DIDI HAMANN was back on our TV screens as his compatriots at Dortmund upset the odds in Paris.
Having travelled there with a 1-0 lead, they wound up repeating the trick and dumped Kylian Mbappe and the rest of their more illustrious foes out.
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But the former Liverpool midfielder is not solely drafted in to give a token insight into German sides.
He’s been a long-running – if sporadic – presence on RTE screens since all the way back in 2010 when he joined the national broadcaster’s punditry stable for the World Cup.
As to how the 59-times capped star wound up being enlisted in the first place, it simply came down to one producer trying his luck.
In a 2022 Irish Examiner interview, Hamann recalled: “I’d made a few appearances on the BBC’s Football Focus and then Match of the Day.
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“I don’t know if [RTE sport producer] Eugene O’Neill saw them but he asked me would I mind coming over to Dublin for the 2010 World Cup.
“And right away I found myself learning so much from the guys who were there – John, Liam, Eamon, Bill.”
His forthright style made him a natural fit with Messers Giles, Brady and Dunphy – and a hit with viewers.
Ever since then he’s routinely cropped up on big-time Champions League, World Cup and Euros broadcasts as well as plenty of Ireland internationals.
Indeed, he even amusingly refers to Ireland as ‘we’ when outlining why Stephen Kenny or whomever needs to perform better in their roles.
These days his trips to Dublin are a bit longer as he moved home a few years ago after living in the UK for over two decades.
Brexit prompted this decision as he explained how it turned him off Britain altogether.
“I just thought with all the challenges we face these days in Europe and the world and the need for co-operation, I didn’t want to live in a country that didn’t want to be part of it.
“I’d also been working for a few years by then for Sky covering the Bundesliga a couple of times a week so I had been thinking of it [moving to Munich] anyway.
“But Brexit sealed it for me.”
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View on Irish job
In November 2023 he went on the record that if it were up to him, Roy Keane would succeed Kenny as Republic of Ireland boss.
Having battled the Corkman on many an occasion, he clearly values someone who holds similarly old school values.
He explained: “Roy Keane would be my first choice for the Ireland job!”
“The national side doesn’t have a sponsor for the senior team yet, and Roy would give them five or ten sponsors straight away!
“I’m not saying that’s the only reason they should consider Roy because we all know he can manage at the highest level.
“He’s a very well-respected man on and off the pitch.
“I’m not sure if he’ll take the job, but people tell me he may. He’d be the first one I’d speak to. He’d be my choice.”
