Sam Allardyce, who is tipped to be the next England football manager, owes his career to an Irish Catholic priest, the Irish News has reported.
Allardyce, known as 'Big Sam', is a strong contender to be the next England coach after his current club, Sunderland, allowed him to open talks with the Football Association.
"It is a world apart from the start of his management career in 1991 at Limerick FC, when he bought into a priest with a wild dream," the Irish News said.
A parish priest in Limerick, Fr. Joe Young, was also chairman of Limerick FC in 1991, when he phoned Allardyce, who had been sacked two years earlier as assistant manager at West Brom, the club the priest supported as a child. Young offered Allerdyce the role of player-manager but initially Allardyce thought it was a joke.
In his autobiography, Allardyce wrote: "The phone rang one evening. 'Hello Sam, it's Fr Joe Young here'. 'P*** off', I said, and put the receiver down. I couldn't be bothered with any prank calls, I wasn't in the mood. The phone went again and the voice protested: 'Sam, please, I really am Fr Joe Young and I'm the chairman of Limerick. We wonder if you'd be interested in becoming player-manager of our club'. What did I have to lose? Joe was the head of the local parish and his church was just round the corner in the poorest area of Limerick. The fans may have been small in number but they were a passionate lot who crowded into the social club afterwards which was the lifeblood of Limerick, where takings at the bar kept the team going."
Allardyce, 61, recalls turning up to see the set-up at Limerick FC, which amounted to a pitch, one shower and a burnt out bar. Young would raise funds for the club with collection tins around the area's pubs.
"We all have to start somewhere," Young told him.
Allardyce left Limerick after just one season having secured the second tier title and promotion.
Having enjoyed a successful subsequent career at Bolton and West Ham, Allardyce steered Sunderland to Premier League survival last season.
Allardyce was originally interviewed for the top England job in 2006, only to be overlooked in favour of Steve McClaren, who resigned after England crashed out of the European Championships last month.
