Originally Posted by
Razors left peg
I go over and back on this guy. Not everyone thinks the same way about nationality. Obviously we are all passionate Ireland fans or we wouldnt be posting on here so its hard for a lot of us to understand why someone would turn down a call up. But a kid who grew up with Nigerian parents in Ireland but moved to England as a young age is different to a guy who have lived in same town in Ireland all his life within 10 miles of where he was born.
He is a professional footballer who wants to make the most amount of money he possibly can in a short career. If he doesnt particularly feel very patriot about anywhere then he will make the decision that is best for his career. Its better he holds off to make that decision rather than doing what Rice did and play 3 full senior games, or Grealish who turns up to collect a player of the year award and then switch right after.
Ive lived in the States for a while now, my wife is Portuguese. If we had a son good enough to play international football god knows who he would play for. Shes as passionate about Portuguese football as I am about Irish, but yet he would grow up the US system. His sense of patriotism wouldnt be the same as a lad growing up in Galway.
Rory McIlroy has spoken about this in the past. He doesnt really feel a sense of patriotism for anywhere. He grew up in a divided NI. I think at one point he said he does feel British and he got hammered for it, yet he probably singlehandly kept the Irish Open alive for years and now he is playing for Ireland in the Olympics, like he played for Ireland as an amateur. But yet if you look at the comment section on an social media about Rory its full of idiots bitching about his nationality. The guy travels the world and lives in Florida, so what if he doesnt feel the same as James McClean.
My point goes back to Mipo. At times I've said we need to move on from him since he didnt turn up to the 21s, but if he genuinely is conflicted then lets see what happens. England doing so well in the Euros and seeing how the whole country went nuts probably wont help our case. Particularly seeing how Rice is treated as a hero in the club.
Even after all of that he still has only scored goals in the U23s. Parrott, Connolly and Idah have all done that and we are still waiting for them to kick on...... Mipo could end up being sh1te!