still hasn't made a decision about his international future: https://www.the42.ie/mipo-odubeko-re...03155-Jul2021/
Time to take a hard line and stop this kind of thing happening. Odubeko today, somebody else tomorow. I don't care what kind of wonderkids we lose, pandering to inflated egos isn't worth it. 'I need time to consider my future' should default to 'goodbye' in response. Conflicted identity at 18? Give me a break: this is a young man who had the bottle to walk out on Man Utd to improve his career prospects. Everything is a calculation with him. I wish him a long and successful career but if his international journey continues this way, I really don't care who it's with because it won't be us. (Though I'd take Nigeria over England all day long, and I'm from England!)
The eligibility pendulum has swung too far in favour of players. It's basically become caps for cash at this stage. FIFA need to take a long hard look at this again. Of course, they won't. Why would they? Myself, I favour a cooling-off period of at least a couple of seasons if you want to change allegiance and have been called-up, and a line between underage and senior - if you've played at any underage level for one country (I'd except the Olympics because it's an IOC not FIFA event, but not u23 itself), you're only eligible for senior with your new choice.
FWIW, I have a feeling - more a hope really - that if more of our young players born or raised here get moves to continental leagues (the Brexit dispensation) it will cut down on both our reliance on 2 and 3G players in the UK, and the numbers playing us while holding out for an England call-up.
Last edited by Eminence Grise; 23/07/2021 at 11:08 AM.
Hello, hello? What's going on? What's all this shouting, we'll have no trouble here!
- E Tattsyrup.
Ive been saying this for years, it has to be a zero tolerance policy. In or out
Its particularly offensive when the lad was raised and learnt all his football here that he will treat us with such contempt
Nigeria or Ireland was and is his choice, pick one and shut up. Personally I don't want him and I know how desperate we are for a goal scorer.
Looks at this he is a total tw*t
"Mipo Odubeko was born in Dublin and played with St Joseph’s Boys, with his links to current Ireland U21 manager Jim Crawford going back to those schoolboy days when Crawford used to give the youngster lifts to training along with his own son and Odubeko’s older brother"
Who knows that kind of advice they are giving out at West ham
I'm a bloke,I'm an ocker
And I really love your knockers,I'm a labourer by day,
I **** up all me pay,Watching footy on TV,
Just feed me more VB,Just pour my beer,And get my smokes, And go away
That is mad re Crawford alright. But between the agent and West Ham, I would be very concerned about those in his ear. Kenny fairly pointedly referenced the agent a couple of times.
Alright, calm down everybody - realistically Odubeko isn't going to be called into a senior Irish until next summer, won't be called up for competitive action until the Nations League next autumn and won't be required for a major qualifier until March of 2023 - so Kenny has made his presentation, Odubeko's agent hasn't said no, just that he's focusing on his club career so let him get set up and if he breaks through, revisit the issue at the end of the season. And while it does look like he could be the cream of the crop of this generation of Irish strikers, even without him it's still looking like a very good crop.
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!
Rory McIlroy said he's going to Tokyo to work on his golf game and representing Ireland don't really mean anything to him.
Hence, Rory means nothing to me.
I've no issue with Mipo playing for Nigeria. He is ethnically Nigerian, his parents were both born there. I'd expect him to be proud of his Nigerian background. If he needs a little bit of time to figure out between Ireland and Nigeria, I'm ok with that.
But if he plays for England, then he is morally bankrupt and I wouldn't want anything to do with him.
I can understand Grealish and Rice playing for England more than this guy who was born here and lived here til he was 14.
Folding my way into the big money!!!
Im gonna play devils advocate here. If someone came to you and said you would make millions of Euros more in your job but you have to get an English passport would you do it? I would and Im proud to be Irish. Your career is a different thing. If you really dont care one way or another what flag you have behind you then you make the decision of whats best financially for you and your family.
I like RLP’s post on this. Nationality, like everything else, is getting more and more fluid these days.
He is not impressing in senior football thus far and will need a loan this season to see where he lands. He/his agent has likely overplayed his hand. England will unlikely be an option. Let’s see what happens in the coming months, he will eventually commit to Nigeria or Ireland and so be it. I wouldn’t get too worked up about it.
One thing people don’t seem to realize is it isn’t that high a bar to get selected for an England squad (it’s competitive yes but not nearly as competitive as some think it is), let’s not forget when Grealish and Rice were debating which country to play for the narrative was “oh, he’ll get 60+ caps playing for Ireland or 2-3 caps playing for England” and yet look where they are now, hell if even Bamford is being talked about being selected for England, the fact he was ever even in the conversation shows you that you should never say never on a player. Quite afew England CF’s were in less glamorous positions at the same age so it’s best not to decide a 19 year olds future so young.
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