HE HAS always relished a challenge, leading the little guys into battle against big odds. "I've been an underdog as a player, an underdog as a manager, now I'm an underdog in a flaming job interview, " he declared to the panel, in typically blunt fashion, as he tried to persuade them to appoint him Northern Ireland manager.

They didn't, but then were forced to when their first choice demanded too much money. With a salary of only �60,000 available, Lawrie Sanchez was all Belfast could afford. Nobody expected much off him. Boy, has he surprised them all.

Steve Staunton, Steve McClaren, eat your heart out. With minimal resources, Sanchez has taken his team to the top of its Euro 2008 qualifying group. They've beaten England, Sweden and Spain, and climbed ahead of the Republic in the FIFA world rankings. Now Fulham have come calling, asking him to perform his magic and save them from relegation.

If he does so as caretaker manager, they'll offer him the job full-time, a sevenfigure salary, and entry to the Premiership football he's always craved.

Lawrie Sanchez, who for so long led the peasants' revolt, finally has the palace in sight.

Not that he'll get carried away.

Even as a schoolboy, he knew there were more important things than football. It was reinforced when his beloved wife Heather died of breast cancer at 38, leaving him to raise their young son Jack. "Nine years later, it still has a massive effect on Lawrie, " says a friend.

He was born in London to an Ecuadorian father and Belfast mother who later separated. It was a far from deprived childhood. He attended a private Catholic boys' school. When he was 10, he advertised his football services in a local paper. He joined a junior team, but his studies always came first.

He turned down a Southampton apprenticeship to do 'A' Levels, and signed for Reading only after they agreed to let him combine professional football with a management degree at Loughborough University. "Apart from Seb Coe, I was the highest paid student there, " he said. On bad days, the fans chanted:

"Where's your f***ing briefcase?"

He wasn't immersed in the game like lads who join clubs young and know nothing else. He enjoyed football, but it wasn't pumping through his veins. His lifestyle was different too. He'd hear team-mates "talking about picking up this bird or that" and thought they were making it up.

He met her at a 21st birthday party, Heather from Rochdale. She was a fellow student and Liverpool fan, the only woman he'd ever met who opened her newspaper from the back. She wanted to get married. He was crazy about her but his parents' break-up made him cautious.

Eventually, he gave in. They ran off to Vegas.

In the 1980s, he played for Wimbledon, "the Cinderella team" he called them, short on finesse but not spirit. He entered the history books, causing a huge upset by scoring the winning goal in the 1988 FA Cup final to beat Liverpool.

He was the odd man out in Wimbledon's 'Crazy Gang' of John Fashanu, Dennis Wise, and Vinnie Jones, with their trashing of hotel rooms, ritual cutting up of clothes, and naked romps across Wimbledon Common. After the FA Cup win, they went on a bender.

Sanchez was in bed by 10pm: "I always felt on the outside. Getting drunk wasn't my thing. I preferred quieter contemplation of the moment."

He never got on with Fashanu. One day training, Fashanu screamed: "Right, me and you, let's sort this out now!" Only one winner was possible:

Fashanu was a black belt.

"It was High Noon, " Sanchez recalled. "I knew I'd get beaten to a pulp but sometimes, when people call you, you've got to play the call." A witness said: "It was the most brutal thing I've ever seen. Fash kept putting him down but Sanch just kept getting up for more. It was horrible to watch, but it earned Sanch respect. No one had dared stand up to Fash before."

Other battles were more serious.

Heather fought breast cancer for three years after their son was born. Apart from their families, they told nobody.

"We didn't want people pitying us, " Sanchez said. "Heather looked so well right until the end. People were hurt they hadn't been informed, but their hurt was for them to deal with."

Now his football career worked around picking Jack up from school every afternoon to ensure stability in his son's life.

He refused sympathy: "I got on with life, doing something millions have had to do.

I read about 'Father of the Year', given to a man whose wife died. He had to bring up five children. Now that is tough."

After his playing career ended, he managed Wycombe Wanderers, rescuing them from relegation and taking them to the FA Cup semi-final. But he was sacked in 2003 after 11 winless games. Some observers detect a weakness: "Lawrie pulls off upsets with rank outsiders but, when his team improves and are expected to win, does he deliver? It'll be interesting to see how he copes in the Premiership."

The overwhelmingly Protestant Windsor Park fans adore Sanchez, a Catholic.

Maybe being an English Catholic doesn't really count. There's a refreshing irreverence to Sanchez. He's no respecter of reputations. "He'd treat the guy next door the same as a Premiership manager, " says a colleague. "He once told me he 'nutmegged' [pass the ball between the legs] George Best in a testimonial. Somebody said 'George Best is a legend, you shouldn't have done that to him'. Sanchez just wouldn't think like that."

As a manager, he's obsessed with graphs and charts, outlining his players' every detail. He's brought in young blood and professionalised Northern Ireland.

His team preparation and motivation is first-rate. A bunch of largely inferior players have gelled and given him their all. But he's had luck, and David Healy is more vital than Sanchez.

He lives in Reading (staying in hotels when in Belfast) with girlfriend Claire Weir. "She's a well-groomed woman in her 40s, with no airs nor graces, who gets on with Jack, " says a friend. "She'd like to get married, but Lawrie is happy as things are."

Critics say Sanchez is cold and aloof, that his football is from his head, not heart. Admirers insist he just hates "all the nonsense". Everybody notices he rarely smiles. "Even after the big win against England, how many happy pictures were there of Lawrie?" a colleague asks. His players respect but don't know him. "Nobody, even his best friends, really knows Lawrie Sanchez, " another acquaintance says. "He's a man of mystery - and he wants it that way."

C.V.

Occupation: Northern Ireland manager
Born: 22 October 1959, London
Marital status: widower, one son Jack (12) In the news because: he has just been appointed caretaker manager of Fulham FC