I support Shamrock Rovers, we have the best youth facilities of any LOI club and its basically a sports club with a bar and a few astro pitches. The league has been criminally underfunded for decades and doesn't look like changing any time soon. Great video as always!
Tbf tho most of the games this season im the LOI have been sell outs across the league so hopefully that gives the FAI some incentive to invest in the youth facilities and grass roots level
Well done again Alfie on another great in-depth video. As an Irishman, it is so frustrating with the domestic situation be it from government or the FAI not caring about grassroots and LOI football. Im a season-ticket holder with Shamrock Rovers and can really see the potential there, but it all seems to be working against us (and the rest of the league). As for the national team, we are in a phase of transition as after even Egan or Duffy who just turned into their 30s, there are almost no players between 23-28 in the squad meaning we are depending on the younger players too soon. In 5 or 10 years time we may look stronger but of course no one really knows. I have faith in Stephen Kenny to help the young players come through, and hope he can stay in charge to see it come. As for a United Ireland league, while it would likely appeal more generally and there have been discussions from different backers, the main issues seem to be financial packages and the loss of European spots so until it’s done politically i wouldnt expect it to arrive any sooner than that.
If there was to be a United Irish League or United Irish International team, would it make more sense to go with the IFA and dissolve the FAI? Don't the IFA have a better seat at the FIFA table, being one of the original members? I could be wrong here, I'm sure someone will put me right.
I would definitely have to disagree that Gaelic games are "middle class", more rural yes but that's a different thing. Also the participation numbers are skewed because of Dublin having such a big population, outside of the capital Gaelic football and hurling are far more popular than soccer. Every tiny village in Ireland has a GAA club, they don't all have soccer clubs. Also the current success of our rugby team and the world class underage set up the IRFU have in place mean rugby union is fast catching up as well. Good video all the same, interesting perspective.
Leaving out the fact that I'm Irish, this is an exceptionally well researched video. What a great job!! The future does look good for us. Having played football in Dublin at the highest level growing up, the amount of players who just never got a chance and stopped playing is a sad indictment on the FAI. The opportunity is there for us to be a force.
Not Irish in anyway but thise video was incredible. The research is cohesive and the narrative is easy to invest in. Good combo of your video essays and the usual Sevens.
Great video as always, Alfie! I would love a video of a similar style about Norway, seeing as we haven't qualified for a tournament since 2000, but now have an incredibly talented squad coming up with two of the best players in the world
@@johnwhittaker311 Albert Tjåland? 60 odd goals in 40 odd club appearances so far. Rumour has it his cousin can play a bit as well but I just can't find any info on him.
I agree with what you are saying, but still I have no hopes of Norway qualifying for the upcoming euros considering how immense bottlers that team has shown themselves to be. Solbakken is a good coach and there are obvious talents in every position but I’d rather be proven wrong than have my hopes be constantly crushed. Hopefully we’re not playing against Serbia anytime soon…
norway has like 2-3 great players and everyone else is trash. until more good players show up, you cant call that a golden generation so dont get ur hopes up
Fantastic video as always but one small complaint: GAA is NOT a middle class game (that would be rugby). GAA is as working class as soccer, but GAA being more popular in rural areas/towns/villages and soccer being more popular in more urban towns/cities. While soccer might have the statistical participation numbers, the heart beat of every village and town in rural Ireland is its local GAA club. Not trying to cause divide either, Love all sports and Irish kids being multi-sport athletes should be used to Ireland’s advantage
Listen to your videos every day in the car to uni, big congrats on 500k, well deserved and thank you for your dedication and hundreds of hours of content Alfie. Rarely comment video ideas but would love to see a video on Celtic and how dramatically Ange Postecoglou has turned the club back around to unrivalled dominance in Scotland since the disastrous season where Celtic lost out on the last of ten league titles in a row. Think it would be an interesting video!
Brilliant stuff as always, I'm a Sligo Rovers fan and I am very optimistic about the future of the LOI attendances are up for the league as a whole we've sold out most home games recently. Interest in the league is far higher than ever than I can remember. Young players who as you said would have in the past gone to England at 15 or 16 are staying in the league for longer. If we can get a more concerted effort from the FAI LOI and the Govt. I am really exited for what the future could be like
The lack of funding for soccer in Ireland is largely down to the government not trusting the FAI after how they’ve wasted money over the years and got into serious debt because of one greedy bastard
@@ArcadiaJunctionHobbies because GAA actually gets the crowds and Cork GAA is after going into debt because of Pairc Ui Chaoimh because they paid for it themselves, don’t tell blatant fucking lies
Danny McNamara from Millwall deserves a mention at right back. He's been fantastic for us over the last couple of years as we push for promotion to the prem
Another really promising midfielder is Crystal Palace’s Killian Phillips. He’s 20 years old and currently on loan at Shrewsbury. He’s also got like 30 appearances for Drogheda. Hasn’t played for Palace in the PL yet, but he looked great in preseason and seems to be doing well on loan. Could be one for the future.
As a Shrewsbury fan, he has been excellent since joining in January, has been Crucial to our upturn in form. Looks destined to play at a much higher level
@@ethanrawlings5673 as a palace supporter, this is fantastic to hear. I was shocked we loaned him out at all after that great preseason, but it’s really heartening to hear he’s doing well for you guys!
Alfie, long time Irish listener (as you know) and this is an excellent video. The treatment of Irish football here has for decades been a disgrace, and our long term approach to it has been to let English clubs develop our players, and this is a better expose than almost any Irish outlet has produced in that time (depressing). Also, GAA is not a middle class sport (small complaint) and you are dead right to not get into Irish unification (given your accent). Brilliant as always.
FTR I don't think this is a golden generation of the sorts you say, but we are excited about this crop and our manager. But as you mention they exist despite, not because of, the structures and systems we have in place. Even if they're successful, Irish football needs a total and utter reboot
I would say there is a certain element of snobbery about GAA which doesn't exist with soccer. Speaking for the Dublin area at least, I would say soccer is the most working class, GAA leaning more middle class, and rugby would be more middle/upper class, though i know that these class barriers may not exist in all counties.
@@101RadioheadCovers I think that might be from a Dublin perspective. From a Mayo perspective (yes, I know) I wouldn't say there is any sort of snobbery. However, we aren't that long down the road where by if you were seen to be watching or playing soccer you would be banned from the GAA. I don't know when that stopped being the case, but I know that it was the case when my Dad left for England in the 60's. There'll be plenty of people with that mentality still around, and it's not based on snobbery on a class level but more the results of British occupation.
@@101RadioheadCovers Absolutely false, if any sport here has snobbery its rugby not GAA, GAA is played by kids of all socio economic, cultural, racial backgrounds it makes no difference, Its an amateur sport which costs almost nothing to play, its the least middle class sport we have.
Great video. As a Celtic and Ireland fan from the north, it’s shocking the lack of funding and resources pumped into football in Ireland both north and south. An all Ireland team may help that but before it does we need young players and new management and staff and more hunger in the team
Good video! As an Ireland fan, it's especially pleasing to see the hugely improved performance of the youth teams. We had excellent youth teams in the late 90s under Brian Kerr but subsequently, the teams had very little success for years. Recently though, the U21s have done well and were unlucky not to qualify for the Euros. The U19s reached the semi-finals of the Euros in 2019. The U17s were in the finals of the Euros 3 times in a row recently too. Very encouraging!
Similar story with Norway. We were good in the 90's, rubbish for the past 20 years with a declining league. The darkest periode we concede a home goal against San Marino, lost to Moldova. Were ranked 87 at the FIFA ranking, 2 spots below Faroe Islands. Yes, that was truly embarrassing. The league have improved a lot lately, with the best Norwegian teams being able to somewhat compete in Europe without being crushed. A lot of focus on develop talents. Two talisman in Haaland and Ødegaard. A new golden generation on its way and hopefully qualifying for our first major competition since 2000. 😅
You'll need to get a result against Scotland next match at home if you want to qualify. Spain will be back so it'll be a shoot out between Scotland who also have a decent generstion coming through and are playing well atm.
Surprised Eiran Cashin didn't get mentioned at all, but I suppose that says something about how good the crop of young Irish Center Backs is right now.
Thanks Alfie. The best football RUclipsr by miles the past 4 years or so following you. I'm a st Patrick's athletic fan and very excited about Irish football in the next ten years
Ireland is one of my favourite nations daily and ever in this world and other planets and I fully hope that their national team,with their up and coming talents who are coming through their ranks,would get the team up and going strongly,good friends!!!LONG LIVE IRELAND!!!🇮🇪
@@AdamOBrien29 You are welcome and as an Interracial person and guy who has English heritage through my ancestries but most importantly,an extremely so good human being and man,you are welcome and long live Ireland,good friend!!!🙏🇮🇪
As a stoke fan , smallbone as been one of our better player's all season . Collins is a very solid center back and left a gap still not fully replaced at the back .
i’m a wolves fan and collins is proper class unlucky to be dropped atm and i think it’s only due to the side of the defence he plays on. if he played on the left i think he’d be one of the first on the team sheet
@@FootballComps21 he wasn't noticed for so long dispite his young age building up alot of league experiance and it aided his growth . From a boy to a man in half a season and looked ready for the step up a year later , how harry was valued higher is beyond me letting him leave for 10 m was a error
Great video. As an Irishman, I have great hopes for the future after watching this and it is nice to hear something positive about Irish Soccer for a change. Despite some truly awful results over the past few years, there have been some glimmers of hope in the performances against Portugal and Scotland. It has been really up and down with Stephen Kenny but in all honesty, some of the play at times has been scintillating and there has been much more onus on playing the ball on the deck and less hoofing the ball. Thankfully we are beginning to see more technical soccer with that old Irish grit. We have always had some very technically gifted players from Brady to Duff and Robbie Keane so the Stephen Kenny approach despite a lot of growing pains has been much appreciated.
It's a long story, but I settled on The Republic of Ireland rather than England in the early to mid 90s, and given how good The ROI were, It's been gutting and heartbreaking to see how much they've declined. So, this video gives me a real sense of hope for the future.
Crazy i am on a study trip to ireland with my School from denmark right now. And We were just wondering earlier about if ireland had any good upcomming players. And then i see this video, it is really the People’s Channel
@@wonjubhoy Currently ahead of Spain - the qualification group is far from over, and while it looks like Scotland might qualify for the Euros it'll mean nothing if they flop while there. Far better Scotland teams than this one have failed to reach the knockout stage of ANY International tournament and there's no reason to expect anything different this time. I've seen the Scotland support fall for the delusion before, so that's why I'll stick with the pragmatic approach.
As a follower of the car crash that is Ireland National Team football in recent years, I have been aware of the golden youth generation coming through. It's all that gives me hope to keep watching defeats to Armenia, Luxembourg and Azerbaijan.
Think there is a lot potential for Andy Lyons at Blackpool to go very far in the game going off what he’s shown since Jan in a lacklustre side and coming off the back of levels above displays in the Airtricity before moving to England
Cov had Adaramola on loan at the start of the season but was sent back without playing a game, it was all very strange 🤔would love to see a video on Cov and the rollercoaster we've had over the years! Great video as always Alfie👍
The talk about Ryan Johansson prompted a video request thought: the players who've switched international allegiances the most. I feel like switching once is relatively common (e.g. different youth team to senior team) but Johansson seems to have switched six times between three nations at youth level and coming from a mixed race background myself (as best as I can tell if I was a footballer I'd be eligible for 5-8 different nations), I'm rather fascinated by players of similarly diverse family histories and how they end up laying their allegiance to just one of them.
Love the video Alfie. I will raise a bit of concern with the statement that the LOI is an afterthought to Irish football fans. Obviously the premiership is the most watched league in the country and many people here couldn't give a shit about the LOI. However there is a considerable number of very passionate fans that create a great atmosphere every week and more importantly the league is growing. There are multiple stadiums currently being extended and the introduction of the conference league gives the league winners a very realistic opportunity to make millions out of a European campaign ever year. Yes we've been consistently fucked over by our government but I'm more hopeful for the league's future than you are. I do wonder about the influences of Brexit. It's hard to imagine the effects of some of our most talented young players not being in English academies' but potentially playing a lot of adult football between the ages of 15-18. Well done on all the irish pronunciations btw. Except for Doherty. I don't know why but english people just can't say Doherty.
@@ronanfitzpatrick1261 ahhh that's interesting. I wasn't aware of the Scottish version. I always just thought it was because its not obviously an Irish word so people don't feel the need to learn how to say it. For example he said Taoiseach perfectly and Caoimhin passably but they're both clearly irish words with the aoi sound that isn't in English. Doherty just looks more English. Kind of like when Portuguese players come over with names like Fernandes and Felix that don't look difficult to pronounce in English but actually have some differences
@@VictorMurp Yeah I thought the same until I read about Tommy Docherty managing United / saw old clips of him play. Yeah both are pronounced how they read, but I guess British people encounter the Scottish version more so just say it automatically
a documentary on the afc Wimbledon on the nine promotions in eleven years, how they’re a fan own club and how they have a stadium in plough lane now. The story of they lost the club, how the F A allowed that and won’t allow that anymore. How they were very close to moving to ireland How they went up the English football leagues. It would be a good documentary video if you can do this. #thepeopleschannel
The original Wimbledon story was amazing enough. The rebirth is the greatest sequal in football history and a great reminder to football fans that no matter how bad things get for your club, there's always a light at the end of the tunnel as long as we as fans fight like hell to keep it lit.
Dublin- Mackem here, would love a video on Irish unification in relation to football. Sunderland have some quality players from up north: Ballard, Hume, Evans, that'd make could really compliment a united national team. Aswell we've picked up a few good teenagers from Linfield who seem to have a really good talent pool. Love the vids!
@@-nolan- Thanks for letting know (even if it's pretty ironic considering the ancestry of Kane). Although I would have thought that they would support Scotland instead.
It is important to mention that there are plenty of Irish footballers who turned their back on the Irish nationalteam for fame like Declan Rice and Jack Graelish.
Really interesting that a couple of the players you mentioned were contracted to teams in Italy and one to a team in Spain. I wonder whether one of the impacts of the tightened English academy rules post-brexit will be more Irish players in the academies of Serie A/La Liga/Bundesliga teams?
Mark McGuiness deserves a mention at the back. Plays for Cardiff was on loan here at Sheffield Wednesday for the first half of the season. He was incredible when he was here(at Wednesday).
I think an interesting point to note in a comparison with Wales for example is the huge decline they have suffered as a Rugby nation (traditionally their unofficial national sport) during their ascent as a footballing nation. Similarly during Irelands football golden years our rugby team was at it's lowest ebb and vice versa now that football has declined, we are having the greatest rugby era we've ever had. The conclusion to draw from this in my opinion is that small countries like Ireland and Wales simply do not have the population numbers to excell at the very top level at two major team sports internationally at the same time. Success breeds interest. I think a good illustration of this is to go on any Irish sporting website and compare the interaction between articles on rugby international games and football international games. The disparity of comments etc is staggering. This would not have been the case even 10 years a go. Constant mediocrity has made Ireland really fall out of love with football in my opinion, where as rugby is booming at the moment. It's going to certainly take a golden generation to reignite it, but I can't say I'm optimistic to be honest.
Very good point . One country who has bucked that trend would be NZ a couple of years ago they were world champions in multiple sports . That is probably an anomaly though .
Great video, but the GAA is certainly not middle class, every small village and parish in the county has a GAA club which is the centre of almost all rural communities. Rugby would definitely be considered the most middle class sport
The GAA have way more followers than compared to the league of Ireland and most of the GAA stadiums hold more so I think the FAI should focus in on that.
As a Irishman with a dad who is a HUGE irish soccer fan, the sport is is just in a sad state compared to rugby, Gaelic football and hurling who's domestic teams get alot of attention and praise, it has become a running joke how shit we are at soccer, but the fans are still so passionate (The whole country went crazy when we qualified for the 2012 euros)and I hope we have a change in fortune soon
Great video! Maybe you have some data around the GAA that I don't know. But the GAA isn't really middle class in terms of perception here, but maybe a bit more rural, but just as "working class" as soccer. Also for participation rates, it isn't a great comparison as I think soccer (football) rates include all codes of the sport (so five a side indoor counts), GAA does not really provide for stripped down versions of the sport like how soccer does. There are stripped down versions but they're almost exclusively for small kids or adapted for playing in other sports pitches for exhibition games. If you were to look at the participation rates of children from 12 to 17 and adults from 18 - 30 I'd say the playing populations would be very similar, with lots of kids playing both. Side note, for around about 70 years though GAA players couldn't play or even watch "foreign sports" or they'd be banned. Some places had "Vigilance Committees" that went out and attended cricket games, or rugby or whatever and made a note of who was there.
The GAA actually banned our first president, who was a GAA patron and supporter, for attending a soccer match, as president, between Poland and Ireland in 1938
One point you missed Alfie, is that the GAA is amateur....the profits from the games go back 100% into the organization which includes all 32 Counties .. most Clubs and there are thousands, have incredible facilities which the Community use on a daily basis. Soccer as you have mentioned has been woefully mismanaged, and the Government is right to be sceptical on giving money to the sport until it shows improvement, clubs like Bohemians are showing the way to go, being 100% fan owned and garnering massive goodwill among the Public it serves. A sizeable contingent of Irish youngsters are now moving to Spain and Italy in particular and this has to be a plus for the coming years.
We have a few promising Irish youngsters at Palace. On top of Adaramola, we have Jake O'Brien (CB), currently playing every minute on loan at Molenbeek, and Killian Phillips (CM) who just won Shrewsbury's young player of the season after being on loan there since January. Think most Places fans are hoping for Championship loans for them next season and then moving into our squad the year after if they continue to progress.
Great video! And although I really appreciate that this video is 10 times better researched than most similar videos would be in relation to Ireland, there are certain nuances to the situation you are missing out on. This is completely understandable considering you are not Irish. I am Irish, and a 'soccer man' but you can't say that most people play soccer than gaelic football and then speak about government grants in terms of how much was given to the GAA - The GAA is the governing body of both gaelic football and hurling so to compare apples and oranges you would then have to compare how many people play GAA (both football and hurling) with how many play soccer. I do also believe that the participation numbers for soccer include casual players ie. 5 a side footballers. It's also important to note that many GAA players will play soccer in the winter to keep fit even though the GAA sports would be their priority by quite alot - the soccer would be seen as a bit of fun during the off season. These players are included in the official soccer player numbers but if you were to ask many of these they would describe themselves as GAA players and not soccer players. Lots more nuances but I could go on forever.
The league of Ireland this season has really gone up a gear. More matches shown on Tv, bigger social media presence and match days have been sold out so far this year
Haven't been overly impressed by Johannson's progression since declaring but still young...hopefully comes good. Liam Kerrigan at Como an exciting winger, and Mikey Johnston too hopefully reach their potential. Great Video!
Great vid and kudos for actually putting into perspective Football's place in Ireland's sporting pursuits. I've seen numerous reports on the demise of Irish football and they all fail to spot the pink elephant in the room , which as you addressed - it's not the most popular sport here. You'd be forgiving for thinking otherwise though. The P.L. as you can imagine is massively popular here, but outside urban areas grassroots football (soccer) in no way reflects this. Like you said it buckles under fierce opposition from the Gaelic games. You can be guaranteed every village in Ireland no matter how small will have two things. A Pub or a Hurling /Gaelic Football Club . As you stated though there are some rays of sunshine appearing in our national team that give some of us old enough to remember the glory days of Jacks Army and even Mick McCarthy era reason for optimism. Another factor to take positives from is the widening of our pool to select from. Historically Ireland was a nation of emigrants , so the diaspora supplied us with plenty of options thanks to the eligibility rule. The dynamic has switched now with Ireland in the 21st century being a country with an immigrant population. We can now draw on born and bred players of African, South American and Eastern European heritage who come from parts of the world with a strong football culture. All good I say. C'mon You Boys In Green !
Great video, incredible amount of research but Festy Ebosele not being in your starting 11 feels like a glaring omission at right back. He was starting in Serie A last weekend at 20 years old.
Pretty sure the Common Travel Area still allows Irish players to live and play in the UK despite Brexit. Same for youth players. The under 18 restriction is from the Premier League/EFL however not the government.
Yeah he got it wrong. Ireland and England have always had their own arrangements outside of the EU. Brexit doesn't really effect our relationship with the UK
Can you do a documentary about Boavista FC? One of only two clubs in Portugal who broke the hegemony of the Big Three in Portugal and were crowned champions in 2001. Played the likes of Bayern Munich and Liverpool in the UCL and reached the UEFA Cup semifinal in 2003. They were relegated in 2008 and only came back to top flight in 2014, following many years of judicial cases and financial crisis.
I wrote a comment their that I instantly regretted. I deleted it and I just want to apologise to the creator. This is a graet video and really well researched. Your very good at what you do. All the best and hope there's no hard feelings.
Another couple of lads to watch out for are James Abankwah and Fetsy Ebosele. Both at Udinese. Then there's Heffernan at AC Milan, who has 2 parents who are Olympians so I wouldn't bet against him
Irish Guy, this video is for you
Irish guy's mouth waters while he is watching the video
Quite potentially the most unfunny man I’ve had the displeasure of listening to
Chills
chills
Christ above
As a fan of Preston North End, who've done 99% of their international recruitment from Ireland in the past 10 years, this is great news
All our young players are going out to Italy now mate because of Brexit 😂
There all going Australia and MLS now
some of them already have a restraining order or the Rizzler
@@barry4649 Didnt realise Brighton was in Italy. Signed two more just in the winter window.
Basically all our players are Irish
I support Shamrock Rovers, we have the best youth facilities of any LOI club and its basically a sports club with a bar and a few astro pitches. The league has been criminally underfunded for decades and doesn't look like changing any time soon. Great video as always!
Tbf tho most of the games this season im the LOI have been sell outs across the league so hopefully that gives the FAI some incentive to invest in the youth facilities and grass roots level
I think Waterford FC might have better facilities now they train at WIT Arena which is a proper professional training centre
@@barry4649clearly not helping the team enough
@@orbee1873 I think they only moved in there in the last year or two, they used to train in this little shit field up behind the RSC
@@barry4649 Barry I'm sick of you tbh, you've left about 50 comments under this video. Each one more inaccurate, uniformed or idiotic than the last
Well done again Alfie on another great in-depth video.
As an Irishman, it is so frustrating with the domestic situation be it from government or the FAI not caring about grassroots and LOI football. Im a season-ticket holder with Shamrock Rovers and can really see the potential there, but it all seems to be working against us (and the rest of the league).
As for the national team, we are in a phase of transition as after even Egan or Duffy who just turned into their 30s, there are almost no players between 23-28 in the squad meaning we are depending on the younger players too soon. In 5 or 10 years time we may look stronger but of course no one really knows. I have faith in Stephen Kenny to help the young players come through, and hope he can stay in charge to see it come.
As for a United Ireland league, while it would likely appeal more generally and there have been discussions from different backers, the main issues seem to be financial packages and the loss of European spots so until it’s done politically i wouldnt expect it to arrive any sooner than that.
My county (kerry) got a team recently, we've just lost 9-1 but-
If there was to be a United Irish League or United Irish International team, would it make more sense to go with the IFA and dissolve the FAI? Don't the IFA have a better seat at the FIFA table, being one of the original members? I could be wrong here, I'm sure someone will put me right.
I would definitely have to disagree that Gaelic games are "middle class", more rural yes but that's a different thing. Also the participation numbers are skewed because of Dublin having such a big population, outside of the capital Gaelic football and hurling are far more popular than soccer. Every tiny village in Ireland has a GAA club, they don't all have soccer clubs. Also the current success of our rugby team and the world class underage set up the IRFU have in place mean rugby union is fast catching up as well. Good video all the same, interesting perspective.
Rugby is the middle class sport (except in Limerick)
This is spot on
Leaving out the fact that I'm Irish, this is an exceptionally well researched video. What a great job!! The future does look good for us. Having played football in Dublin at the highest level growing up, the amount of players who just never got a chance and stopped playing is a sad indictment on the FAI. The opportunity is there for us to be a force.
Not Irish in anyway but thise video was incredible. The research is cohesive and the narrative is easy to invest in. Good combo of your video essays and the usual Sevens.
Festy Ebosele is another player with huge potential at right back. Could definitely see him thriving if we play a 3
Yeah I’d definitely put him ahead of johansson
he’s much more effective further up the pitch
That name doesn't sound Irish.
@@TDR376 and what is the relevance of that? He was born in Wexford you melted Wellie
my claim to fame is playing for wexford with him when i was 13 hahah
Great video as always, Alfie! I would love a video of a similar style about Norway, seeing as we haven't qualified for a tournament since 2000, but now have an incredibly talented squad coming up with two of the best players in the world
Thelo Aasgard and?
@@johnwhittaker311 Albert Tjåland? 60 odd goals in 40 odd club appearances so far. Rumour has it his cousin can play a bit as well but I just can't find any info on him.
@@patrickwilliams6143 That cousin might be a longshot there mate
I agree with what you are saying, but still I have no hopes of Norway qualifying for the upcoming euros considering how immense bottlers that team has shown themselves to be. Solbakken is a good coach and there are obvious talents in every position but I’d rather be proven wrong than have my hopes be constantly crushed.
Hopefully we’re not playing against Serbia anytime soon…
norway has like 2-3 great players and everyone else is trash. until more good players show up, you cant call that a golden generation so dont get ur hopes up
Fantastic video as always but one small complaint: GAA is NOT a middle class game (that would be rugby). GAA is as working class as soccer, but GAA being more popular in rural areas/towns/villages and soccer being more popular in more urban towns/cities. While soccer might have the statistical participation numbers, the heart beat of every village and town in rural Ireland is its local GAA club. Not trying to cause divide either, Love all sports and Irish kids being multi-sport athletes should be used to Ireland’s advantage
Yeah soccer is more popular but the idea that that popularity comes from GAA being a middle class sport is.... a weird claim.
Listen to your videos every day in the car to uni, big congrats on 500k, well deserved and thank you for your dedication and hundreds of hours of content Alfie. Rarely comment video ideas but would love to see a video on Celtic and how dramatically Ange Postecoglou has turned the club back around to unrivalled dominance in Scotland since the disastrous season where Celtic lost out on the last of ten league titles in a row. Think it would be an interesting video!
Angeball taking over 🍀
Brilliant stuff as always, I'm a Sligo Rovers fan and I am very optimistic about the future of the LOI attendances are up for the league as a whole we've sold out most home games recently. Interest in the league is far higher than ever than I can remember. Young players who as you said would have in the past gone to England at 15 or 16 are staying in the league for longer. If we can get a more concerted effort from the FAI LOI and the Govt. I am really exited for what the future could be like
Same lad, Showgrounds tommorow is gonna be class
The lack of funding for soccer in Ireland is largely down to the government not trusting the FAI after how they’ve wasted money over the years and got into serious debt because of one greedy bastard
they were refused money long before Delaney and the GAA and a certain stadium in Cork was given a free pass.
@@ArcadiaJunctionHobbies because GAA actually gets the crowds and Cork GAA is after going into debt because of Pairc Ui Chaoimh because they paid for it themselves, don’t tell blatant fucking lies
Danny McNamara from Millwall deserves a mention at right back. He's been fantastic for us over the last couple of years as we push for promotion to the prem
No he’s terrible
Jayson mulomby was great for u too I think deserves a mention ,,
Use to live over the Golden Lion pub right beside Millwall football club ,, Good Times ! From ireland 🇮🇪 !
Another really promising midfielder is Crystal Palace’s Killian Phillips. He’s 20 years old and currently on loan at Shrewsbury. He’s also got like 30 appearances for Drogheda. Hasn’t played for Palace in the PL yet, but he looked great in preseason and seems to be doing well on loan. Could be one for the future.
As a Shrewsbury fan, he has been excellent since joining in January, has been Crucial to our upturn in form. Looks destined to play at a much higher level
@@ethanrawlings5673 as a palace supporter, this is fantastic to hear. I was shocked we loaned him out at all after that great preseason, but it’s really heartening to hear he’s doing well for you guys!
As an Irish man you done this video justice it's beautiful to see our little island been blessed with this generation of talented youth
Alfie, long time Irish listener (as you know) and this is an excellent video. The treatment of Irish football here has for decades been a disgrace, and our long term approach to it has been to let English clubs develop our players, and this is a better expose than almost any Irish outlet has produced in that time (depressing). Also, GAA is not a middle class sport (small complaint) and you are dead right to not get into Irish unification (given your accent). Brilliant as always.
FTR I don't think this is a golden generation of the sorts you say, but we are excited about this crop and our manager. But as you mention they exist despite, not because of, the structures and systems we have in place. Even if they're successful, Irish football needs a total and utter reboot
I would say there is a certain element of snobbery about GAA which doesn't exist with soccer. Speaking for the Dublin area at least, I would say soccer is the most working class, GAA leaning more middle class, and rugby would be more middle/upper class, though i know that these class barriers may not exist in all counties.
@@101RadioheadCovers Agreed. You could put Dundalk Drogheda Derry and large parts of Cork in there with Dublin as well.
@@101RadioheadCovers I think that might be from a Dublin perspective. From a Mayo perspective (yes, I know) I wouldn't say there is any sort of snobbery. However, we aren't that long down the road where by if you were seen to be watching or playing soccer you would be banned from the GAA. I don't know when that stopped being the case, but I know that it was the case when my Dad left for England in the 60's. There'll be plenty of people with that mentality still around, and it's not based on snobbery on a class level but more the results of British occupation.
@@101RadioheadCovers Absolutely false, if any sport here has snobbery its rugby not GAA, GAA is played by kids of all socio economic, cultural, racial backgrounds it makes no difference, Its an amateur sport which costs almost nothing to play, its the least middle class sport we have.
Great video. As a Celtic and Ireland fan from the north, it’s shocking the lack of funding and resources pumped into football in Ireland both north and south. An all Ireland team may help that but before it does we need young players and new management and staff and more hunger in the team
The studying of Irish politics and other sports really shows the work you put into these. Great Video
except for him thinking GAA is middle class..
Possibly more middle class in large urban centres like Dublin, Sligo and Dundalk
Good video! As an Ireland fan, it's especially pleasing to see the hugely improved performance of the youth teams. We had excellent youth teams in the late 90s under Brian Kerr but subsequently, the teams had very little success for years.
Recently though, the U21s have done well and were unlucky not to qualify for the Euros. The U19s reached the semi-finals of the Euros in 2019. The U17s were in the finals of the Euros 3 times in a row recently too. Very encouraging!
0:17 Ireland being literally one spot below Ivory Coast is so funny to me
Ivory Coast have produced Droghba,YaYa and Kholo Toure,Salomon khalo etc
@@baliksupper6043 I’m pretty sure he’s talking about how the flags look similar
@@baliksupper6043 nothing wrong with Ivory Coast football but he means the flags look the same but just the other way around
Similar story with Norway. We were good in the 90's, rubbish for the past 20 years with a declining league. The darkest periode we concede a home goal against San Marino, lost to Moldova. Were ranked 87 at the FIFA ranking, 2 spots below Faroe Islands. Yes, that was truly embarrassing.
The league have improved a lot lately, with the best Norwegian teams being able to somewhat compete in Europe without being crushed. A lot of focus on develop talents. Two talisman in Haaland and Ødegaard. A new golden generation on its way and hopefully qualifying for our first major competition since 2000. 😅
Could actually be an interesting video in its own right.
I can see Norway being up with the big teams.Haaland and Ødegaard being big inspirations for the younger generations
You'll need to get a result against Scotland next match at home if you want to qualify. Spain will be back so it'll be a shoot out between Scotland who also have a decent generstion coming through and are playing well atm.
@@amberconnolly3437 Norway will never be among the big teams. Haaland and Odegaard are the only good players and they just drew with Georgia 😂
@@dutchvanderlinde8034 I don’t mean like Brazil and France but they’re not going to be 43 where Scotland and Ecuador are better.I’d say in the top 35
Greetings from county Kerry! Great video today, hope to see the unified Ireland video soon. Cheers!
Surprised Eiran Cashin didn't get mentioned at all, but I suppose that says something about how good the crop of young Irish Center Backs is right now.
Cashin is surely one of the most promising CBs we have. Beast
true cashin is very good
Obafemi, Smallbone and Ogbene are great 😃. Fabulous video.
Thanks Alfie. The best football RUclipsr by miles the past 4 years or so following you. I'm a st Patrick's athletic fan and very excited about Irish football in the next ten years
Ireland is one of my favourite nations daily and ever in this world and other planets and I fully hope that their national team,with their up and coming talents who are coming through their ranks,would get the team up and going strongly,good friends!!!LONG LIVE IRELAND!!!🇮🇪
Other planets? 😂
@@AdamOBrien29 Who knows if there are at least some astronauts who would be able to watch his video,good friend!!!🏋♂️
@@depekthegreat359 well thanks for the support lol 🇮🇪🇮🇪
@@AdamOBrien29 You are welcome and as an Interracial person and guy who has English heritage through my ancestries but most importantly,an extremely so good human being and man,you are welcome and long live Ireland,good friend!!!🙏🇮🇪
As a stoke fan , smallbone as been one of our better player's all season . Collins is a very solid center back and left a gap still not fully replaced at the back .
i’m a wolves fan and collins is proper class unlucky to be dropped atm and i think it’s only due to the side of the defence he plays on. if he played on the left i think he’d be one of the first on the team sheet
@@FootballComps21 he wasn't noticed for so long dispite his young age building up alot of league experiance and it aided his growth .
From a boy to a man in half a season and looked ready for the step up a year later , how harry was valued higher is beyond me letting him leave for 10 m was a error
Alfie has just shown some hopes for the Irish Guy. You love to see it.
Great video. As an Irishman, I have great hopes for the future after watching this and it is nice to hear something positive about Irish Soccer for a change. Despite some truly awful results over the past few years, there have been some glimmers of hope in the performances against Portugal and Scotland. It has been really up and down with Stephen Kenny but in all honesty, some of the play at times has been scintillating and there has been much more onus on playing the ball on the deck and less hoofing the ball. Thankfully we are beginning to see more technical soccer with that old Irish grit. We have always had some very technically gifted players from Brady to Duff and Robbie Keane so the Stephen Kenny approach despite a lot of growing pains has been much appreciated.
It's not often I hear a British person say Taoiseach, let alone pronounce it perfectly. Fair play!
As a homesick irishman living in spain this has made up for alfie not posting for 3 days
It's a long story, but I settled on The Republic of Ireland rather than England in the early to mid 90s, and given how good The ROI were, It's been gutting and heartbreaking to see how much they've declined. So, this video gives me a real sense of hope for the future.
Crazy i am on a study trip to ireland with my School from denmark right now. And We were just wondering earlier about if ireland had any good upcomming players. And then i see this video, it is really the People’s Channel
The disparaging way Alfie said "Scotland" - reminding everyone that if you're worse than Scotland you really are the pits...
If memory serves, last year Ireland destroyed Scotland in Dublin and deserved at least a point in Hampden Park.
@@tipptop9 and finished third in a group that Scotland won.
Scotland are top of their qualifying group and are ahead of Spain. Scotland got promoted to the top league while England got relegated.
@@wonjubhoy Currently ahead of Spain - the qualification group is far from over, and while it looks like Scotland might qualify for the Euros it'll mean nothing if they flop while there.
Far better Scotland teams than this one have failed to reach the knockout stage of ANY International tournament and there's no reason to expect anything different this time.
I've seen the Scotland support fall for the delusion before, so that's why I'll stick with the pragmatic approach.
Great vid.. A few jems you may not know about are Gabe Athouse at Grimsby, Eaton Beaver at Carlisle and Eric Shun at Doncaster
As a follower of the car crash that is Ireland National Team football in recent years, I have been aware of the golden youth generation coming through. It's all that gives me hope to keep watching defeats to Armenia, Luxembourg and Azerbaijan.
Hi from ireland 🇮🇪 , Brilliant video,, bang on the money in every word . Thanks for doing this .
Absolutely brilliant video mate. Well researched and so entertaining. Well done
Think there is a lot potential for Andy Lyons at Blackpool to go very far in the game going off what he’s shown since Jan in a lacklustre side and coming off the back of levels above displays in the Airtricity before moving to England
Cov had Adaramola on loan at the start of the season but was sent back without playing a game, it was all very strange 🤔would love to see a video on Cov and the rollercoaster we've had over the years! Great video as always Alfie👍
This channel is great. Clear precise narration and information that is easily digestible as a video or just as audio.
😍😍
Good to see, despite the remarks, you still follow the channel ♥️
The talk about Ryan Johansson prompted a video request thought: the players who've switched international allegiances the most. I feel like switching once is relatively common (e.g. different youth team to senior team) but Johansson seems to have switched six times between three nations at youth level and coming from a mixed race background myself (as best as I can tell if I was a footballer I'd be eligible for 5-8 different nations), I'm rather fascinated by players of similarly diverse family histories and how they end up laying their allegiance to just one of them.
Great video. Under 17s recently qualified for a major tournament as well 🙏
Conor McManus who recently signed for Brentford B, who is just 18, also looks to be a really promising player.
Love the video Alfie. I will raise a bit of concern with the statement that the LOI is an afterthought to Irish football fans. Obviously the premiership is the most watched league in the country and many people here couldn't give a shit about the LOI. However there is a considerable number of very passionate fans that create a great atmosphere every week and more importantly the league is growing. There are multiple stadiums currently being extended and the introduction of the conference league gives the league winners a very realistic opportunity to make millions out of a European campaign ever year. Yes we've been consistently fucked over by our government but I'm more hopeful for the league's future than you are.
I do wonder about the influences of Brexit. It's hard to imagine the effects of some of our most talented young players not being in English academies' but potentially playing a lot of adult football between the ages of 15-18.
Well done on all the irish pronunciations btw. Except for Doherty. I don't know why but english people just can't say Doherty.
I think it's because of confusion with the Scottish Docherty (I think some might even spell it without the c, but still pronounce it)
@@ronanfitzpatrick1261 ahhh that's interesting. I wasn't aware of the Scottish version. I always just thought it was because its not obviously an Irish word so people don't feel the need to learn how to say it. For example he said Taoiseach perfectly and Caoimhin passably but they're both clearly irish words with the aoi sound that isn't in English. Doherty just looks more English. Kind of like when Portuguese players come over with names like Fernandes and Felix that don't look difficult to pronounce in English but actually have some differences
@@VictorMurp Yeah I thought the same until I read about Tommy Docherty managing United / saw old clips of him play.
Yeah both are pronounced how they read, but I guess British people encounter the Scottish version more so just say it automatically
Thankfully he didn't say Dokkerty
Excellent analysis. Thanks for putting this together and shining a light.
a documentary on the afc Wimbledon on the nine promotions in eleven years, how they’re a fan own club and how they have a stadium in plough lane now.
The story of they lost the club, how the F A allowed that and won’t allow that anymore.
How they were very close to moving to ireland
How they went up the English football leagues.
It would be a good documentary video if you can do this. #thepeopleschannel
Honestly would love it as well
The original Wimbledon story was amazing enough. The rebirth is the greatest sequal in football history and a great reminder to football fans that no matter how bad things get for your club, there's always a light at the end of the tunnel as long as we as fans fight like hell to keep it lit.
So long as there is a long focus on how everybody in the Isthmian League hated them because the fans were a bunch of arrogant shits.
Cathal heffernan is only 18 and is about to break into ac Milan squad, I think in a few years he will be our best center back
Dublin- Mackem here, would love a video on Irish unification in relation to football. Sunderland have some quality players from up north: Ballard, Hume, Evans, that'd make could really compliment a united national team. Aswell we've picked up a few good teenagers from Linfield who seem to have a really good talent pool. Love the vids!
I'm not sure if a certain element from the north would ever support a United Ireland football team.
It might take another 2-3 generations.
@@patrickfarrell5092 Would they support England or Scotland instead should North Ireland join the Irish Republic in the next 2 decades?
@@MrSmith1984 Yeh a lot Unionists would support England
@@-nolan- Thanks for letting know (even if it's pretty ironic considering the ancestry of Kane). Although I would have thought that they would support Scotland instead.
@@MrSmith1984 I mean depends really, maybe a few would support Scotland but mostly England Id say
It is important to mention that there are plenty of Irish footballers who turned their back on the Irish nationalteam for fame like Declan Rice and Jack Graelish.
Some incredibly impressive depth of knowledge here. Excellent vid.
I have been telling my friends about how excited I am for this Ireland team, it's been a rough decade but there is light (I hope) haha
Definitely, there are some real positives there, especially how Kenny has them playing.
Are you German?
@@retro7924jesus
Alfie great vid as always. I would love to see a vid on football history in ireland. Republic of ireland and Northern Ireland
Really interesting that a couple of the players you mentioned were contracted to teams in Italy and one to a team in Spain. I wonder whether one of the impacts of the tightened English academy rules post-brexit will be more Irish players in the academies of Serie A/La Liga/Bundesliga teams?
Look out for Killian Phillips at Shrewsbury on loan from Palace looked like a top top player in our friendlies
Mark McGuiness deserves a mention at the back. Plays for Cardiff was on loan here at Sheffield Wednesday for the first half of the season. He was incredible when he was here(at Wednesday).
Thanks for uploading, this is very informative...Good on ya, Mate!😁
I think an interesting point to note in a comparison with Wales for example is the huge decline they have suffered as a Rugby nation (traditionally their unofficial national sport) during their ascent as a footballing nation.
Similarly during Irelands football golden years our rugby team was at it's lowest ebb and vice versa now that football has declined, we are having the greatest rugby era we've ever had.
The conclusion to draw from this in my opinion is that small countries like Ireland and Wales simply do not have the population numbers to excell at the very top level at two major team sports internationally at the same time.
Success breeds interest. I think a good illustration of this is to go on any Irish sporting website and compare the interaction between articles on rugby international games and football international games. The disparity of comments etc is staggering. This would not have been the case even 10 years a go.
Constant mediocrity has made Ireland really fall out of love with football in my opinion, where as rugby is booming at the moment. It's going to certainly take a golden generation to reignite it, but I can't say I'm optimistic to be honest.
Very good point . One country who has bucked that trend would be NZ a couple of years ago they were world champions in multiple sports . That is probably an anomaly though .
I’m pretty sure we’re strong at horse racing most of the time, but maybe the particular demographic involved skews the data a bit.
Great video, but the GAA is certainly not middle class, every small village and parish in the county has a GAA club which is the centre of almost all rural communities. Rugby would definitely be considered the most middle class sport
The GAA have way more followers than compared to the league of Ireland and most of the GAA stadiums hold more so I think the FAI should focus in on that.
As a Irishman with a dad who is a HUGE irish soccer fan, the sport is is just in a sad state compared to rugby, Gaelic football and hurling who's domestic teams get alot of attention and praise, it has become a running joke how shit we are at soccer, but the fans are still so passionate (The whole country went crazy when we qualified for the 2012 euros)and I hope we have a change in fortune soon
As an Irish football fan great to see someone covering our national team COYBIG
Great video! Maybe you have some data around the GAA that I don't know. But the GAA isn't really middle class in terms of perception here, but maybe a bit more rural, but just as "working class" as soccer. Also for participation rates, it isn't a great comparison as I think soccer (football) rates include all codes of the sport (so five a side indoor counts), GAA does not really provide for stripped down versions of the sport like how soccer does. There are stripped down versions but they're almost exclusively for small kids or adapted for playing in other sports pitches for exhibition games. If you were to look at the participation rates of children from 12 to 17 and adults from 18 - 30 I'd say the playing populations would be very similar, with lots of kids playing both. Side note, for around about 70 years though GAA players couldn't play or even watch "foreign sports" or they'd be banned. Some places had "Vigilance Committees" that went out and attended cricket games, or rugby or whatever and made a note of who was there.
The GAA actually banned our first president, who was a GAA patron and supporter, for attending a soccer match, as president, between Poland and Ireland in 1938
One point you missed Alfie, is that the GAA is amateur....the profits from the games go back 100% into the organization which includes all 32 Counties .. most Clubs and there are thousands, have incredible facilities which the Community use on a daily basis.
Soccer as you have mentioned has been woefully mismanaged, and the Government is right to be sceptical on giving money to the sport until it shows improvement, clubs like Bohemians are showing the way to go, being 100% fan owned and garnering massive goodwill among the Public it serves.
A sizeable contingent of Irish youngsters are now moving to Spain and Italy in particular and this has to be a plus for the coming years.
We have a few promising Irish youngsters at Palace. On top of Adaramola, we have Jake O'Brien (CB), currently playing every minute on loan at Molenbeek, and Killian Phillips (CM) who just won Shrewsbury's young player of the season after being on loan there since January. Think most Places fans are hoping for Championship loans for them next season and then moving into our squad the year after if they continue to progress.
Excellent as always!
Great vid, thanks 👍👍👍.. look forward to the next one...
Great video. Thanks Alfie!
This came out nicely around the time of the rebrand
Great video! And although I really appreciate that this video is 10 times better researched than most similar videos would be in relation to Ireland, there are certain nuances to the situation you are missing out on. This is completely understandable considering you are not Irish. I am Irish, and a 'soccer man' but you can't say that most people play soccer than gaelic football and then speak about government grants in terms of how much was given to the GAA - The GAA is the governing body of both gaelic football and hurling so to compare apples and oranges you would then have to compare how many people play GAA (both football and hurling) with how many play soccer. I do also believe that the participation numbers for soccer include casual players ie. 5 a side footballers. It's also important to note that many GAA players will play soccer in the winter to keep fit even though the GAA sports would be their priority by quite alot - the soccer would be seen as a bit of fun during the off season. These players are included in the official soccer player numbers but if you were to ask many of these they would describe themselves as GAA players and not soccer players. Lots more nuances but I could go on forever.
Interesting to note that 10 of England's world cup squad were eligible to play for Ireland too 😉
The League of Ireland has massively increased in crowds last year and this year. It is actually ready to overtake GAA and Rugby.
In terms of viewership? This can't be true. Both Rugby and GAA attract crowds in the tens of thousands
@@yoloswaggins7121 there are more games per season in the LOI and hence the increase.
The league of Ireland this season has really gone up a gear. More matches shown on Tv, bigger social media presence and match days have been sold out so far this year
Great video again!
Haven't been overly impressed by Johannson's progression since declaring but still young...hopefully comes good. Liam Kerrigan at Como an exciting winger, and Mikey Johnston too hopefully reach their potential. Great Video!
Our golden generation was in the 80s, Whelan, Staunton, Brady, Aldridge, McCarthy, McGrath, Bonner, the list goes on.
Great vid and kudos for actually putting into perspective Football's place in Ireland's sporting pursuits. I've seen numerous reports on the demise of Irish football and they all fail to spot the pink elephant in the room , which as you addressed - it's not the most popular sport here. You'd be forgiving for thinking otherwise though. The P.L. as you can imagine is massively popular here, but outside urban areas grassroots football (soccer) in no way reflects this. Like you said it buckles under fierce opposition from the Gaelic games. You can be guaranteed every village in Ireland no matter how small will have two things. A Pub or a Hurling /Gaelic Football Club . As you stated though there are some rays of sunshine appearing in our national team that give some of us old enough to remember the glory days of Jacks Army and even Mick McCarthy era reason for optimism. Another factor to take positives from is the widening of our pool to select from. Historically Ireland was a nation of emigrants , so the diaspora supplied us with plenty of options thanks to the eligibility rule. The dynamic has switched now with Ireland in the 21st century being a country with an immigrant population. We can now draw on born and bred players of African, South American and Eastern European heritage who come from parts of the world with a strong football culture. All good I say. C'mon You Boys In Green !
I went primary with Evan, I knew that boy was gonna be special from young. I even played at Belvo with Troy
Very fair assessment of the FAI and Irish league of Ireland clubs
Great video, incredible amount of research but Festy Ebosele not being in your starting 11 feels like a glaring omission at right back. He was starting in Serie A last weekend at 20 years old.
J'ADORE your great vidéo congratulations !
Proud of u for saying all this and having the knowledge and not just soouting appreciate u talking abt my country
Pretty sure the Common Travel Area still allows Irish players to live and play in the UK despite Brexit. Same for youth players. The under 18 restriction is from the Premier League/EFL however not the government.
Yeah he got it wrong. Ireland and England have always had their own arrangements outside of the EU. Brexit doesn't really effect our relationship with the UK
Very well researched
My team Shels finally getting a mention after watching for 4 years
I would love to see Shels returning to their Ringsend roots. It would be great to see them playing at Shelbourne Park.
I saw a Gaelic pitch I’ve played on in this video 😎
Video idea:
Alfie's ranking of the Premier League walkouts.
Gaa being a middle class sport is the only thing wrong in this video gaa is played in every village in Ireland that’s the difference
Sinclair Armstrong as well looks good for us. Deserving of a mention anyway
as an Irish fan, I want to kiss Brighton for developing the players the FAI don't want to
Can you do a documentary about Boavista FC? One of only two clubs in Portugal who broke the hegemony of the Big Three in Portugal and were crowned champions in 2001. Played the likes of Bayern Munich and Liverpool in the UCL and reached the UEFA Cup semifinal in 2003. They were relegated in 2008 and only came back to top flight in 2014, following many years of judicial cases and financial crisis.
Good video , do one on Northern Ireland and Wales and Scotland
hahaha the subtle use of the Ndidi picture when he says 'indeed' 😂😂😂
I wrote a comment their that I instantly regretted. I deleted it and I just want to apologise to the creator. This is a graet video and really well researched. Your very good at what you do. All the best and hope there's no hard feelings.
Great video Alfie
Class wise I’d say GAA is very universal. In Ireland, rugby is seen as the middle and upper class sport
Cathal Heffernan at AC Milan is another outstanding prospect at youth level, he’s 17 and starts for their u19 team
Another couple of lads to watch out for are James Abankwah and Fetsy Ebosele. Both at Udinese. Then there's Heffernan at AC Milan, who has 2 parents who are Olympians so I wouldn't bet against him
No mention for Seamus Coleman when you speak of talented older players. He is a brilliant player I am sure younger players can learn a lot from him