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How the mighty have fallen
 As
Ian Harte sits in his villa in Alicante this week, he must be wondering:
Where did it all go wrong?
The former Republic of Ireland international has just agreed to leave
Spanish side Levante where he won promotion from the Spanish Second Division
in his second season at the club and played against Barcelona and Real
Madrid.
But while he became something of a fans’ favourite at the Alicante-based
club Harte’s time there was blighted by injury, restricting him
to just 66 appearances in three years. Two of the three seasons he played
at Levante were in the top flight of Spanish football.
The Drogheda-born left-back played more than 200 Premiership games for
Leeds during a decade-long stay at the Elland Road club and appeared in
the Champions League semi-finals.
When Leeds were relegated three years ago Harte was determined to continue
his career in a top league. He had offers from English clubs but few of
them could offer the wages offered by Levante a club newly-promoted
to the Spanish top flight.
Harte was also the only player to play in every minute of the Republic
of Ireland’s 2002 World Cup campaign and has won 68 caps for his
country, scoring 11 goals.
Given that Ian Harte is still only 29 it is probably too early in the
Louthman’s career to be talking in terms of past achievement but
despite his record in football he faces an uncertain future in the game.
Having been away from the English game for three seasons, approaching
30 and with a history of injury problems there may not be a rush of top
clubs clamouring for the signature of the full-back who was once valued
at £10million by the Leeds chairman.
But thoughts of the Champions League and World Cup qualifiers are far
from Ian Harte’s mind this summer the full-back must find
a club. His initial reaction on leaving Levante was that he wanted a club
in the Premiership but in recent days he has said that he would also accept
a team challenging for promotion from the Championship.
Ian has made no secret of his desire to return to English football and
speculation has centred on him joining the Irish contingent at Sunderland
in recent weeks. Celtic are also said to be interested but neither team
have as yet made a firm offer for his services.
But whatever the future holds for Harte he will have memories of a football
career played out on the biggest stages of all. |
