Waterford soccer legend Alfie Hale joins forces with Dermot Keyes to launch 'True Blue', his life story

At 86 years of age, Alfie Hale can still hold a crowd in the palm of his hand. By his own admission, he knows how to talk, and he seems to be content to talk about pretty much anything.

But on Friday, November 21, he’s speaking at the Book Centre under the guise of business, launching ‘True Blue: The Alfie Hale Story’ with co-author Dermot Keyes.

The book covers Hale’s illustrious career, the glowing achievements and the idiosyncrasies that define him. 

While looking back on his playing career, Hale also has a lot to say about life outside the spectre of the football field - an omnipresent force that often solely defines many of the game's greats.

Hale jolts up and down, goes on winding tangents before re-centring, and talks with an evergreen exuberance befitting of the only man to score across four decades of the League of Ireland.

As Keyes recalled, some of the most challenging aspects of the creative process were merely keeping pace with Hale. Late-night writing sessions had Keyes knocked out asleep as Hale rapped off the highs and lows of his career.

“I was actually wrecked that day, because, I mean, these stories he's shared with me have been just incredible,” Keyes said.

‘True Blue’ chronicles Hale’s beginnings from growing up in the GAA stronghold of Ard na Gréine, to his schoolboy years with St. Joseph's AFC, to making the leap to Aston Villa in 1960.

In many ways, Hale was the perpetual non-conformist. He grew up playing a sport that was shunned in his local community, and when he wanted to play, he wanted to be a midfielder - not a forward who would bundle over 200 career goals.

He despised playing in England, the pinnacle of football at the time, with his father having to convince him to move in the name of economic mobility. It was a life many similar-aged men would have dreamed of, but Hale could only think of returning to Waterford to lead an ascetic existence.

Throughout his career, he brushed shoulders with some of football’s most revered names - Manchester United’s ‘Holy Trinity’, Jock Stein’s European Cup-winning Celtic team and Roy Keane (who Hale scouted while at Cobh Ramblers).

The trimmings of the book could make for equally good reading - Pelé and Björn Borg were some of the names left on the chopping block.

Hale recalls one moment where a young man called seeking an arm around the shoulder, having been dumped by Leeds United and weighing up a faltering football career.

Hale told him to pursue his other passion, music. The voice on the other line? Westlife’s Nicky Byrne.

Concluding the launch, it’s clear Hale has an appreciation for the simpler things.

“I loved life. I've enjoyed life…I have three brothers and my eldest sister, they've all gone. And I look and say, ‘Well, what am I doing here?’ And people say to me, ‘You could go tomorrow’. I don't care if I go tomorrow. I don't really care anymore. I've had a great life.

“Cis and the lads, Jenny, Darryl and Dean, and all the grandchildren we have. Who could ask for more?”

‘True Blue’ is available to purchase from the Book Centre for €20 or can be bought online at Choice Publishing. Proceeds will go to Assisi House, Waterford.