THE death of Muhammad Ali had a special significance for Republic of Ireland full-back Cyrus Christie - his uncle Errol sparred with ‘the Greatest’ back in 1980s.
Light-heavyweight Errol Christie was an English amateur star who finished his pro career with a 32-8-1 record after threatening to, but failing to make, a decisive breakthrough. During his career, the black fighter was the target of racist abuse from far-right groups and wrote an acclaimed autobiography No Place to Hide: How I Put the Black in the Union Jack.
He’ll be cheering on the Derby County left-back in France and expects him to show the same fighting spirit at Euro 2016: “He's always following me and asking what I'm doing,” said Christie, who qualifies through his Dublin-born grandmother.
“He goes on about how good a footballer he was, but goes on more about the fights than the actual playing. He loves to see people doing really well.”
His uncle had to perform in hostile environments throughout his fighting days and Christie feels the Republic are capable of doing the same as underdogs in a demanding Group E that also includes Sweden, fancied Belgium and Italy.
“I think the boys are taking it in their stride, very laid back at the minute. I think everyone knows what task we got ahead,” he said.
“Obviously, everyone keeps talking about how tough the group is, but we played against the world champions and we beat them and we go into the tournament very confident and had a great campaign through the qualifiers and we beat Bosnia. I think you see the lads are confident when we play. We do work hard, off the ball, not just on the ball and I think we will cause a few teams problems. It is laid back in the camp and, once we get there, it will start to set in and we’re looking forward to it.”
After an uncertain start in the green jersey, Christie settled and is now pushing Seamus Coleman for the right-back berth: “It has been a breakthrough campaign,” he said.
“I’ve five caps now and, when I’ve been on, I think I’ve played well. For me, at the start of the campaign, I was coming in to try and prove what a player I am, what a good player I am and put thoughts in the manager’s mind.
“You know, I think I’ve done that each time I’ve played. I had an opportunity against Belarus and the manager was very complimentary of me after the game when he spoke to me, he said I done really well.”
At this stage, he is what Roy Keane referred to last week as a “fringe player”, but he says he’s not happy just to be part of the squad: “I'm not here just to make up the numbers,” he said.
“I want to play. I want to be putting thoughts in the manager's mind about playing, but I've a big task in front of me with Seamus, who's been probably the best right-back in the Premier League for the past amount of years.
“I definitely want to play, even if it's left-back or right-wing as well if I could do a job. Like the manager said, I have to keep putting thoughts in his mind when I'm training and playing in that jersey. I think I've done that. It's up to me to find a way into this team and get playing regularly.
“I’m surrounded by fantastic players, so it is going to be a tough task to try and get into the team, but I think, once I get in there, I can stake a claim.”
