(Nov 25, 2011, IT)--Emmet Malone is on hand to experience the warmth reserved for local hero Haile Gebrselassie in Addis Ababa as he launches the 11th Great Ethiopian Run
A few months back my wife and I had a chance meeting with Ray Houghton out at a hotel adjacent to Dublin airport. Gráinne’s obvious pleasure at meeting the man who put the ball in not only England ’s but also Italy’s was a stark reminder of how much I take for granted in this business.
Many of the people I speak to in the course of my work wouldn’t merit the conversation if they weren’t heroes to a lot of people out there, but that’s rarely a consideration when you’re mentally weighing up what the angle’s going to be, while they’re speaking
With Houghton, it’s particularly easy to forget, not least because he is one of the nicest, most unassuming and friendly people you could ever hope to meet and because of his media work I’m lucky enough to bump into him a fair bit.
Given his achievements as a player, not least those goals, Houghton’s enormous popularity, of course, is easy to understand but multiply it by 50, maybe even 500, and you get an idea of the warmth with which Haile Gebrselassie is viewed in Ethiopia. Read more from Irish Times »
Many of the people I speak to in the course of my work wouldn’t merit the conversation if they weren’t heroes to a lot of people out there, but that’s rarely a consideration when you’re mentally weighing up what the angle’s going to be, while they’re speaking
With Houghton, it’s particularly easy to forget, not least because he is one of the nicest, most unassuming and friendly people you could ever hope to meet and because of his media work I’m lucky enough to bump into him a fair bit.
Given his achievements as a player, not least those goals, Houghton’s enormous popularity, of course, is easy to understand but multiply it by 50, maybe even 500, and you get an idea of the warmth with which Haile Gebrselassie is viewed in Ethiopia. Read more from Irish Times »
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