Remember Ronnie O'Brien?

[ballymanabroad]

Did anybody else vote for him in 1999?

Taken from the 'Time' website -
And then there was the luck of the Irish. In August, a previously unknown soccer player named Ronnie O'Brien shot to the top of the poll when a patriotic e-mail campaign motivated thousands of Irish to vote repeatedly for the obscure sportsman. The voting came in so heavily that it caused the entire poll to crash, and when the digital dust cleared, Ronnie was sitting at number one, edging out Yitzhak Rabin, Hitler and Einstein as Person of the Century. Even though these votes were not robotic, we felt that it was silly to have Mr. O'Brien on the poll — that the votes had been cast as somewhat of a joke — so we picked up the pieces and adjusted the results back to their pre-Irish-deluge level. Immediately after we did so our bulletin boards exploded with angry Gaelic diatribes and calls to "Free the TIME One." Said O'Brien about the whole thing, "It's a bit strange. I must owe a lot of people drinks."

We felt like we needed a couple ourselves, especially after a mysterious "Dustin the Turkey" made an inauspicious run at the number one spot in September. But rather than hit the bottle, we began work on "Botbuster," a second-generation robot-protection routine for the POC poll that was supposed to end our troubles.

So here is an update for Ronnie from The Guardian newspaper -
Well, the boy from Bray has gone a long way, literally, since heading through the Riverside exit door. Taking up the story after his, let's say, surprise move to Turin, Juve gave O'Brien a five-year deal.
Barely had he made an impact during the 1998-99 pre-season and Intertoto Cup, la Signora despatched him out on loan to Lugano in Switzerland for six months. He then returned to Italy for further loan spells at Serie B sides Crotone and Lecce. Next stop was Tannadice in 2001, where he rolled up his sleeves in the SPL with Dundee United, before he finally cut his losses at Juventus in 2002.
He then travelled across the Atlantic, no less, where he set about pursuing a career in the United States, playing in the MLS. Dallas Burn [now FC Dallas] took him on, where he impressed in his first season, saw a broken tibia cut short his second, before earning himself a spot in the All-star game during the last campaign. Things continue to go well for the Irishman, with four goals and five assists [!] in ten games this season, helping Dallas to the top of the Western standings.

[OffalyManAway]

He's just moved to Toronto FC which will be a new team in the MLS starting next Season, managed by Mo Johnson.

http://toronto.fc.mlsnet.com/players/bi ... pe=current