On McLoughlin, Kenny's Kids on Twitter reckons Caden is bound for Villarreal. Not sure how their youth set-ups compare but Villarreal are certainly a better senior side at present.
Move to Villareal confirmed: https://www.balls.ie/football/irish-...larreal-443071Originally Posted by Olé Olé
Wow, yet another prolific underage striker!
pictures floating around today of him training with hendrick in Spain.
Here they come! It’s the charge of the “Thanks” Brigade!
It says he's lived in Spain from a young age, is he eligible for other countries too?
Jimmy Hendrick ? !
U15 player Pearse O'Brien signs for Real Salt Lake's Academy: https://www.nesoccerjournal.com/pear...parts-oakwood/
That's a weird article. They make it seem like there's going to be more and then they just stop.
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God just further away for 16 year olds to move to get even more homesick and have just as little chance of making a break through
Both of Stephen Ireland’s kids shared congrats to Heffernan. I wonder was that a connection made in Cork? Can’t imagine it was international. I guess Josh would be a year older than him and Jacob would be younger? Both are considered very promising and so far, Josh has played for England...
Ireland has had a hand in organising the trial apparently - https://www.independent.ie/sport/soc...-40171877.html
I think I read before that he had started a scouting company, or possibly a football agency?It's understood that former Ireland international Stephen Ireland has become involved in trying to open doors to Europe and Heffernan is one of the players he has been putting forward.
You'd have to think there's an opening here for an English club to partner with an Irish side and fund a decent level academy somewhere on the island to get around the Brexit rules. It would need an outlay of a few million to set it all up but the team that did it would have first pick on all the best 16 and 17 year old kids in the country - obviously for parents of kids in the Republic it would be preferable to having to travel to the continent after Brexit and they could stay in the Irish education system but it would potentially attract the best young NI kids as well if it was in Dublin or somewhere along the M1 like Dundalk.
Just a thought. Having 15 and 16 year olds like Heffernan and Zefi heading out to Italy is far from ideal.
Why do you think that? Do you mean as an alternative to Ireland or England or both? With regards to England, obviously there is a language barrier and it is further away than England but the language barrier can be overcome, there is likely to be a lot of lads there that don't speak Italian and the flights will not be an issue I would imagine. In comparison to Ireland, I would assume (happy to be corrected) that the coaching at these Italian clubs is ahead of those at our LOI clubs and the LOI clubs are playing catch up on that front.
No question the coaching in Italy will be ahead of League of Ireland clubs as things stand. This is why these lads are looking at leaving, it's their best shot of a career in the game.
But countless talented Irish players have failed in the game because they couldn't settle in the UK at a young age, even with the same language and a lot of cultural similarities. It's going to be even worse now that the UK is off limits for under 18s. While some will obviously settle just fine in a new environment in mainland Europe, more players than ever will fail and end up back home at 20 or 21 with no football career prospects and no education qualifications to their name either.
We might have a weak senior team at the moment but we do produce a fair amount of talent overall. I'd say we'd produce even more if there was a realistic route to making it in the game without needing to leave the country at 16.
Heffernan signed his first professional contract with cork city today: https://www.corkcityfc.ie/home/2021/...onal-contract/
Mentions in the article that Liam Kearney is head of the academy at Cork City, there's a real blast from the past
Surprised he hasn’t signed for one of the Italian clubs, probably one of the top prospects at the club.
I wonder what’s taking so long for Zefi to be announced by Inter (or wherever he ends up goin).
Can someone comment on the recent trend of 16 year olds signing professional contracts with LOI clubs please? (Or maybe they always did this except it was never highlighted or I was ignorant?!) Are clubs doing this to protect their assets and does it permit them to command a higher fee in future or still a developmental fee, and how does age factor in with this fee? And is it a direct result of Brexit with 16 year olds now signing professional contracts with LOI and staying put until 18?
So with Cathal, will the plan be to stay at Cork City until 18 and move to England…so perhaps no Italian offers or even he’s decided the continental pathway isn’t the right one for him at this time?
He's only been legally allowed to sign a contract for a couple of months.
The U17s league only came in a few years ago, so prior to that you'd really only have had an U19/U20 team at LoI clubs, and the 15-year-olds would have been with the top schoolboy clubs.
But in line with UEFA requirements, all LoI clubs now have teams down to U13, so I presume that's what you're seeing.
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