‘What makes me the happiest is seeing my little fella score a goal’
IT WASN’T talk of playing for Celtic or Manchester United or living a life others could only dream of which elicited the most emotion from Liam Miller.
It wasn’t winning the Under 16 European Championships with Ireland in 1998 or representing his country at senior level 21 times – scoring a spectacular 25yard strike against Sweden at Lansdowne Road along the way – which sparked the modest star into tales of nostalgia.
It was life with wife Clare, daughter Belle and sons Kory and Leo which was the source of all his happiness. ‘What I really enjoy is watching my little boy [Kory] play. I just enjoy watching all the kids play ball, that’s quite a nice thing to see, the innocence of it all,’ Miller told the Irish Mail on Sunday just a few days before playing in the 2015 FAI Cup final for hometown club Cork City.
‘They’re playing with a smile on their face which is how it should be. They all want to go out and be little Messis on the pitch. It’s fantastic, so let the kids play. ‘I just enjoy when my little fella scores a goal because it makes him happy. It makes me very happy as well. He says to me the other day “Dad, when are you going to score a goal?” So it would be nice to get off the mark in the cup final… But I’ll give it up all day long for a win.’
Cork lost that final to Dundalk, but Miller played a key role under manager John Caulfield in helping to drive the standards forward which eventually led to the Leesiders becoming the standard bearers in the League of Ireland last season.
Members of the squad who remained after he left and tasted league and cup success all paid their own tributes since news of his passing following a battle with cancer broke on Friday night.
They lauded him as a tremendous professional, somebody who set an example for peers as well as the next generation and, most of all, as a man of integrity.
Those traits, and talent, prompted Alex Ferguson to sign him for Manchester United from Celtic in 2004 with a view to him learning the ropes from Roy Keane and Paul Scholes and eventually establishing his place at Old Trafford.
‘For me, those two were the best [in the world]. So, yes, I knew what I was going into at United,’ Miller told the Irish Examiner in early 2015.
‘I wasn’t expecting to be better than them, but I thought if I could play with these guys and learn off them – I was still very young — it could really bring me on as a player. And if I could have progressed like that, it would have been great. But obviously I didn’t.’
Returning home to Cork following four years in Australia from 2011 was a huge source of pride for Miller, and having Kory and Leo as ball boys for the majority of Cork’s games at Turner’s Cross was perhaps the closest he came to ever wanting to show off.
And he was part of a team with two of his own childhood friends, goalkeeper Mark McNulty and another former Celtic and Ireland midfielder Colin Healy.
Sitting on a wooden bench on that freezing cold morning in Bishopstown in November 2015, Miller had all the usual aches and pains you would expect from a veteran midfielder. But there was still a joy of the game in his heart fuelling his intense competitive instincts.
‘I think even though it is my job, I’ve sort of never labelled it like “oh, I’m doing my job”. I’m fortunate that I’m doing something that I absolutely love, that I wouldn’t change for the world,’ he said.
‘I’m very personally proud to be from Cork, to play for what I consider to be my local team in front of family and friends but at the same time you’ve got to do your stuff, you need to train hard and turn up in games. Nothing else matters. Nothing you say will count on the pitch.
‘I still feel, what’s the saying? You’re only as old as you feel. There are a couple more years left in me, definitely.’
Sadly, cancer cruelly took his life just days before his 37th birthday and if there is any solace to be taken it can be found from his own words. ‘I genuinely look back and think, “I played for Celtic”, my boyhood club,’ he recalled. ‘I dreamed of playing for Man United and I got that opportunity as well. I don’t know how many other people can say they played for their two childhood clubs, or even one childhood club. Of course, I would have loved to play more games, don’t get me wrong, but I got to learn from some of the best players ever. Looking back, it was wonderful.’
I got to learn from some of the best players in the world