Obviously the temptation of a full call up to play against the Italians was too big a prize to turn down for any 17 year old kid, and good luck to the lad, especially as he has so little experience of reserve team football, never mind playing against an Italian side.
It would be interesting to hear what Sean McCaffrey and his team thought about Duffy when he attended an Ireland training camp last June.
I suppose it also dispels the myth that FIFA’s ruling on the eligibility of lads from the North playing for Ireland was going to cause some kind of religious segregation of players, with players from one community opting to play for one team and the others opting to play for the other team (as claimed by Unionist politicians and the IFA at the time).
Players will naturally make decisions based on what they think will help them in their future careers and Duffy has done that, just as his former teammate from Foyle Harps Patrick McEleney has decided to represent Ireland at international level, along with other Derry lads like David McDaid & Seamus sharkey.
It was always about choice and hopefully the hardliners will ‘wind their necks in’ and accept this in the future.
Bookmarks