He was a footballer but he never lost sight of himself.
Damien Duff still treasures the simple things in life. He still values manners and hard work above all else. He’s been fortunate enough to have earned a hell of a lot of money throughout a prestigious career but he hasn’t let that money control him.
In fact, he doesn’t even control that money. His mam does.
In an interview with The Ray D’Arcy Show on RTÉ Radio 1, Duffer revealed that he’s still just living off pocket money.
“I’ve never been big on the money thing; my mam still looks after my money,” he said. “I’m still on pocket money from my mam. I just have a card and go and take my money out of the wall – I let her deal with everything.
“Football’s a well-paid sport, I guess I’ve been lucky that way, but it doesn’t necessarily bring happiness.”
Life after football is a prospect that haunts many a player, especially one like the Ireland legend who has been immersed in it for 20 years.
“It’s been my life. I have no other real interests,” Duff admitted to Ray D’Arcy. “Even the retirement word – I hate that. I feel like I’m 70 or 80 and I should have a big party. I tried the punditry last week, I thought it went well, obviously I’m a bit biased but I’d like to try it again. It’s a bit rich coming from me because I always disliked pundits, I always said I’d never do it and here I am.
“A lot of ex footballers always told me, ‘have something in place, be careful’ and what have you. But I guess footballers maybe don’t want to look that far ahead. I have nothing in place and I know footballers can get into a spot of bother after they finish – a lot of ex players have had problems – but I’m keeping myself busy and for me it’s all about family. I’m happy doing the school run at the minute.
“I wouldn’t be one for limelight; Twitter, Facebook, social media, nothing. I just like to go home to the hills of Kilmacanogue and just chill out.”
Now he can chill out and watch his old boss work wonders with Leicester City. Duff is a big fan of Claudio Ranieri. Almost as much as he was of Trap.
“He’s a great guy,” he said. “He’d be similar to Trapattoni – real charismatic, a manager you want to work hard for and go to war with. But I’ve never seen anything like this done before. There’s still a bit of me worried that they might slip up but the other teams look as if they don’t want to catch them.
“It’s great to see that you can get places just with hunger and desire and pure hard work and that’s what they’re doing.”
