said, ‘Don’t change your mind,’ and didn’t say anything else.
“As I was walking up and seeing all the green behind the goal, so still for the first time that day, I said I’d hit it to the goalkeeper’s left.
“I didn’t want to look at the goalkeeper at all, I’m just going to hit it to his left,” he says.
And the rest is history.
David O’Leary was speaking to The Nicky Byrne Show with Jenny Greene on RTE 2fm
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TWENTY FIVE YEARS to the day, David O’Leary still remembers it all.
The man whose penalty sent Ireland into the quarter-final of Italia 90 can picture the sea of green as he walked to the penalty spot. He can remember the last words before he took the long walk, and he can remember the surreal homecoming in Dublin.
Speaking on the Nicky Byrne Show with Jenny Greene RTE 2fm, O’Leary recalled the penalty and the aftermath of the most important shot of his life.
The former Leeds manager also revealed how he will never tire of hearing from people who want to tell him where they were on June 25 1990, after hilariously recalling one encounter with an Irish fan.
“A young lad nearly jumped on me there at Gibney’s Pub in Malahide a while back, and he said ‘David, I’d like to thank you and buy you a drink because I was conceived after that penalty!’,” he added.
“And the amount of different things that have been said to me about where people were. You said it to me, where you were, you can remember it, and that’s what I’ve been living for the last 25 years.”
O’Leary’s lack of penalty taking experience was famously alluded to in Roddy Doyle’s ‘The Van’, but he says despite never getting the nod to take them in the past, he had always backed himself from 12 yards.
“I always fancied penalties, but as usual you don’t want a centre half taking a penalty, and teams I always played in had so many great players. I remember getting to a European final against Valencia in Brussells, and after we got to penalties and I wanted to take one, but there was so may great players ahead of me.
“On this occasion I was one of the five. When the game finished that day I was the one that went round and asked who wants to take whet, and I could have easily have been taking the first.
When the time came for O’Leary to step up, he said he remembers the final words of advice he got from Kevin Sheedy, and the eerie silence of the previously deafening Irish fans behind the goal in Genoa.
“As I walked from the halfway line, the last person was Kevin Sheedy, and he said, ‘Don’t change your mind,’ and didn’t say anything else.
“As I was walking up and seeing all the green behind the goal, so still for the first time that day, I said I’d hit it to the goalkeeper’s left.
“I didn’t want to look at the goalkeeper at all, I’m just going to hit it to his left,” he says.
And the rest is history.
David O’Leary was speaking to The Nicky Byrne Show with Jenny Greene on RTE 2fm
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