Richard Sadlier

For the Australian politician, see Richard Sadleir.

Richard Sadlier
Personal information
Full name Richard Sadlier
Date of birth (1979-01-14) 14 January 1979 (age 45)
Place of birth Dublin, Ireland
Position(s) Striker
Youth career
Leicester Celtic
Belvedere
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1996–2004 Millwall 103 (34)
International career
Republic of Ireland U18
Republic of Ireland U20
2002 Republic of Ireland 1 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Richard Sadlier (born 14 January 1979, in Dublin) is an Irish former professional footballer[1] and former CEO of St Patrick's Athletic.[2] Since retirement from the professional game he has worked as a pundit with RTÉ Sport.[3]

Club career

He began his career at youth level with Broadford Rovers before joining Leicester Celtic and Belvedere before joining Millwall F.C. He was educated at St. Benildus College where he excelled on the sports fields.

Richard helped Millwall towards becoming 2000–01 Second Division Champions but was forced to watch from the stand as Millwall reached the 2004 FA Cup Final in his final season. A striker, Sadlier scored 34 goals in 103 starts for Millwall. In an interview with the BBC, Mark McGhee named Sadlier as potentially the best young centre forward he had ever worked with in his managerial career.[4] In 2003, Sadlier retired from the professional game due to a hip injury at the age of 24.[4]

International career

Sadlier represented his country at the 1997 UEFA European Under-18 Championship, and scored Ireland's goal against Spain in the third-place playoff.

Sadlier's only cap at senior level came against Russia in a friendly at Lansdowne Road on 13 February 2002.[5] He was highly favoured to make Mick McCarthy's final 23-man Republic of Ireland squad for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, but had to withdraw with a hip injury which ultimately ended his football career prematurely.[4]

Board appointment

In 2007, Sadlier was appointed to the board of St Patrick's Athletic F.C.[6] He resigned from his post at St Patrick's at the end of the 2009 season.

Media career

In 2006, Sadlier was approached to write a column for the Sunday Independent after previously doing some punditry work with Setanta Sports, he also contributes regularly to Newstalk.

In 2008, Sadlier joined RTÉ's panel of pundits for its League of Ireland coverage, dominated by Monday Night Soccer.[7][8] He later contributed to RTÉ Sport's coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.[9][10] He became a panellist on RTÉ Two's Premier Soccer Saturday, and covered the 2010–11 Premier League.[11] In 2012, Sadlier was a studio analyst as part of RTÉ Sport's coverage of UEFA Euro 2012, and also appeared on Craig Doyle Live on 11 June 2012. In June 2013, he was part of RTÉ Sport's coverage of the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup alongside Ronnie Whelan and Kenny Cunningham. He was also part of RTÉ Sport's studio coverage of the 2014 FIFA World Cup,[12] the UEFA Euro 2016, the 2018 FIFA World Cup,[13][14] UEFA Euro 2020, 2022 FIFA World Cup, and UEFA Euro 2024.[15]

Personal life

Sadlier got married in 2019 and has a son born in 2023.[16] Sadlier has spoken publicly of suffering from depression, particularly following the death of fellow professional Gary Speed.[17] Sadlier holds a BSc in Sports Science from the University of Surrey and a Higher Diploma and MA in Psychotherapy from Dublin Business School. His autobiography called Recovering was released in 2019 and won the 2019 Irish Sports Book of the Year award. [18]

Honours

Millwall

Football League Trophy Runner Up-1998-99

References

  1. ^ More beers, fewer cheers for my return independent.ie
  2. ^ [1][permanent dead link‍]
  3. ^ Bielenberg, Kim (22 October 2011). "The top 10 waiting in the wings". Irish Independent. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  4. ^ a b c "Injury forces Sadlier to quit". BBC News. 4 September 2003.
  5. ^ "Republic of Ireland 2 – 0 Russia". Soccerscene.ie. 13 February 2002. Retrieved 15 November 2010.
  6. ^ "Sadlier named on Saints board". RTÉ News. 19 June 2007. Archived from the original on 9 October 2007.
  7. ^ "RTÉ Sport: Monday Night Soccer". RTÉ News. Archived from the original on 18 May 2008. Retrieved 12 January 2019.
  8. ^ "Monday Night Soccer". RTÉ. Archived from the original on 16 September 2017. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  9. ^ Black, Fergus (2 June 2010). "RTÉ hopes Ossie and squad will spur fans to back home team". Irish Independent. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
  10. ^ O'Malley, Carl (2 June 2010). "RTÉ roll out big guns for their 56 live games". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
  11. ^ "TV Listings, Radio Listings, 7 day Listings, Satellite & TV Guide, Irish, Radio Guide, Television Guide – RTÉ Ten". RTÉ News. Archived from the original on 12 September 2012. Retrieved 12 January 2019.
  12. ^ "Move over Dunphy… RTÉ adds new faces to World Cup coverage". The Score. 6 June 2014. Archived from the original on 6 June 2014. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
  13. ^ "RTÉ Sport unveils Euro 2016 coverage". RTE Sport. 2 June 2016. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
  14. ^ "RTÉ Sport Launches 2018 FIFA World Cup Coverage". RTE Presspack. 6 June 2018. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  15. ^ "RTÉ announces details of UEFA EURO 2020 coverage – live and exclusive". about.rte.ie. 10 June 2021. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
  16. ^ "Richard Sadlier on the Tommy Tiernan Show Season 7, Episode 10". 11 March 2023.
  17. ^ Russell, Adrian. "Richard Sadlier: 'I never dreamed about telling anyone in the dressing-room'". The42. Retrieved 12 January 2019.
  18. ^ "Richie Sadlier: 'I thought I'd better find out where my abuser was'". Guardian. 11 April 2020. Retrieved 13 May 2020.