Rory Delap became a Premier League cult hero during his days as Stoke City’s long throw specialist – and now his son is shining in the top flight, too.
Liam is preparing to start his first Premier League campaign with Chelsea, after an impressive spell in the top tier with Ipswich Town last term – the young striker made his Blues debut at the Club World Cup this summer, which his new team ended up winning.
The 22-year-old has represented England throughout the age groups at international level, but it’s also known that the Republic of Ireland are very keen on calling him up.
Father's pride
Father Rory was born in England but won 11 caps for Ireland during his own playing career, thanks to his Irish parents.
Both Liam and younger brother Finn, who’s currently at Burton Albion, both qualify for Ireland as well, but Rory told FourFourTwo that he will be leaving any decisions to them.
“I’ve always stayed out of it,” he said. “Liam has been involved with England since he was 13 or 14, they’ve been on to him and stuck by him when he had an injury, when he was 14 I think.
“He’s spoken to people in both camps, but I think he’s been with England all the way through to the under 21s now. It’s entirely his decision, though.
“If he wants my advice I’ll give it to him and to him only, and Finn also qualifies for both, so if it ever comes that he has to make the decision as well, it’s down to him and if he wants my advice I will give it to him.
“I try not to give advice to them generally unless they ask for it. Liam has asked for certain bits of advice over the years, and so have Finn and my daughter Neve.
“The better way for them is to find a way to deal with things themselves, but we all need help at times, and hopefully they know I’m only a phone call or conversation away from giving them that.”
Rory has taken huge satisfaction from the progress that his children have made, and goes to watch Liam and Finn whenever he can.
“I’m so proud of all of them,” he said. “Me, my daughter and my wife were out in America to watch Liam in the Club World Cup, which was a brilliant experience.
“I’ve managed to see Finn’s games so far this season and I went up to Tranmere this week to watch him – it was called off for a power cut! It’s not always romantic and glamorous, but it’s brilliant.”
Leaving the Champions League
Delap recently stepped away from a role at Hungarian club Ferencvaros so he could spend more time with his family and watch his sons play, having been assistant manager to Robbie Keane when they won the league last season. The pair had also previously won the Israeli title at Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Keane remains in charge at Ferencvaros and on the same night that Delap was at Tranmere for a postponed Carabao Cup fixture, the Hungarian side were beating Ludogorets Razgrad to move to within one round of the league stage of the Champions League. Ferencvaros are seeded against Qarabag in a two-legged play-off round.
“It was tough leaving because they had the Champions League qualifiers which they’ve done very well in, and now they’ve got the play-off to get into the Champions League group stage, so it wasn’t an easy decision,” Delap explained.
“But I’d been away from home for nearly two years, that was a big reason, and family comes first sometimes.”
Delap was speaking to FourFourTwo after teaming up with William Hill for Final One Standing, a prediction game that challenges players to pick one Premier League team for the chance to win a share of a £500,000 jackpot each gameweek. If their team wins, they advance to the next round.
“It’s been fun to be part of, although I’m terrible at predictions myself – I’m so bad it’s unbelievable!” he laughed. “I used to get stick off my mates all the time when I played for Stoke, too, because when we were playing one of the big boys, they usually put us down to lose. At Stoke though, we made a name for ourselves for ruining those types of predictions!”
There will be more from Delap about his career in an upcoming issue of FourFourTwo magazine.
You can find out more about Final One Standing here.
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