The Hero of Moscow hasn’t gone away you know, writes One F in Foley, he has a flourshing soccer academy on the France-Monaco border
Former Ireland player Richard Dunne with Ireland Head coach Heimir Hallgrímsson(Image: ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne)
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Richard Dunne has access to what could be a very profitable sideline — control over a patch of flat land some ten metres over the France-Monaco border.
Given the amount of cars and of visitors passing though — the thrill of ‘driving’ the Grand Prix circuit is a huge thing — the 2.08km (squared) principality’s parking fees are astronomical.
He could be living out his time in the south of France as a gazillionaire, the Hero of Moscow as the Count of Car Parking...
But those wondering where post-football Dunne has been won’t be surprised to hear he hasn’t gone away you know; that space on the Monegasque border is a flourishing soccer academy.
His FMC Elite Academy features a complete Under-6 to Under-18 roster, and is now fully affiliated to French club UC Cap d’Ail, whose Under-16, U-18, U-19 sides now operate against PSG, Lille, Marseille etc in France’s premier underage divisions.
“We work with some of the best young players in France at my academy in Monaco and the opportunity for one of those players to come to Dublin to play and learn with Home Farm DCU will be invaluable,” says Dunne.
This project, first set up with some local parents so his son Tayo could play football, has successfully supplied players for the likes of PSG, Nice and Monaco;
Tayo signed to Barnsley’s youth team in 2025 and is now an Under-21 squad member and played 26 minutes for the EFL League One club’s first team against Scarborough at the end of July.
But then should we be surprised that one of the great players from the Home Farm hothouse of the late ’80s and ’90s has an understanding of just how schoolboy football should work?
Indeed, during this interview, we pause to study a list of Home Farm players who have represented Ireland; he has played with 14 of them during his time, which translates to a 35 per cent stake of the club’s finest.
This Star of Moscow was also once the urchin of Mobhi Road and it’s clear a French-based academy is gaining from his blessings.
If the FAI were to do one thing right this century, it would be to recruit ‘R ‘ to set up and then head up the much sought-after FAI Academy. There is only one candidate and it’s a no-brainer.
“We lived in Tallaght,” he says of his own football beginnings, “and I actually remember coming down one morning where my dad was reading the Irish Press or the Sunday World or something.
“And it had this little clip in it and my dad said ‘Look’ and I read it and it was about Home Farm’s mini-leagues open for players. He just said, ‘You’re starting in that next week’.
“I was lucky because my dad would bring me across the city and through the traffic as this was before the M50.
Football, not just Home Farm, was evolving at that point and the Whitehall club who had previously exported future major trophy winners such as Liam Whelan, Mick McGrath, Joe Haverty, Johnny Giles, Paddy Mulligan and Ronnie Whelan, were an easy first port of call for English football academies.
Home Farm were ahead of the curve and had proven their excellence previously.
“Once you started playing there, and because of the teams that went before us, you started to hear of players getting the opportunity to go on trials to England,” he recalls.
“So you started to believe you had a chance to go and play for English Premier League clubs and all that sort of stuff.
“It was almost, I think, as if success breeds success and, like I say, the teams before us and coming after us were successful and we felt that we should be successful too. I just think the whole club at that time was on the up and we believed in ourselves.”
The 1985-95 decade saw Home Farm dominate the Under-12-Under-16 SFAI National Cups, the ever-successful DDSL Kennedy Cup sides and the Under-16 Ireland squads.
One team, coached by Paddy Hilliard, were unbeaten in 2023 games (1983-90) including winning an EEC tournament.
This side even played it’s own ‘B’ team in their Under-16 SFAI Barry Cup final before most of the squad left for English clubs; they once had nine players on the pitch at the same time in an Under-16 international and they backboned a 3-1 win over Germany at Ireland Under-18 level.
“I remember going down the country in All-Ireland SFAI Cup games, and people would look at us differently,” says Dunne, whose schoolboy group came a little later.
“Like we’re the ‘Home Farm team’ sort of thing and we’re also breaking through into Ireland under-age teams that were starting to make it out of group stages, making UEFA play-off finals.
Richard Dunne alongside Home Farm DCU's Darragh Dawson, CEO Nicola Brannigan, chair Brendan Menton and first team manager Gavin Peers
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“There was Cherry Orchard as well at the time who would have been our rivals but I think the best young players went and played for Home Farm.”
Dunne’s side was co-managed by Billy Hunt — who had been on an exceptional Home Farm underage team himself, captained by Gerry James and alongside Frank Brady and Joe Keely — and Billy Dodds who was a baker in nearby Mother’s Pride.
Dunne would sign for Everton in the summer of 1996. It had been planned for a long time and survived a last-minute hitch.
“I was keen on Everton for two reasons really,” he explains. “One, my dad was a fan and he used to go over on the boat with his brothers and go and watch Everton, that was his thing.
“Two, my uncle Jimmy Cousins was the scout in Ireland and he was the one that I got signed through.
“Jimmy wanted to send me but wouldn’t send me over on trial until somebody else sent me over on trial first, so I ended up on trial to Nottingham Forest.
“I got asked to sign there and I wanted to because there was me, Chris Winter, Stephen McPhail and Ken Kilmurray that had gone over.
“They wanted to sign us all and David Freeman or something like that.”
But then Forest couldn’t but have been keen on one of those mentioned, just as Leeds would be, and the one to land his signature.
“The best in our generation in our league was Stephen McPhail by a country mile. He was doing things that if you had seen them on TV in the Premier League, you’d be like, that’s ridiculous.
“And Stephen was that player from Under-10 all the way through. He just played the game at a different pace to everyone else, you could see it.”