Damien Duff

Damien Duff

Damien in action for Ireland

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Chelsea and Republic of Ireland superstar Damien Duff - who was transferred from Blackburn Rovers to Chelsea for £17stg. million in the summer of 2003 - is Colm Keane's special New Year's Eve guest on Ireland's Soccer Top 20, Friday 31 December, 7.02-7.30pm, RTÉ Radio 1.

From Ballyboden in Dublin, Damien joined Blackburn Rovers in the mid-1990s having been spotted playing Dublin schoolboy soccer by Blackburn scout, Pat Devlin.

"It didn't get to me until the second year and that's when I wanted to go home," Damien says of his initial loneliness at Blackburn Rovers.  "I went in on one occasion and saw Alan Irvine, my youth team manager, and I was just crying in front of him, a big cry-baby.  Ray Harford, the manager, came in as well.  They were brilliant with me.  They thought the best thing for me to do was not to go home because that would make it worse.  So they brought my family over and looked after me."     

On the programme, Damien speaks of his skills as a footballer, his bronze medal at the 1997 U-20 World Youth Championship finals, his first cap for the Republic of Ireland and his propensity to sleep long hours - referred to by Ireland team manager Brian Kerr as 'adhesive mattress syndrome.'

"Obviously I like my kip," Damien says.  "It's a hard game I work in and you need your rest.  When I first came into the squad I liked to go to bed in the afternoons and have two or three hours but my mam has got me out of that.  So I suppose a couple of days a week I like to get a good 12-hour kip in, go to bed around nine and get up at nine for training.  I feel so good after it."

He also talks about his early influences watching the Republic of Ireland soccer team perform at Euro '88 and Italia '90.  "I remember watching all the games and wearing the jerseys.  I think we watched most of the games down in the Glenside pub with my dad, having a Coke with a Guinness head.  They were brilliant, each player for different reasons."

Talking of the future, in this rare interview, he concludes: "I'm just a kid that loves playing football.  I want to be a world-class player, first and foremost.  I work hard at the game and that's what I want to do.  I'm very lucky and I appreciate everything that I get."