‘An out of control womaniser, an Irishman without rules’: Northern Ireland superstar Kyle Lafferty admits he ‘took the p***’ out of his club and international career
Green and White Army and Norwich's cult hero first to confess he was sucked in by the fringe benefits of a footballer’s life
JOHAN CRUYFF has a turn named after him - Kyle Lafferty has a pub.
Highly appropriate for the player who admits he took the ‘p**s’ out of his international career not so long ago.
Striker Lafferty is the first to admit he has been sucked in by the fringe benefits of a footballer’s life and should be much further down the line than the 51 caps he has for Northern Ireland.
It’s not been booze so much as beautiful birds who have held him back, held him down and probably even tied him up during a saucy past.
The exasperated coach at former club Palermo threw up his hands and declared him: “An out of control womaniser, an Irishman without rules.”
Well, at six feet four inches tall, blessed with piercing blue eyes, jet black hair, a schoolboy grin and a joke-a-minute wouldn’t you be?
Lafferty, 27, remains the pin-up boy of the team which has captured everyone’s hearts just by qualifying for the finals.
As such The Mayfly Inn in his hometown of Kesh, will be called ‘Lafferty’ while Northern Ireland are in the tournament.
He keeps a straight face while insisting he is a reformed character, recently re-married and now concerned only with scoring on the pitch at Euro 2016.
But just to be on the safe side his new wife Vanessa Chung will be in France with him and at every match - with the blessing of Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill.
Lafferty said: “I should have gone past 50 caps a long time ago. I took the ‘p**s’ a while back.
“I think I missed 15 or 20 games either through suspension or not being in the right frame of mind.
“I probably preferred to go away to the sun for two or three days rather than play for my country. It should be a special moment and young kids are brought up, and even old men, to give their right arm to play for their country.
“It’s strange because I think the belief I have when I come away with the national team is unbelievable.
"Michael made me realise how important I am to the team.
“I know if I do something stupid and give the ball away, my team isn’t going to shout at me. They’ll believe in me that I’ll do something to change the game. Obviously if I score it benefits everyone.
“They know that if I turn up we can beat anyone really. It’s down to the way the lads have made me.
"The last year has been an absolute nightmare for me, club wise. But I’ve enjoyed coming here and I know I’m going to get game time.
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“Not in a cocky way, but I’m the centre of attention. The more I score the more I want to do even better. The press I’m getting, and the things people say about me I love.
“Three years before they said I should never wear the green shirt again. That was hurtful and I hope I’ve changed a lot of people’s minds and they realise they do need me in the squad.
“I wasn’t fully focussed at the start. Now I am fully focussed and I can’t wait to get to France. I was probably given a bit too much at an early age – I got some big moves and played in big games.
“I played for Glasgow Rangers, the team I supported when I was growing up. Glasgow is a strange place. If you don’t have someone close to you looking out for you, your head will wander.
“Obviously I was one of those people who loved the opportunity to play for Rangers but didn’t quite take it with both hands.”
Lafferty won three Scottish Premier League titles with Rangers. But pulling on a Saturday night out represents a far greater challenge than that - even in Glasgow.
And it’s not only his head that has wandered. Lafferty’s career has taken him from Scotland to Sicily, Switzerland, to England’s second city Birmingham and to the stiffs at Norwich.
Remarkably, he is Northern Ireland’s second highest goalscorer of all time on 16 behind David Healy. Seven came during Euro 2016 qualifying. Yet he cannot get settled at a club, describing last season domestically as a ‘nightmare’.
A sending off for Northern Ireland against Portugal in 2013 marked the line in the sand from where Lafferty fought back to where he is now - the beaming face of the Green And White Army.
He said: “It was probably the lowest point of my career. I did think about chucking it and would the team benefit more without me being there. I spoke to the people who matter to me and they talked me out of it.
“Maybe a month to six weeks after the Portugal game I met my wife now. Although it was early doors, she came to every game. The things she was saying to me, she wanted me to go out and give my all.
“She put me in a nice place. My family will be proud of me no matter what. But someone I’d just met obviously wanted the best for me. When you find someone you love, you want to make them proud.”
Lafferty has turned over a new leaf but is not exactly embarrassed by his reputation as the Palermo playboy.
Smiling, he quipped: “Well, they tried to sign me in January again, so there’s your answer.”