I ONCE had the pleasure of Ian Harte’s company for a couple of hours in February 2007 at the training ground of Levante near Valencia, a place blighted by industrial pollution, and as he looked at smoke billowing from a cement factory he remarked “we will all be dead by the time we are 35”. Thankfully, that has turned out not be the case and last week as he announced his retirement he spoke affectionately of meandering towards old age, watching his children grow up, well away from the world of football of which he no longer wishes to be a part.
He will certainly be missed, and fondly remembered, particularly by Leeds United and Republic of Ireland supporters. He joined Leeds as a 16-year-old and left nine years later, and was an integral part of the team along with his uncle Gary Kelly, which briefly threatened to disrupt the dominance enjoyed at the time by Manchester United and Arsenal. Eventually he was frozen out by Kevin Blackwell as the Leeds dream descended into a nightmare and was hurt by the manner of departure from the club.
Asked last week to name his favourite moment in football he chose the goal he scored for Leeds in the quarter finals of the 2001 Champions League against Deportivo La Coruna at Elland Road. It was slightly surprising that he hadn’t chosen a moment with Ireland, for he was hugely passionate about playing for his country and did so with distinction over 63 caps. Not surprisingly, given his deadly accuracy with set pieces, he has scored 12 international goals and only one Ireland defender, Noel Cantwell, scored more — 14 — though and he used to sometimes play up front.
Ask him for his worst moment in football and he might well choose his penalty miss in the 2002 World Cup game against Spain, when a successful strike might have tipped things Ireland’s way in a tie which was eventually lost in a penalty shoot-out.
However, one of his big frustrations for somebody who was so proud of what he achieved playing for his country was learning that Giovanni Trapattoni and Marco Tardelli not only didn’t come to see him when he was at Reading but were apparently unaware of his illustrious international pedigree.
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If the end was difficult for Ireland so too was the beginning, when he was introduced on the international scene by Mick McCarthy as a centre-half, but the manager quickly saw the error of his ways and shifted him to left-back.
Harte turns 38 tomorrow and long may he prosper.