Inter Milan’s Kevin Zefi dazzles for U17s as Ireland cut English ties
Kevin Zefi of Republic of Ireland shoots to score his side's third goal at Turner's Cross in Cork. Pictures: Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile
An unusual slice of history at Turner’s Cross? Call it the Act of Disunion 2021.
Was this really the first competitive international fixture (from U17 up, at least) with no Ireland player involved tied to an English club?
The helpful folk in the FAI media department were of similar mind when the quirk was raised. They certainly couldn’t pull a fixture from the archives without one of the familiar cross-channel institutions on the teamsheet.
No harm, then, on a night that felt like a significant turning of the page, to start this chapter with a comfortable win.
These Ireland youngsters gathered via fresh pathways, drawn mainly from League of Ireland academies. Do they represent a weaning off our dependency on UK structures? Or are departures just kicked two years down the road?
The FAI was already drawing the outlines but Brexit has coloured in this picture. The land was laid out in a chat before kickoff with Patrick Conliffe, the solicitor who heads up Quantum Sport in Ireland — a management agency set up by former Sunderland and Derby County hero Marco Gabbiadini.
“As the rules stand, if you’re under 18 you can’t move to a UK club.”
Even an English passport isn’t a ticket to ancient routes for a talented Irish 16-year-old.
“We’d a young guy from UCD at Crystal Palace recently. His dad is English and they got a passport for the kid, but he still can’t sign. The Brexit rules as they are haven't even made provisions for an under-18 guy with an English passport moving back to England. It’s a big culture shock for schoolboy clubs, for agents, for parents.”
So there are no Irish-born 16-year-olds kicking their heels in England wondering why they missed a call for this U17 Euros qualification phase, with North Macedonia, on Sunday, and Poland, next Wednesday, also visiting the Cross.
“I don’t think there would be,” Conliffe adds. “We signed a guy to Ipswich last year from Shamrock Rovers. He was 16 when he signed, just before the rule kicked in. He’s too old for this group, he’s U18s now.”
So all but three of Colin O’Brien’s squad are home-based. Speaking when this group played two friendlies against Mexico at the Cross last month, O’Brien made a virtue of the new dynamic.
“It’s the first squad we’re going to see around the Brexit situation but the players are well into their season and we’ve done a lot of home-based assessments and training camps over the last few months and a lot of games watched.”
That match fitness showed early as Andorra dug in for a long night.
Ireland owned the ball before Shamrock Rovers’ Justin Ferizaj abandoned the ordered passing in favour of an old-school ‘mazy’. The surge from inside his own half on 13 minutes brought him to the edge of the Andorra box from where he curled in.
Even lining up for the anthems, the Andorrans looked slight alongside their Irish counterparts. Most imposing of the Irish boys is towering captain Cathal Heffernan Andrews, the local dealing confidently with anything that came his way.
The kids at the Cross howled their approval as the other City starter, Franco Umeh, grew into the game on Ireland’s right. Mark O’Mahony — another big ‘un — arrived as a second-half sub and quickly forced in the second from close range. And there was a late cameo for Liam Murray.
Former City star Billy Woods, who coached Heffernan Andrews and O’Mahony at U15 level at the club, believes all four are on the right pathway.
“I’m looking at it from the point of view of a 16-year-old boy, playing national league level, living at home. Maybe they are not getting the everyday training a professional club in England will have. But to me, bigger picture stuff, maturity levels, I think it’s better to stay at home, go later.
“Some kids are ready at 16, Obviously everyone’s circumstances are different. From Cork City, the last one to go was Harry Nevin (to Preston). He was 16 and he’s got a right chance. Physically, he has everything. So there’s no right and wrong.
“But very few get from 16 the whole way through. To me it’s the only way, do your Leaving Cert, get your education, go to college or play full time with City, go later if you’re going.”
Still, isn’t it an intrinsic part of our national condition that we crave the approval of outsiders? So naturally, the three boys based away from these shores held an exotic appeal.
Kevin Zefi has hit the ground running since leaving Shamrock Rovers for Inter Milan. Three times his pace and trickery on the left compelled Andorrans to take yellow cards. In the second half, the goal a dazzling display deserved came, drilling in from a lovely Sam Curtis pass.
Celtic midfielder Rocco Vata, whose grandmother is from Dublin, is son of former Albania captain Rudi, grew up in Scotland and might yet be claimed by both nations. He roamed confidently in the ten role, his brilliant dribble setting up O’Mahony’s second on the hour, and he fired in the fifth from distance.
Up top, Caden McLoughlin showed off a neat repertoire of spins — he grew up in Spain though his mother hails from Finglas. He has been through the Malaga academy before signing pro at Villareal.
Are the home-based players suffering without the coaching hours these three enjoy? Will EU trading routes now feature more prominently, until home academies can match their resources?
A lot of that is driven by their own clubs, Conliffe says: “I don’t see too many European scouts floating around here. The top European clubs who have a bit of money to spend on compensation, they haven’t traditionally scouted in Ireland and why would they? They have lots of talent in their own country. You can’t just turn on the tap and start sending 16-year-old Irish players to Borussia Dortmund.”
But Rovers’ Ferizaj was recently on trial at AS Roma. Heffernan Andrews has trained with several Serie A sides. Navan’s Sam Curtis, having switched from Rovers to St Pat’s, has been to Bayer Leverkusen. He headed Ireland’s fourth.
Maybe these kids are just fine where they are, for now. Heffernan Andrews spoke this week of his pride at playing for Ireland at the home of the club he represents. And after all, even Cork’s most famous son didn’t leave for Nottingham Forest until he was 19.
Afterwards, O’Brien was happy with the win, and with five different scorers, though aware tougher tests await in the week. And in these youngsters’ career paths.
“The game is changing for these players now. Next couple of years, they’re going to be looking to get into the professional game, for full-time contracts.
“The Brexit situation is there, but there’s a lot of good work going on with the League of Ireland clubs. The boys are upping their training hours with their clubs. They were playing a lot of matches in the summer so their football fitness is good. The work has started and we just have to keep continuing it.”
Woods, now a history and PE teacher, will always take lessons from the past: “If you go back through the years, the most successful players from Cork have gone later, that's the truth.”
C Walsh (Sligo Rovers), L Browne (Shelbourne), L O’Brien (St. Patrick’s Athletic), S Curtis (St. Patrick’s Athletic), C Heffernan Andrews (Cork City), J Ferizaj (Shamrock Rovers), K Zefi (Inter Milan), J McManus (Bohemians), R Vata (Celtic), F Umeh (Cork City), C McLoughlin (Villareal).
M O’Mahony (Cork City) for C McLoughlin 54, A Nolan (St Pat’s) for Umeh 67, L Murray (Cork City) for Vata 76, D Lipsivc (St Pat’s) for Ferizaj 76.
D Mendes Meireles, G Sanchez Navarro, M Torne Da Silva (A Balastegui Martinez 65), R Teixeira Pinto, G Estrada Quinquilla, I Rodriguez Dominguez, G Acosta Farre, M Carrau Rodriguez (P Foix De La Rosa 65), B Arderiu Vilanova (J Jimenez Ferro 83), M Rodriguez Gelabret, J Guma Cerqueda.
Joonas Jaanovita.
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