Manchester United legend Bryan Robson is coming to Derry

'Captain Marvel', who made over 300 appearances for the Red Devils after joining from West Bromwich Albion in 1981, won the Premier League twice, three FA Cup's, one League Cup and the European Cup Winners' Cup during his time at Old Trafford.

Legendary United manager Sir Alex Ferguson described 'Robbo' as his greatest ever skipper, saying: "Well, he was easily the best captain I had," Ferguson told the United official website. "I think over the period he was at United, he was the best player."

This will be the Foundation's first funding dinner in three years due to Covid and it plays a vital role in the foundation's ongoing work. Event organiser and Foundation member Gareth McCay expects the large local Man U following to come out in their numbers.

“We last did this event in 2019 when it was an annual event,” he said. "In 2020 Covid kicked in and the next two years essentially were cancelled.

"This function more or less funds us for the year for a lot of the projects that aren’t funded by government, so it’s important to get that unrestricted income and it would be good to see a good crowd there and get back to normality.

"Hopefully that will be a part of the attraction as well, maybe for businesses who haven’t been able to have a night out with their staff or customers, but they can do it now.”

Current Republic of Ireland manager and ex-Derry City boss Stephen Kenny, who has been a patron for the Foundation, will also be in attendance and McCay is delighted the Dubliner, who gave McBride his Candy Stripes debut, continues to show his support to the foundation.

“Stephen has been very good to us,” explained McCay. “One thing about Stephen is if you ring him and he doesn’t answer you’ll always get a ring back in a day or two, and you don’t get that with a lot of people. He’s always been very good with his time.

"There’s probably not many managers in the League of Ireland who would have taken a chance on Ryan and Stephen was humble enough to say ‘I’m not going to rule out a player just because he plays in the local D&D League’. Ryan McBride definitely wouldn’t have done anything to the extent he did without Stephen putting his faith in him.”

Tickets are priced at £67.50 or £650 per table of 10 for the event at the Everglades Hotel on May 1. Sponsorship opportunities are also available. Anyone interested in attending or supporting the event is asked to contact the Ryan McBride Foundation Facebook page.