Dion Dublin – a great advert for professional football

 

Another special footballer who was a welcome guest at a dinner organised by Haverfordwest County was Dion Dublin, who came along with his Aston Villa team mate Mark Delaney and Mark’s dad Mike and brother Nigel.
 
He was certainly one of the most naturally charming sportsmen I ever met in my pleasurable role of MC as he spoke really well, with great touches of good humour - and at the end of the evening came over with a copy of the programme which he had signed,
“To Bill, thanks for all your help. Dion Dublin.’
 
All I did was introduce him and Mark Delaney, our local Villa star, one of the quietest and most unassuming footballers I have ever met, but also answered questions put to him by members of the appreciative audience which showed his depth of knowledge about football, and shone brightly through all he had to say.
 
Both contributed greatly to a fantastic evening and at the next Bluebirds’ home match the talk from those lucky enough to attend was what a fantastic evening it had been!
 

Much travelled – and much respected for his goal-scoring

 
Dion started out his career as a striker with Norwich City Youth and then had 156 games with Cambridge United before joining Manchester United for a relatively short time, where he was injured - and then transferred to Coventry City, where he used his 6feet-2inch frame to score 61 goals in 145 games.
 
Then he switched to Aston Villa, where he scored 48 goals and told us about some of the defenders who marked him - and finished off with Celtic and Norwich, where 12 goals came from 48 matches and he retired having played a massive 615 games as a professional.
 

Represented England – and popular on TV too!

 
In 1998 he played four times for England against Chile, Morocco, Belgium and the Czech Republic and was considered by top pundits of the time to be unlucky not to be included in the squad for the following season.
 
Off the field, Dion reached the final of Celebrity Master Chef and has been a regular presenter of the popular TV programme ‘Homes Under the Hammer’!
 
With such a rich background of experiences it is inevitable that he is a great footballing pundit, with Sky Sports using him as an expert on their Premier League matches – and I can’t help but wonder what he thinks about some of today’s on-field antics from some so-called stars of the game.
 
But more importantly, he comes across as someone who loves his football but is also good with supporters; which he proved on that memorable night with Haverfordwest County as he stayed late and mingled freely with a packed and appreciative audience.