How Stephen Kenny's newcomers found their own way to senior ranks

The four uncapped players who will travel to Portugal for a training camp before friendlies with Andorra and Hungary offer hope to all corners of the domestic game

Thu, 27 May, 2021 - 17:05

David Sneyd

Where there’s a will there’s a way.

And Stephen Kenny’s latest Republic of Ireland squad shows that talent does not rely on a single pathway.

For the four uncapped players who will travel to Portugal for a training camp before friendlies with Andorra and Hungary, their journeys to this point have been markedly different, offering hope to all corners of the domestic game.

All, though, have forged burgeoning careers through determination, sacrifice, dedication, and rejection.

Chiedozie Ogbene made more of an impression with his singing and dancing than his football ability during a six-month loan spell with Exeter City at the start of the 2018/19 season.

As former teammate Pierce Sweeney bluntly puts it. “He rubbed some people up the wrong way, that’s the truth,” the Bray Wanderers graduate explained.

“He was always so positive and full of energy. We were going for promotion, fighting every game and whether we won, lost, or drew, Chiedozie would be the exact same. Around the gym or the canteen you’d see him singing and dancing and I remember thinking to myself at the start that he had to wind it in.

"But that is his character. I came around to him, how positive he was and I saw how driven he was to succeed and the belief he had.

Some of the older lads might not have liked it, but I got used to it and you should respect what he’s doing.

That perseverance has paid off for Ogbene, who suffered relegation from the Championship with Rotherham United earlier this month.

Such single-mindedness has been a constant throughout his life. It was evident from the age of eight, when his family moved to Cork from Nigeria and he settled into the local underage sporting scene.

Ogbene starred for Nemo Rangers in Gaelic football and Tramore Athletic in soccer. He progressed to Cork City’s League of Ireland academy in August 2015 and that led to his first major crossroads.

The youngster never wavered.

That same month Ogbene hit 1-2 in a man-of-the-match performance for Nemo in the county’s U21 football championship final at Páirc Ui Rinn.

A replay against Valley Rovers was secured, but the star man didn’t feature as he made the decision to focus solely on soccer.

“This is the dream. It’s just unfortunate as a lot of people thought I was good at Gaelic football,” he later explained.

It seemed as if his career was only going on an upward trajectory at Turner’s Cross. He made his first-team debut aged 18 at the end of that first year at the club and came off the bench in the 2016 FAI Cup final as City lifted the trophy.

Then came a surprise. Despite the offer of a full-time, professional contract from John Caulfield, Ogbene rejected it and moved to Limerick in order to play every week. City finished the 2017 season as champions, the Blues laboured in seventh, but the winger had caught the eye of Brentford who offered him a three-year deal.

That risk was worth the reward for the former sports injury and therapy student in Coláiste Stiofáin Naofa.

Ogbene’s route to this call-up, like the three other first-timers, shows how divergent paths can often intersect.

Jamie McGrath’s rise is probably the most similar because of a shared development within the League of Ireland, but the two 24-year-olds’ journeys have been markedly different.

While Ogbene felt compelled to take a step backwards and leave Cork for Limerick to gain the experience he felt was necessary, McGrath’s ascent has been steady.

Including learning to drive.

For the first season at Dundalk, his mother Brenda would drop him to the home of goalkeeper Gary Rogers, who would then ferry the youngster to Oriel Park.

It was the veteran teammate’s constant advice and encouragement which also ensured he increased his extracurricular workload in the gym to meet the demands of his new environment.

Bit by bit, his street smarts on the pitch were matching those with the books. McGrath earned a scholarship to Maynooth University through first club St Patrick’s Athletic’s link with the third level institution, securing a degree in business and management, and was then brought to Dundalk by Stephen Kenny in 2017 after two impressive full seasons at Richmond Park.

McGrath, who could become just the second Meath man to earn a senior Ireland cap after Darragh Lenihan, has been in first-team environments for the last seven years. The two-time League of Ireland winner had posters of Steven Gerrard on his walls as a kid and that was only a small part of the attraction to join St Mirren in the SPL in January 2020.

“If you let that swallow you up and get the better of you, you won’t be able to perform,” he reasoned.

That is a feeling Daniel Mandroiu experienced when he left Dublin for Brighton and Hove Albion at the age of just 15. He was part of a strong Irish contingent which included current senior internationals Jayson Molumby and Aaron Connolly.

Shamrock Rovers' Daniel Mandroiu celebrates scoring the winning goal against St Patrick's Athletic earlier this month. Picture: INPHO/Laszlo Geczo

While the latter pair remained on the English south coast, Mandroiu recently revealed how injury mixed with homesickness led to him agreeing with the club to end his contract prematurely so he could return home just over two years ago.

Like McGrath, another playmaker with an eye for goal who was named the 2018 PFAI Young Player of the Year, Mandroiu picked up that accolade after his first season with Bohemians in 2019.

He barely played the following season, with the suggestion that a lack of focus scuppered his progress.

A move to Shamrock Rovers has so far proved inspired and boss Stephen Bradley explained this week how willing he has been to develop.

“He’s been so open in terms of learning and wanting to improve. I told him he could play for Ireland if he trusted in what we do and believed in what we did.

To be fair, he’s got to buy into it, and he has, and he has a really high level of ability. We’re only getting going with him.

The same goes for Norwich City’s Andrew Omobamidele, the youngest of the quartet to be drafted in.

Norwich City's Andrew Omobamidele celebrates winning the Sky Bet Championship title earlier this month. Picture: Joe Giddens

The centre-back doesn’t turn 19 until next month and didn’t play a first-team game for the Canaries until the start of April as they closed in on promotion to the Premier League. He took his chance because of defensive injuries and has looked assured ever since.

Unlike Mandroiu, who was a golden boy of the Dublin schoolboy scene, Omobamidele stayed loyal to local club Leixlip United and was often overlooked.

There were trials at Birmingham City and Leeds United before a deal worth an estimated €10,000 was brokered with Norwich. He joined at 16 and will be part of their Premier League squad next season.

He might also be a full Ireland international by that point, along with three other newcomers who are proof that you can thrive by finding your own way.