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Norman Whiteside: The boy from West Belfast who played keepy uppies on the White House lawn

Not even the gleaming smile of an American President holding court in the Oval Office was enough to stop Norman Whiteside daydreaming about football.

โ€œI couldnโ€™t wait to get out of the West Wing to play keepy-uppy on the White House lawn,โ€ he tells The Football Faithful.

It was the summer of 1978 and the 14-year-old from the Shankhill Road in West Belfast was one of dozens of children from across the religious divide in Northern Ireland who spent a summer with host families on the east coast of America as part of โ€˜Project Childrenโ€™.

Established in 1975 by Denis Mulcahy, the former NYPD detective from Co. Cork who had worked for the cityโ€™s bomb squad, the purpose of the programme was to show these kids a world beyond their own streets during the height of The Troubles.

But a trip to Washington to meet Americaโ€™s 39th President, the former peanut farmer Jimmy Carter, was not the highlight of Whitesideโ€™s trip.
That arrived just hours after landing in Boston, when he phoned home to be informed that he was being offered schoolboy terms by Manchester United.

So, as he stood in the Oval Office, football was the only thing on the teenagerโ€™s mind.

Some 40 years later, Whiteside, now 55, delivers his line about keepy uppies with the precision of someone well versed on the after dinner circuit. Not to mention the executive lounges of Old Trafford where, up until the outbreak of Covid-19, he remains one of the most popular raconteurs.

That is because Whiteside has plenty to talk about, and he realised quickly that it is worth his while to be able to do so.

He was the youngest player to make Unitedโ€™s first team since Duncan Edwards, earning his debut two weeks before turning 17 in April 1982.
A couple of months later and he broke Peleโ€™s record as the youngest international to represent his country at the World Cup.

Whiteside captained United by the time he was 20 โ€“ again, a record for being the youngest โ€“ and scored the famous winner in the โ€™85 FA Cup final at Wembley, preventing Everton from completing a domestic treble.

โ€œThey are well documented so I never have time to forget,โ€ he said of his achievements in a career that was over by the age of 26 following nine knee operations in as many years.

His descent began before he even signed his first professional deal with United when, aged just 16, he underwent surgery on his knee in which the cartilage was removed. It meant he played his entire career bone on bone.

โ€œBut I still have some great memories along the way,โ€ he continued.

Just after his exchange with the Football Faithful, it was revealed that Whiteside was now auctioning several items from his career โ€“ including his โ€™85 cup final medal – in a bid to top his pension pot by around ยฃ200,000.

Having qualified as a podiatrist in the 1990s after calling it quits following a transfer to Everton, his income has been supplemented by the work he does as an ambassador for United as well as on the competitive after dinner beat.

Whiteside never had the chance to make the most of his earning power, even during an era when the sums on offer would not allow for a long and comfortable retirement. His basic wage from 1982-84 was ยฃ250 a week, rising to ยฃ400 before eventually increasing to ยฃ60,000 per year.

A fountain of anecdotes and reflections have already been teased out in his 2007 autobiography, โ€˜Determinedโ€™. And when there are still fans willing and able to shell out for the privilege of an audience with their hero, it doesnโ€™t pay for him to have a loose tongue when those asking have tight purse strings.

Whiteside, though, did not request a fee for this brief interview. โ€œMy first wage packet wouldnโ€™t get me a bag of Tayto Cheese & Onion crisps,โ€ he joked, before referencing how he was able to pay off – with interest – a ยฃ25 debt to his mother for his first pair of Puma King boots.

โ€œShe eventually got a new home with running hot water,โ€ he recalls.

Whiteside, dubbed the Shankill Skinhead by the Stretford End, settled in Altrincham, a suburb in south Manchester which borders the Cheshire belt that is now home to many modern-day stars.

โ€œThere are over a hundred Premier League players in the area and a few of my old team mates live around. Robbo (Bryan Robson), Kevin [Moran] and Frank [Stapleton].

โ€œKevin and I still live very close to each other, a quarter of a mile away. We meet up regularly for a pint of the black stuff but itโ€™s not as good as back home. He only talks about the GAA if something is happening over there like a reunion, but mostly we talk about Man Utd and the Premier League.โ€

Whiteside will be hoping itโ€™s not long until he can return to Old Trafford to talk about football. And maybe the odd reminder of the time he ended up daydreaming of doing keepy uppies while in the Oval Office.

Read – Ron Atkinson: โ€˜I used to joke with Jack that I had more Irish players than he didโ€™

Read Also – How QPR shaped Sir Les: โ€˜The secret to having it all is knowing that you already do.โ€™

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