Nestled among the mounted memorabilia on a wall in Dominic Foley’s home is a framed PAOK Thessaloniki zebra striped jersey. After a night of mulish defiance in northern Greece, he made sure not to leave Toumba Stadium without one.
His time in Greece might have been brief, but it wasn’t nothing. Foley made seven appearances in the Greek top-flight for Ethnikos Piraeus, between January and March 1999, yet he managed to finish the season as the club’s joint top goalscorer.
His Greek adventure was overseen by Howard Kendall, in what was to be the doyen’s last managerial post of a storied career. Foley bagged a hat-trick on his debut, sidestepped armed guards after a fiery derby, and at one stage the centre forward even found himself masquerading as a winger – running a gauntlet of abuse down the line against the backdrop of a raucous pyro show. Whatever his loan move to Greece was, it wasn’t boring.
Foley’s farewell game in Greece was a 2-1 defeat to Ionikos Nikeas during a season Ethnikos Piraeus failed to win a single match, but he followed up that experience in his next competitive outing with a 1-0 Premier League win over Liverpool at Anfield, after signing for Watford on his return to England.
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Kicking ball around the shores of the Aegean wasn’t part of some grand masterplan, but the Charleville native’s sojourn to Greece was to become another pin in the map of a unique career that also saw him play in Portugal, Belgium, the UK, and Ireland.
He is one of the few Irish internationals to have experienced Greek football, others include Liam Lawrence, Anthony Stokes and Paul Bannon.
Foley signed for Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1995, at the age of 18, but competition for places up front was fierce so in early 1998 the striker went out on loan to Watford, and a brief two-game stint followed with Notts County in December of that year.
But if those trips to face Preston and Gillingham whetted the appetite like stale ale and mushy peas, the exotic sounding Ethnikos Piraeus touched the lips with the sweetness of licoricey ouzo and of peppery moussaka.
However, it wasn’t all sun loungers and sightseeing. The club had been bottom of the table for two months when he arrived. Relegation seemed inevitable, and so it proved.
Foley’s Greek secondment was the brainwave of his then agent, former Ireland international Mickey Walsh, who knew Kendall from his Everton days. When Kendall sent up a distress flare from Greece, Walsh co-ordinated the rescue mission and dispatched reinforcements.
Foley, along with a small band of young English players, was part of the clean-up crew.
“When you look back at it now, they were struggling badly,” recalls Foley. “But at the time you were young and green and said, ‘Sure we’ll tear off and see how it goes.’ It was an opportunity.
“We were put up in a hotel in the outskirts of Athens, we had a great time. My outlook was, ‘I’m away from home in the UK anyhow, so why not be away from home playing in Greece or Belgium or Portugal? I’d regret something I didn’t do rather than something I did.”
And after 90 minutes of football on the last weekend of January in 1999, the Ethnikos Piraeus fans must have felt they had stumbled upon an Irish saviour.
In the second minute of his Greek debut, Foley announced his arrival in no-nonsense fashion, picking up a yellow card after imposing himself on the opposition, early doors. Maybe it’s a Cork thing!
Truth be told, the game is all a bit hazy. He finished his maiden outing with a hat-trick – goals in the 32nd, 38th and 83rd minutes – but the sheen was taken off his startling debut when Veria netted in injury-time to win 4-3. Still, as debuts go ...
“The big thing I remember about that first game was the never-ending bus journey and the sight of snow on the ground along the way,” Foley recalls. He hadn’t come to Greece to find winter.
Foley would play six further league games for the club based in the port city of Piraeus, which sits in the greater Athens metropolitan area. And while there were no more goals, his debut hat-trick was enough to see him finish the season as the club’s joint top goalscorer, alongside Pantelis Koubis.
“That probably says enough about the team at the time,” smiles Foley.
Koubis made 28 league appearances that season.
“We knew going there that they were struggling and we’d get to play some games, but we also knew we were able to walk away at the end of it.”
Occasionally though, their pathway was blocked. In the build-up to a local derby against Proodeftiki, he was advised not to bring family or friends along. It all sounded excessive, but when he arrived at the ground Foley noticed armed guards flanking certain figures.
“I remember thinking, ‘Jesus, this is a bit mad.’ It was all part of intimidation, but we got a draw.”
Only for the players then to be held in their dressingroom after the game, unable to leave.
“There were fellas outside driving kicks at the door,” he recalls. “It actually got fairly scary because there were guys standing at the door with guns in plain view, and every few minutes the door would get a few boots.”
Foley’s second last game in Greece was away to PAOK, who at the time were still in the hunt for the title. Ethnikos Piraeus arrived at Toumba Stadium on a run of 14 defeats and seven draws. They were also decimated by injuries. Foley was asked to play wide left.
As they took to the field, he was struck by the fervent PAOK fans clambering skyward on the vast netting which framed the pitch.
“They were absolute nutcases, their ultras climbing up 25-30 feet on these things.
“We had a makeshift team, I had to play on the left of midfield – I never ran so much in my life. We worked so hard as a team in that game, defended for about 90 of the 93 minutes, and came out of it with a draw. At the final whistle it felt like we had won the league.”
Before boarding a plane a few weeks later, Foley stuffed a PAOK jersey in his luggage. He was on his way to join Watford, having had previous loan stints with the Hornets. Under Graham Taylor, Foley made 11 appearances in the 1999-2000 Premier League season.
“As a footballer you always need a bit of luck as well as talent. Graham saw something in me when I was on loan with them and I got to play a year in the Premier League, which was a great experience.”
His club form did not go unnoticed and an international call-up followed – he played six times for Ireland and scored two goals.
But the standout period of his career was in Belgium between 2005-2012 when he captained both KAA Gent and Cercle Brugge – guiding the former to a 2008 Belgian Cup final appearance, during which he scored a goal. His playing days finished with Limerick FC, helping them win the 2012 First Division title.
These days, Foley manages Cavanaghs car dealership in Mallow. He’s not an obsessive consumer of Ireland matches but he wonders about the style of play during Stephen Kenny’s reign. On Friday night, Greece will again stress-test the Kenny project.
“I don’t think we have the players playing at the level where you can play football against the top nations and expect to get something out of the match. I think we need to mix it up a bit,” says Foley.
Because it doesn’t only have to be about technical proficiency and playing out from the back. There’s still a place in the game for rolling up your sleeves, a place for desire and defiance.
Back in Cork, among the gallery of framed Wolves and Watford and Ireland jerseys mounted in Dominic Foley’s home is a black and white zebra striped number from a club in northern Greece.
“It’s a reminder that if you are set up properly then sometimes it’s not just skill and top players that lead to results, it can be about attitude. That always comes to mind when I see the PAOK jersey on the wall.”
