So does anyone know if the FAI have made any contact recently?
So does anyone know if the FAI have made any contact recently?
If he had played underage for England everyone would be against any attempt by the FAI to get him to declare for Ireland. Why is it different because he's Dutch?
I wouldn't be against getting him if he'd played for England... so not everyone.
Anyway, any further info on this?
Has any movement been made on this issue? Does anyone have any info?
In my view Trap should call him up. Get Koevermans on the case. He did call him up for the dutch in the first after playing for us in a friendly against NI. There would be a certain irony if he was successful in getting him to declare for Ireland. It shouldn't be too hard, his father is from Dublin after all.
My children simply wouldn't be allowed to play for anyone else.
On a side note - does anyone know how he is performing for FC Utrecht.
he has played in there last four games anyways all 90 mins, i was too lazy to look any further. the fai need to get this lad fast...
Can the '..Den Bosch' be removed from the thread title?
I think it would be such a shame if we lost out on a great player who has indicated in the past that he would like to play for us. I haven't heard anything about him in the Irish press since Neil Ahern's article in the Independent last summer. It would be great to know if he still has any interest in playing for us. I haven't heard anything about Wim Koevermans since he was appointed to the FAI - has he made contact with Maguire? Is there anything we can do? Does anyone have an e-mail address for Neil Ahern? I'd like to ask him to write a follow-up. Any other ideas?
Wikipedia lists him as a defensive midfielder/defender.
Could he be the perfect foil for one James McCarthy?
Yeah, didn't Koevermans say Maguire was his no.1 priority or something?
Well, I felt like nobody was doing anything about Barry Maguire... so I made an enquiry... and from the response I got, I felt that he might still like to play for us... so then I contacted the FAI... and now I am very hopeful that he might play for us in the near future...
When is the team for the U21 game against Germany going to be announced?
MusicInMouth - did you contact Maguire directly?
P.S - well done son!
Well done MiM, hopefully it pans out.
Last Thursday's Evening Herald did a feature on the players across Europe who could play for us. Barry Maguire is mentioned but without any great optimism.....
www.herald.ie
By Aidan Fitzmaurice
Thursday January 22 2009
Apart from Steve Finnan and his uncertain status with La Liga side Espanyol, we have no one flying the Irish flag in the big leagues of Italy, Germany, Spain or Portugal these days.
But there is a small, hardy band of Irish footballers who are earning a living and trying to make progress outside of what is called "these islands".
Over in BELGIUM, former international Dominic Foley is in his fourth season with Gent but the Cork native is on the move in the summer as he's signed a pre-contract agreement for next season with rival Belgian outfit Cercle Bruges and Foley is happy to see out his career in Belgium.
Believe it or not, FINLAND had an Irish representative last season as ex-Sheffield United man Travis Binnion, holder of four Irish U19 caps, spent the year with top flight club Marienham. Over the border in NORWAY, American-born forward Joey Lapira, capped at senior level by Steve Staunton in 2007, lined out for second division side Nybergsund last season and he's signed up for another season with them for 2009.
Football in GERMANY also has an Irish influence as Patrick Kohlmann, capped five times at U21 level by Ireland via the parentage rule, is still playing, this time with FC Union Berlin, a side currently in second place in the German second division and hopeful of promotion to the top flight.
The top division in HOLLAND features a man who has played at underage level for Ireland, but FC Utrecht star Barry Maguire is sadly now committed to playing for his native Holland.
Former Bolton Wanderers man Matt Cassidy, another ex-youth cap, is now in CYPRUS with midtable side Paralimini.
In ITALY, we have the Irish teenage pair of Conor McCormack and Michael Collins, currently learning their trade on a one-year contract in the youth team of Serie B side Triestina. And let's not forget far-flung AZERBAIJAN where Dubliner Joe Kendrick has found himself, playing for Neftchi Baku this year after his exit from Drogheda United.
And at underage level there is a small band players, not born in Ireland, who have a long way to go in the game but have already been scouted out by Ireland, winning youth caps for the Republic though the parentage rule.
They are based in GERMANY (Selcuk Tidim, aged 17, playing for St Pauli), NORWAY (Sean McDermott, 16, now with lower-league club FC Vag but linked with Arsenal) and FINLAND (Patrick O'Shaughnessy, 15 and his brother Daniel, 14).
The O'Shaughnessy brothers have just moved from small outfit FC Honka to major side HJK Helsinki, while English clubs are tracking the pair, with Patrick spending time on trial at Birmingham City and Bolton Wanderers offering Daniel a trial. They have been capped at underage level by Finland (Daneil played for Finland's U17s against Northern Ireland last year) but their Irish-born dad has made the FAI aware of their progress and they could end up in the green jersey.
"There's man all over for you, blaming on his boots the fault of his feet" - Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot
Not forgetting Kevin Walker of AIK Fotboll (though I think he may have since been released) and his brother Robert, both of whom are eligible for Sweden and Ireland through their father Patrick Walker, former gaffer at Orebro SK.
And, on a personal point of annoyance, how could he leave out Ronnie O'Brien? Not to mention the evergreen Terry Phelan who is/am still plying his/my trade at Otago FC in New Zealand...
Whatever about the Walkers though, surely Ronnie O'Brien merits a run-out (would offer just as much/little as Liam Miller, in my opinion). Material for a different thread, I know, but it's just a personal gripe of mine that I feel is worth mentioning...
Ronnie O'Brien was called up by Staunton to the squad for the 2 games against Ecuador and Bolivia in the States in 2007, but he refused it.
I remember listening to NewsTalk at the time, they said they had contacted his club (think it was Toronto?) to interview him, but he said he'd only have the interview if they didn't ask him about playing for Ireland. Which was kind of the whole point, so it never went ahead.
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