What’s a Real McCoy? Chunky, manly, not to be taken lightly. (Like McCoy’s Crisps, of course.) Here’s a quintet of football’s men’s men. Nobody messed with these five Real McCoys.
Now it isn’t a list of football’s hard men. You won’t find cloggers like Vinny Jones in here. This is a list of lads you wouldn’t want to cross. Heroes on and off the pitch.
Harry Gregg
Being voted goalkeeper of the tournament at the 1958 World Cup, ahead of Russian legend Lev Yashin, is fairly impressive but the Northern Ireland stopper makes this list for his heroic actions after the Munich air disaster earlier that same year.
Gregg is credited with saving the lives of Manchester United team-mates Jackie Blanchflower, Dennis Violett and Bobby Charlton, as well as helping his badly injured boss Matt Busby on the runway that night. Gregg went on to play with United until 1966 but his bravery that night in Germany, and his dignified statements on the subject since, means he makes the list.
Richard Dunne
Does anyone embody the grit and resolve of this current Irish team more than Richard Dunne? Okay so the Dubliner, like this Irish team, is never going to dazzle you with sublime skills but as far as honest toil goes, you can’t go wrong.
Cruelly cast aside by Man City as soon as the money men turned up, Dunne went to Aston Villa and kept up his high standards in typically no-nonsense fashion. But it’s his performance in Moscow for Ireland last year, hailed as the greatest ever performance by none other than Paul McGrath, that sealed his place here.
With half his face hanging off, in a shirt drawn on in marker, Dunne repelled wave after wave of Russian attacks to ensure we stayed on track for the promised land of Euro 2012. Even his famed propensity for own goals is a positive for this list as it is usually caused by his commitment to the job of defending. One to have with you in trenches, as the saying goes.
Zinedine Zidane
Harder than a bullet thrown by Chuck Norris, Zidane had all the skill in the world and the muscle to back it up. He could beat you many, many ways with his brain but if you started to get a bit lippy, well, he would nut you.
Italian defender Marco Materazzi learnt that lesson in the 2006 World Cup final. That the Frenchman would choose to defend the honour of his family (allegedly) rather than stay on the pitch, in his final ever game remember, is a level of manliness that we can’t quite comprehend.
That or he is mad, we’re not sure but looking at his career as a whole we will verge, just, on the side of genius.
Johnny Giles
That he is the only person Eamon Dunphy usually agrees with is fairly remarkable but Giles’ entire career is a flawless display of manliness.
Moving to England at 16, playing at Manchester United as a teenager before becoming a legend at Leeds United, Giles’s football career was one long story of success. With Billy Bremner he formed possibly the scariest midfield duo to ever play together and in a team of hard men at Leeds United, Giles was often acknowledged as the hardest, despite his small stature.
For Ireland he served his country with distinction before managing them and then returning home to try and resurrect Shamrock Rovers. Since then he has kept the RTE soccer coverage grounded with solid analysis and he now comes across as a dear old uncle. We won’t fully appreciate him until he is gone, which we hope is a long, long way away.
Denis Law
Robbie Keane’s non-celebrations when he scores against one of his many former clubs is well known but Denis Law’s reaction after he thought he had relegated his beloved Manchester United as a Manchester City player in 1974, is the gold standard of the genre.
In the end United would have gone down anyway but Law wasn’t to know that at the time. He has never spoken about the most painful goal of his career and his love for United shines through even now. As footballers go, there are few classier ones on or off the field than Law.
He is one of the three legends (with Bobby Charlton and George Best) who are immortalised outside of Old Trafford, and Dennis Bergkamp is named after him (by parents who clearly didn’t win many spelling competitions at school). Need we say more?
McCoy’s Crisps are the title sponsors of the McCoy’s Premier League Darts, which takes place in Dublin for the first time ever next week (Thursday 22 March). We’ve loads of McCoy’s Premier League Darts darts-related stuff over here if you’re interested. For ticket details about the big event at the O2 on Thursday 22 March, see this link. And finally, if you like your Real McCoys with a GAA twist this should be of interest.
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