To be fair, the reporter has to write a story and clarifying details like that matter -- Keane was referring to his father in past tense which many could take to believe he had passed on. A bit biased as I work in that field :)
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To be fair, the reporter has to write a story and clarifying details like that matter -- Keane was referring to his father in past tense which many could take to believe he had passed on. A bit biased as I work in that field :)
It's cute that he implies he only picked England underage because they approached him first when his twin brother said this:
"When I was with Ireland, I wasn't good enough to play for England at that time. And I was only young and small and still developing.
I had in the back of my head that hopefully one day I could play for England.
I know when I switched, I felt really, really English. My dad's Irish, but I don't know any of his Irish family, so I've never really felt like I'm fully Irish."
Has anyone heard about Mainz 05 player Paul Nabel? He's currently in the German underage system and has been capped all the way up to U20. Being the nerd that I am I downloaded FM2022 and as always the first thing I do is search players who are partially Irish and based outside of the UK & Ireland
Nabel is far & away the best of them
Checks out ....
1. FSV Mainz 05 - News Detail
In German, but translated it has these quotes:
Did you know that Paul has Irish roots?
"My grandmother is Irish and my mother is half-Irish. The country is like a second home to me and my parents are on holiday there right now. I don't have an Irish passport yet, but I'm thinking about applying for it because I have it inside me and I feel that I have roots there, which I'm proud of," the homegrown reveals.
His situation sounds pretty much identical to Johansson's. I'd imagine he can get his passport, apply for the switch and then he'd be immediately eligible but tied to us for good.
that Paul Nebel really looks like Stephen Ireland
I see Iraq have managed to attract a highly-outed young English-born player. 18 year-old Zidane Iqbal is likely to be in the Man United squad tonight and has a Pakistani father and Iraqi mother. Iqbal has been with Iraq under 23s this year. Hannibal Mejbri could be involved too. Born in France and of Tunisian descent, he switched allegiances to Tunisia and is a senior international at 18 for them.
Prodigious players these are. Hopefully we can keep and attain a few like other nations can.
EDIT: Mejbri is at Arab cup at the moment. point still stands.
Not sure if this was brought up before but does Sonny Perkins at West Ham qualify? Has played twice in the Europa League for them this year. Current England U18 international. His Dad played underage for Ireland but was born in England. Would it depend on the passport status of his father at the time of birth?
Anyone know anything about Ciarán Dunne?
Plays for Sunderland.
According to Wiki he’s a Scottish born Irish player