Person of the Century Takes on Kansas City
In 1999, Time Magazine held an online poll to find the Person of the Century. Before the poll finished, an Irish man, a former supermarket shelf stacker from Bray in County Wicklow, topped it.
With 16% of the vote the Irish man was ahead of the likes of Churchill, Martin Luther King, Einstein, Gandhi, Hitler, Elvis, Pope John Paul II, Bill Gates, and Yitzhak Rabin who was in second place.
Today that Irishman takes on Kansas City. Maybe.
Ronnie O’Brien is currently a midfielder with Toronto FC, and today they play the Kansas City Wizards. Toronto are the newest team in the MLS and are coached by former Wizard and Glasgow Celtic great, Mo Johnston. Today is the first home game for the expansionist club.
O’Brien has missed Toronto’s first three games with a knee injury, including last Wednesday’s game, the 3-0 defeat to the Wizards at Arrowhead, so will start this game on the bench, but Johnston is hoping to bring him on in the later stages of the match to see some action against Kansas City.
Back in 1999 in an earlier online poll before the Time vote, Ronnie O’Brien was voted the most promising newcomer to the squad of Juventus in Italy. The only thing more surprising about that was that Juventus had signed O’Brien on a five-year contract in the first place.
Time’s computers crashed before voting was finished in 1999, supposedly wiping out all votes. O’Brien was removed from the process with Time claiming he was a whimsical character and that not enough people had heard of him.
I’ll let you know if enough Kansas City Wizards get to hear of the whimsical Irish man today.
UPDATE: Ronnie was left on the bench, an unused substitute, and Kansas City beat Toronto 1-0, ruining what would have been a great MLS home debut for FC.
See Also:
• Watching Soccer in the USA
• Meeting Diego Maradona in Ireland
• Irish Lose: O Dear, O-dear O-dear O-dear
Eolaí gan Fhéile:
Everyone’s so excited about the new FC. There was a segment on the CBC radio yesterday talking about fan songs that they’re trying to encourage sung to the tune of “Jesus Christ Superstar.” I take it that singing’s just not part of the Canadian sports tradition.
Are they retaining use of the word ’superstar’ in those songs as in the first football song I would ever have sung, “Gergie Best Superstar”?
Although of course being rather young, and male, I sang the version that had George walking like a woman and wearing a bra.
I’m just asking because really one should become a superstar before one is acclaimed as one - and even Mo Mo, super Mo isn’t quite there. But Ronnie of course a world famous ledge.
No, just the tune. The lyrics just washed over me, I’m afraid. I’ve had a long held grudge against sports but I’m trying to lighten up on that.
Since Best has the airport named after him and legions of fans still, I’ll accept his superstar status unquestioned.