Career
Babb began his career with Millwall as a trainee, but failed to make an appearance for the first team before signing for Bradford City. Babb played well enough for the Bantams to earn a £500,000 move to Coventry City in July 1992. After a successful spell at Coventry, he subsequently moved to Liverpool for £3.6 million after some impressive performances for the Sky Blues in the Premiership and a number of international call-ups. He enjoyed a relatively successful though fitful few years at Liverpool. Babb was involved in an infamous accident at Anfield in a match between Liverpool and Chelsea. Whilst scrambling to block a shot by Pierluigi Casiraghi Babb slid across the face of the goal missing the ball but managing to hit the post while both of his legs were spread. Casiraghi scored in the 1–1 draw.Babb fell out of favour with French boss Gérard Houllier, and he had a loan spell at Tranmere Rovers before leaving the club on a Bosman free deal in the summer of 2000. He signed for Sporting Clube de Portugal and was voted the best defender in Portugal in his second season there. He later moved to Sunderland without great success.
His career hit controversy in August 2000 when he and Mark Kennedy were ordered home from the Republic of Ireland squad after appearing in court accused of causing criminal damage, causing a breach of the peace and being drunk and disorderly. They were rolling across car bonnets while replicating scenes from Starsky and Hutch, but unfortunately chose an unmarked police car.
Babb's final cap for Ireland was a Euro 2004 qualifier against Russia, played in Moscow. He would come into the game as an 85th minute sub, with his first touch of the ball being diverted behind Irish keeper Shay Given for an own goal. The Republic of Ireland lost the game 4–2, with ironically all three of manager Mick McCarthy's substitutes (Gary Doherty, Clinton Morrison and Babb) "scoring".
In 2006, Babb helped to save the award-winning publication Golf Punk Magazine. He, alongside former Sunderland teammates Thomas Sorensen, Michael Gray, Jason McAteer and Stephen Wright, had been an earlier investor in Golf Punk Magazine.
References
External links
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Last updated on Wednesday October 08, 2008 at 10:05:23 PDT (GMT -0700)
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