Gavin Bazunu’s homecoming wish

Gavin Bazunu will be back on familiar ground on Friday evening, when Ireland kick off in the U17 European Championship against Greece in Tallaght Stadium.

At just 16, the goalkeeper made a sensational breakthrough for Shamrock Rovers last year, keeping a succession of clean sheets in the Premier Division, saving a Kieran Sadlier penalty against Cork City, at Turner’s Cross, and even experiencing European football, against AIK Stockholm, in the Europa League.

The sustained quality of his performances in those headline-grabbing weeks was enough for him to seal a €500,000 move to Manchester City, where, having now turned 17 and playing for the U18 side, he is absorbing the Pep Guardiola brand of football, which percolates through the whole club.

“The training has been really good and I’m adjusting to it well,” he says. “It’s definitely different to how it was at Shamrock Rovers.

"It’s a different level. There are top-quality players and it’s a different playing style. It’s difficult enough adjusting to that.

"The biggest thing would be playing out from the back, the possession-based football Man City would be associated with, compared to the way a lot of the teams in the League of Ireland play.

"It’s not as physical, really, but the tempo is a lot quicker.”

Fortunately, using his feet as well as his hands holds no terrors for the young Dubliner.

“I would have played outfield when I was younger — I think I played almost everywhere — so I always loved having the ball at my feet,” he says.

“I was quite comfortable with it, but it’s just the different types of movements to get on the ball and things like that. I’ve had to adjust to that.”

Bazunu notes, with approval, that his old club, Rovers, are also increasingly playing out from the back.

“I think it’s brilliant,” he says. “A lot of other clubs in the League of Ireland should follow it, because I think that’s the modern way football is played. To move forward, we need to adapt to that.”

And, for all the massive changes in his own circumstances this year, Bazunu reckons his exposure to senior football with the Hoops continues to play a vital role in his development.

“I think it’s a huge thing being able to say you have played first-team football,” he says. “Just getting that experience, that a lot of other academy players wouldn’t have, or a very small percentage of them, is huge.

I feel like it gives me that small edge, even though I only played six games. But the fact that I was around the dressing room for so long, I was able to just take in that experience and carry it through with me.

The learning isn’t confined to the training pitch and matches.

Bazunu sits his Leaving Cert in June and even in this week of feverish build-up to the Euro finals, he’ll be taking time out for study, via Skype, with his Irish tutor in England.

Even when Man City, among other top-flight suitors, were knocking on his door, he says it was always his intention to do the Leaving.

“I was thinking I’d already completed fifth-year and I’d done a couple of months in sixth-year, so there was no point in just binning it, at this stage,” he says.

“I’d still have the same training hours as everyone else, be doing the same gym sessions, but a lot of the time, when the other lads are finished, I’d have a couple of hours of education to do.

"I don’t enjoy studying, but I know it has to be done. My thought process is there are only a couple of weeks left now, so I may as well just get it done, get it over with.”

But, naturally enough, uppermost in his thoughts right now is Friday’s opening game against Greece, for which — with Jimmy Corcoran suspended, following his controversial sending-off in the 2018 tournament — Bazunu is a certain starter.

“Jimmy was unlucky, the way he was suspended, from what happened last year, but I’m just going to have to take my opportunity,” he says.

“I’m always nervous before playing for Ireland, but I channel that into passion and concentration, rather than being scared.

“If we stick together as a team, if we perform to the levels we can perform to, I don’t think there’s any limits we can set ourselves.

"I believe we can do as well as we think we can and go all the way, really.”