Ken Fogarty's Best Days

STUART BOLTON CATCHES UP WITH THE STOCKPORT STALWART WHO PLAYED ALONGSIDE GEORGE BEST ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ATLANTIC

You can count on the fingers of one hand the number of footballers who have played on the same team as George Best at two different clubs.

In fact, discounting those who played with Best at one club then teamed up with him elsewhere in either friendlies (such as Bobby Moore for Detroit Express) or in six-a-side soccer (Bobby McAlinden), it is a very select few indeed.

Ken Fogarty is one of them. Fogarty was a stalwart defender for Stockport County during the 1970s, eventually becoming captain. He was a teammate of Best’s in the three league games that the wayward Irishman played for the Fourth Division outfit at the tail-end of 1975.

He also teamed up with the former Manchester United star at Fort Lauderdale Strikers in the North American Soccer League three years later.

Fogarty, a tough Mancunian who was brought up on the mean streets of Moss Side and avenues and alleyways of Stretford, was eligible to play for the Republic of Ireland due to his parentage and represented the nation’s youth team during the 1972 Under-17 European Championship, playing against Denmark, the USSR and Bulgaria.

Contemporaries of Fogarty’s at that time were Liam Brady and Frank Stapleton, both of whom, of course, went on to have stellar careers. Did Brady and Stapleton impress as teenagers?

“They were both good players but not the stand-out players they later became,” Fogarty, 64, recalls from his uScore (soccer coaching) office in Spring, Texas. “Actually, of that youth team, I was the only player called up for the full squad versus Poland. I trained with the full squad at Bisham Abbey in preparation for the game but was not selected. I think I should have played, naturally.”

Catching the eye of a number of scouts during the tournament, Fogarty chose to stay local and signed for County soon after.