Richard Sadlier (born 14 January 1979, in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

) is an Irish former professional footballer and former CEO of

St Patrick's Athletic St Patrick's Athletic Football Club, commonly known as Pat's or The Athletic, is a professional List of association football clubs in the Republic of Ireland, Irish association football club based in Inchicore, Dublin, that plays in the League ...

. Since retirement from the professional game he has worked as a

pundit A pundit is a person who offers opinion in an authoritative manner on a particular subject area (typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport), usually through the mass media. The term pundit describes both women and men, altho ...

with

RTÉ Sport RTÉ Sport is a department of Irish public broadcaster RTÉ. The department provides sporting coverage through a number of platforms including RTÉ Radio, RTÉ Television, RTÉ.ie, RTÉ Player, RTÉ Player Sport and RTÉ.ie, RTÉ Mobile. RTÉ h ...

Club career

He began his career at youth level with Broadford Rovers before joining Leicester Celtic and

Belvedere Belvedere (from Italian, meaning "beautiful sight") may refer to: Places Australia *Belvedere, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region Africa * Belvedere (Casablanca), a neighborhood in Casablanca, Morocco * Belvedere, Harare, Zi ...

before joining

Millwall F.C. Millwall Football Club () is a professional football club in Bermondsey, South East London, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of English football. Founded as Millwall Rovers in 1885, the club has retained its nam ...

He was educated at St. Benildus College where he excelled on the sports fields. Richard helped Millwall towards becoming 2000–01 Second Division Champions but was forced to watch from the stand as Millwall reached the 2004 FA Cup Final in his final season. A striker, Sadlier scored 34 goals in 103 starts for Millwall. In an interview with the BBC,

Mark McGhee Mark Edward McGhee (born 25 May 1957) is a Scottish former professional football player and coach. A former forward, McGhee started his career at Greenock Morton in 1975 and had spells at clubs including Newcastle United, Aberdeen, Hamburg, ...

named Sadlier as potentially the best young centre forward he had ever worked with in his managerial career. In 2003, Sadlier retired from the professional game due to a hip injury at the age of 24.

International career

Sadlier represented his country at the

1997 UEFA European Under-18 Championship The 1997 UEFA European Under-18 Championship Final Tournament was held in Iceland. Players born on or after 1 August 1978 were eligible to participate in this competition. Teams The following teams qualified for the tournament: * * * (host) ...

, and scored Ireland's goal against Spain in the third-place playoff. Sadlier's only

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

at senior level came against

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

in a friendly at

Lansdowne Road Lansdowne Road Stadium (, ) was a stadium in Dublin owned by the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) that was primarily used for rugby union and association football matches. The stadium was demolished in 2007 to make way for the Aviva Stadium on ...

on 13 February 2002. He was highly favoured to make

Mick McCarthy Michael Joseph McCarthy (born 7 February 1959) is a professional Manager (association football), football manager, pundit and former Association football, footballer. He was most recently the head coach of Blackpool F.C., Blackpool. McCarthy b ...

's final 23-man Republic of Ireland squad for the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea/Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

, but had to withdraw with a hip injury which ultimately ended his football career prematurely.

Board appointment

In 2007, Sadlier was appointed to the board of

He resigned from his post at St Patrick's at the end of the 2009 season.

Media career

In 2006, Sadlier was approached to write a column for the '' Sunday Independent'' after previously doing some punditry work with

Setanta Sports Setanta Sports Media is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland and in Tbilisi, Georgia, broadcasting throughout select Eurasian countries, and the Philippines. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Iris ...

, he also contributes regularly to

Newstalk Newstalk (formerly NewsTalk 106) is a national independent radio station in Ireland. It is operated by News 106 Limited, a subsidiary of Bauer Media Audio Ireland, and broadcasts under a sound broadcasting contract with the Broadcasting Aut ...

. In 2008, Sadlier joined RTÉ's panel of pundits for its

League of Ireland The League of Ireland is a national association football Sports league, league consisting of professional clubs in the Republic of Ireland and Derry, Derry City in Northern Ireland. It is governed by the Football Association of Ireland. It was ...

coverage, dominated by ''

Monday Night Soccer ''Monday Night Soccer'' is a former football television programme shown on RTÉ Two each Monday evening during the football season. Presented by Peter Collins, he was usually joined by two guests, like manager Damien Richardson and former Millw ...

''. He later contributed to

's coverage of the

2010 FIFA World Cup The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...

. He became a panellist on RTÉ Two's ''

Premier Soccer Saturday ''Premier Soccer Saturday'' (formerly ''The Premiership'') was the principal weekly club association football programme on RTÉ television. In June 2013, RTÉ Sport confirmed that due to cost-cutting initiatives to save the station up to € ...

'', and covered the

2010–11 Premier League The 2010–11 Premier League (known as the Barclays Premier League for sponsorship reasons) was the 19th season of the Premier League since its establishment in 1992. The 2010–11 fixtures were released on 17 June 2010 at 09:00 BST. The season ...

. In 2012, Sadlier was a studio analyst as part of RTÉ Sport's coverage of

UEFA Euro 2012 The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th UEFA European Championship, European Championship for List of men's national association football teams#UEFA (Europe), men's ...

, and also appeared on ''

Craig Doyle Live ''Craig Doyle '' was an Irish weekly topical comedy-style chat show which aired from November 2011 as ''The Social'' until 2012, then continued until 2013, and was shown on RTÉ Two. Portrayed as live programme, some episodes were recorded in a ...

'' on 11 June 2012. In June 2013, he was part of RTÉ Sport's coverage of the

2013 FIFA Confederations Cup The 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup was the ninth FIFA Confederations Cup, which was held in Brazil from 15 to 30 June 2013 as a prelude to the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The most recent winners of the six continental championships appeared in the tourn ...

alongside

Ronnie Whelan Ronald Andrew Whelan (; born 25 September 1961) is an Irish former professional football player who played as a midfielder and sometimes as a defender. He played an integral role in the dominant Liverpool side that won a wealth of titles in ...

and Kenny Cunningham. He was also part of RTÉ Sport's studio coverage of the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for list of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil fr ...

, the

UEFA Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's association football, football ch ...

, the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded t ...

UEFA Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial international men's association footb ...

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup was the 22nd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

, and

UEFA Euro 2024 The 2024 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2024 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2024) or simply Euro 2024, was the 17th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international Association football, football champ ...

Personal life

Sadlier got married in 2019 and has a son born in 2023. Sadlier has spoken publicly of suffering from depression, particularly following the death of fellow professional

Gary Speed Gary Andrew Speed (8 September 1969 – 27 November 2011) was a Welsh professional footballer and manager. As manager of Wales, Speed is often credited as being the catalyst for the change in fortunes of the national team and as setting t ...

. Sadlier holds a BSc in Sports Science from the

University of Surrey The University of Surrey is a public research university in Guildford, Surrey, England. The university received its Royal Charter, royal charter in 1966, along with a Plate glass university, number of other institutions following recommendations ...

and a Higher Diploma and MA in Psychotherapy from

Dublin Business School Dublin Business School (DBS), incorporating Portobello College, is a private college Private universities and private colleges are higher education institutions not operated, owned, or institutionally funded by governments. However, they of ...

. His autobiography called ''Recovering'' was released in 2019 and won the 2019 Irish Sports Book of the Year award.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sadlier, Richard 1979 births Living people Men's association football forwards Millwall F.C. players Republic of Ireland men's association footballers Republic of Ireland men's international footballers Republic of Ireland men's youth international footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Irish expatriate sportspeople in England Association footballers from County Dublin Sunday Independent (Ireland) people English Football League players Leicester Celtic A.F.C. players Belvedere F.C. players Alumni of Dublin Business School Alumni of the University of Surrey People educated at St Benildus College