Introducing the man in green

GREEN by name, green by national allegiance but, at 27 years of age, hardly green in the rookie sense, Derby County’s Paul Green has taken the long route to donning the Irish shirt.

And I don’t just mean the journey by ferry he took to Dublin to circumvent the ash cloud. Over the guts of a decade, Green rose through the divisions from Conference to Championship before deciding it was time to make the FAI aware of his credentials.

The midfielder qualifies for the Republic through his Mayo-born grandfather who, along with other family members, was always encouraging the Sheffield-born Green to make his presence known across the Irish Sea.