Foreign "Superstars" who played in the League of Ireland

[OwlsFan]

I was at that game. Might even have the programme for it some place.

[peadar1987]

Xano, obviously.

[Hitman]

An article on Bobby Charlton's stint with Waterford.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/these-football-times/2015/jan/08/when-bobby-charlton-played-waterford-united-ireland

[OwlsFan]

I had forgotten that one of my boyhood heroes, Mick Leech, had played for Waterford. He had scored for fun for Rovers prior to playing for the Blues.

[OwlsFan]

I saw Bobby Tambling on Football Focus on Saturday. Still lives in Ireland. Looking at Wikipedia I see he finished his football career at Cork Alberts - one of the plethora of Cork teams who played in the LoI over the past 30 years. Like Finn Harps they made their league debut against the Hoops.

[Martinho II]

I saw Bobby Tambling on Football Focus on Saturday. Still lives in Ireland. Looking at Wikipedia I see he finished his football career at Cork Alberts - one of the plethora of Cork teams who played in the LoI over the past 30 years. Like Finn Harps they made their league debut against the Hoops.

if my memory serves me right and I stand corrected I think he was Cork Citys first ever boss!

[osarusan]

My brother was born in the day Cork Celtic won the league in 1974. My Cork-born father had travelled down from his home in Dublin to watch the game, only to find out that his wife had gone into labour, so he (perhaps a little reluctantly) had to travel back to Dublin straight away.

He was on the train when he heard that Cork Celtic had won the league, and went straight to the dining car and ordered 11 whiskeys, one for each player. Later he barrelled his way into the hospital ward and insisted that the newborn boy be named after one of those players, and my mother chose the name Robert after Bobby Tambling.

[EalingGreen]

OK, definitely NOT a "superstar" as per the title, but I hope this is still a suitable thread to introduce Willie Penman, who played for Dundalk in 1973/74.

Penman was a Scot who played 3 league games as a youngster for Glasgow Rangers, before moving to England, where he played for Newcastle U, Swindon T and Walsall, prior to joining Dundalk. It seems certain that he was persuaded to sign for DFC by their newly appointed Player-Manager, John Smith, who had been his teammate at Walsall.

Penman looks to have only played one season at Oriel, before joining Seattle Sounders, though he did feature in the DFC team which won the Leinster Senior Cup when they beat Bohs 1-0 at Dalymount on 22 March 1974:

https://archive.irishnewsarchive.com/Olive/APA/INA/SharedView.Article.aspx?href=IPR%2F1974%2F03%2F22&id=Ar02007&sk=6F8E25F7

Anyhow, all pretty unremarkable stuff, except for one thing. At the same time as he was playing for DFC, he was also player-manager at Cheltenham Town, then in the Southern League!
"Scotsman Willie Penman was announced as the team's new player/manager [for season 1973/74], but it soon became apparent that he also had a playing contract with Dundalk in Ireland.
That meant he failed to make any appearances on the pitch for Cheltenham and he also had to miss several of their games entirely." https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.u...ter-fa-7273315

I suspect he chose DFC over CTFC because he was earning more at Oriel, in cash, not least since he probably wasn't overly-familiar with the Revenue Commissioners, nor they with him!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Penman_%28footballer,_born_1939%29