SIMPLY THE BEST: SOCCER LEGEND PAUL ‘SKI’ MCGEE
Sligo’s soccer supremo Paul ‘Ski’ McGee lined out against Pelé, Gullitt and Best. He told Gerry McLaughlin about his superlative career
SIMPLY THE best – and definitely Sligo’s own “King of Clubs”. When they argue about who was the greatest Sligo Rovers player of them all, then the really legendary Paul “Ski” McGee must be right up there at the top of the list.
The swaggering, dashing McGee had magic boots, great vision, two sublime feet, an eye for a goal and supreme self-belief in a career that began for Rovers as a 15-yearold in 1970 and did not end until 1997 when he was still playing and was top scorer with Galway United.
In between, the career of this truly remarkable Sligo and north-west sporting legend is real Roy of the Rovers stuff.
In his prime he had all the gifts – competitive, classy, charismatic electric pace and deadly in front of goal. And there was always that frisson of expectation whenever he got possession that you only associate with the true greats.
Paul is the only Sligo Rovers player to line out with the Republic of Ireland at senior level and that is a record in itself.
McGee won a First Division title with Sligo Rovers in 1977, an FAI title with Finn Harps in 1974 and League of Ireland Cup title with Derry City in 1990-91. And he won a Shield medal and two League cups with Galway United.
He also lined out with Shamrock Rovers, Dundalk, Waterford, Athlone and, briefly, Ballymena United. At the age of 38 in 1992, he was back at Sligo Rovers and was top scorer and had six different spells with his native club.
He came back from a serious injury in a road traffic accident at Cliffoney to play with his son Alan for Salthill Devon in Galway, where he now lives in Barna.
That is only part of Paul’s story. He had a remarkable international career with Ireland and in the English First Division and Dutch top tier, a measure of his true quality.
Paul was one of the key men in that magnificent Sligo Rovers team that won the League of Ireland in the 1976-77 season – for some, the town’s greatest-ever side.
He was headhunted by Queens Park Rangers and spent three great seasons there from 1978-1980. While there he hit a real wonder goal against Ipswich Town in 1978 when he ran the length of the field to thump home one of the greatest goals ever seen in the First Division against the then league leaders.
It was featured on The Big Match, was a candidate for Goal of the Year and drew the admiration of the late, great ITV commentator Brian Moore. In those days Paul was competing on an equal level with England captain Gerry Francis and Stan Bowles at QPR and was on a side that had come second to Liverpool in the championship the previous season. Paul also won an English Football League Second Division title with Burnley and scored twice in the clinching match, which was a victory over Southend in 1982.
Burnley signed “Ski” for £100,000 and Preston signed him for over £200,000 when he was arguably at the peak of his powers.
HE RECALLED: “I was on good money at Burnley – probably around £4,000 a week.” He lined out with Preston North End as well as Haarlem in the Dutch First Division in the mid-1980s and played against the greats Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullitt and Frank Rijkaard.
Paul also played briefly with Kidderminster Harriers and Hereford United – which must make him Sligo’s King of Clubs.
During this golden period, Ski lined out for the Republic of Ireland on 15 occasions after gaining 10 youth caps and two U-21 caps.
He made his debut against Turkey and scored with a diving header in a 4-2 victory and also found the net against Czechoslavakia when they were European champions.
Paul played against England twice – in a one-all draw in the 1979 European Championship, and at Wembley when goals from Kevin Keegan and Glenn Hoddle gave the Old Enemy victory.
He also played against the great Argentinian side of that era and has the jerseys of Daniel Passerella and the late Diego Maradona from 1978, the year the gifted South Americans won the World Cup and Mario Kempes was supreme.
He also has the distinction of playing against the great Pelé when he was playing in Canada for Montreal Castors against the New Yok Cosmos in the mid-1970s.
Listening to Ski, you know he is a person of great positivity and selfbelief as opposed to arrogance, a man who is passionate about the beautiful game he adored for so long, but also a grateful man who name-checks his famous Sligo Rovers colleague Tony Fagan as the one “who made me as a footballer”.
He said: “Fago knocked some of the fancy touches out of me and toughened me up which stood me in great stead when I later player in England and in Holland.”
And his sunny spirit has opened a lot of doors in his truly extraordinary sporting career.
Paul McGee was born in 1954 in a house across from where St Anne’s Church is now. The house was connected to Sligo Gaol.
His grandfather Oliver Moody was the Gaol governor, and his mother Kitty Moody gave birth to Paul in that house.
Paul’s father’s name was Frank McGee, who was a vet and the family later lived out in Barraroe House in Doonally just off the Sligo-Manorhamilton road.
“My mum was just staying in the
the Gaol house to give birth to me and we were living in Knocknarea Villas in Maugheraboy.”
It was right beside the St Mary’s and The Showgrounds.
Paul said: “My father used to bring me to the Sligo Rovers matches every Sunday and I was so small that when it rained, he could shelter me under his long coat.”
Those were the halcyon days of Jimmy Burnside and Gerry Mitchell. Paul began playing in the street leagues that were organised by Fr Michael Donnelly and practised kicking with his right and left foot for hours on end at home, where he developed those silken skills. He played U-14 for Maugheraboy United. He went to Summerhill, making the senior soccer side when he was only in his second year, and won an All-Ireland title – that game was played in The Showgrounds under the tutelage of Fr Ricky Devine.
Ski – who he says he does not know where the nickname came from – then won a second All-Ireland with the college. He scored a hat-trick against Chanel College at Tolka Park and Summerhill won 4-3.
But then, in 1970, Paul had made his debut for Sligo Rovers at the age of 15 and realised the first of his three dreams.
He said: “We were lucky as we had a good team up in Summerhill College. Fr Ricky Devine was totally into soccer and that was lucky for me. I also played GAA with Summerhill and St Mary’s.”
“Johnny Brookes was at Sligo Rovers and he used to come up to the college to give some coaching lessons every Wednesday.
“He saw something in me, and he said something like ‘you should come up to the Showgrounds and train’. That was music to my ears.
“At this stage we were living out in Doonally so I was cycling to The Showgrounds. I was a ball boy first for the club.
“Ken Turner was the manager then and he let me train and that was the start of a great career.”
Paul played four games for Rovers. The first one was a 2-2 draw against neighbours Finn Harps.
Paul said: “In those days the crowds were huge compared to today and I was just looking at that match against Shamrock Rovers to win the league in 1977 and there were 9,000 to 10,000 regularly in The Showgrounds.” Paul was very keen to play abroad so he went to Kiddeminster Harriers and Hereford United, the team that famously dumped the Malcolm McDonald-inspired Newcastle United out of the FA Cup.
He said: “I was only 17 or 18 and it was a very good experience.”
Paul came back to Sligo. Finn Harps came calling and Ski was off to Ballybofey to play along with the great Jim Sheridan (who also played with Sligo Rovers), Brendan Bradley and Terry Harkin, and won an FAI
Cup medal in 1974 at the age of 20. “Harps had a lot of good players, a lot from Derry as there was no real team there in those days, and I learned a lot from playing with them. “We won the FAI Cup in 1974 and that was a great year. Then in 1975-76 the great Billy Sinclair became manager of Sligo Rovers and he swapped me for Joe Logan.”
That was a good move for Paul as he was part of that great 1976-77 Rovers side that won a first League of Ireland title in 40 years.
Paul said: “I was back in The Showgrounds and Billy Sinclair was simply the best, so very organised and professional. He was a great help to me.
“Those summers I was going to Canada and played with Toronto Mets and Montreal Castors. I played against Pelé when he was with Cosmos and George Best twice when he was at Fort Lauderdale and Los Angeles, so I was well toughened up.” “I went there at 16 and was there for four years. Pele was just magic to play against. I also played against Franz Beckenbauer and other great names.”
Meanwhile, that 1976-77 Rovers team had some great players like Tony Fagan, Chris Rutherford, Harry McLoughlin, Gary Hulmes, Mick Betts, Mick Leonard and Paul Fielding.
Paul said: “Billy made some great signings and strengthened us and Fago ran the show. He really toughened me up.
“At one stage I thought he was roughing me up. But he wasn’t, he was just trying to teach me the game and how hard it would be.
“Fago helped me a lot and prepared me for the stick I was going to get when I went to England.”
“This was obviously a big break for me. Barry Bridges of QPR was there and told me they wanted to sign me.”
THIS WAS a real dream come true for Paul, who played with Phil Parkes, Gerry Francis, Stan Bowles, Don Givens and many other big names. He said: “I have had a dream life really as we had 11 internationals on that QPR team.
“QPR were second in the English First Division to Liverpool the year before I joined, and they only lost on goal difference.
“Leighton James was playing, a Welsh international. Ian Gillard and Dave Clements were the two fullbacks and they were internationals as well.
“I played as a striker, at 9 or 11, and I loved playing up front and loved to score goals – and thankfully did score quite a few.”
And then in 1978 Ski scored a superb solo goal against then league leaders Ipswich Town, who had Terry Butcher, Kevin Beattie, John Wark, John Robetson and Paul Mariner in their ranks.
Paul picked up a loose ball 10 yards from his own goal and beat a number of flailing tackles to fire home a cracker for QPR which became was a candidate for Goal of the Year. We all saw it on The Big Match with Brian Moore in 1978.
Paul said: “Yeah, Stan Bowles made a run to the left which helped open up things for me and I did a dummy on the edge of the box and hammered it home.”
It was a goal scored by a Sligo man that George Best would have been proud of.
“That was my third game for QPR, and that goal made me a bit of a star I suppose. All of a sudden people knew who I was, and Sligo got a lot of publicity out of it as I’d just signed from Sligo Rovers.
“I had come on as a sub that day for Don Givens.”
Paul had three great years with QPR, more than holding his own in the English First Division, but a new manager called Tommy Docherty, who had just left Man United, told him and ex-Northern Ireland international Billy Hamilton that they were not in his plans.
Paul said: “Billy Hamilton and I were up front for QPR and were doing well together. When I later joined Burnley, we won the Second Division championship. Billy and I scored 20 goals each that year. Those were great years overall for me.”
Paul had been warned by some Irish international colleagues that the Doc “didn’t like Irish players”. But Paul also had three golden years with the Republic of Ireland side from 1978 to 1980, playing 16 times and making a big impression. He said: “When I was a kid, kicking around in Knocknaraea Villas, I told someone that I had three dreams. “One was to play for Sligo Rovers, two was to play against Man United, and three was to play for my country. And I am just so grateful that I was able to make them all come true. “I have always loved Rovers and was there as a ball boy when Tom Lally of Galway was there playing in goal and I just had to be close to the place.
“I always wanted to play against Man United because I loved them, especially George Best.
“My first big game to see was the 1968 European Cup final and that left a huge impression on me. That was unreal to see and then I played and scored against Man United twice.’ Paul lined out against Jimmy and Brian Greenhoff, Martin Buchan, Gordon McQueen, Lou Macari, Steve Coppell and Gordon Hill, and QPR held their own with them.
“We beat United at Loftus Road and I scored a goal with five minutes to go. Thankfully I was always able to score against the big clubs.
“That was a real dream and I also scored against them on my first visit to Old Trafford, but I don’t remember it as I was briefly knocked out. “I always scored against Liverpool
“That QPR goal made me a bit of a star. All of a sudden people knew who I was, and Sligo got a lot of publicity as I’d just signed from Rovers”