Chiedozie Ogbene's France rallying call: ‘We are preparing to win the game’

The Cork native has been impressed by new colleague Evan Ferguson.

TANGLED UP IN BLEUS: Chiedozie Ogbene during a Republic of Ireland press conference at FAI Headquarters in Abbotstown on Friday. Picture: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

Evan Ferguson hasn’t yet played 90 minutes of senior football for the Republic of Ireland but, while multiple positions seem up for debate ahead of Monday’s Euro 2024 qualifier against France, the 18-year old’s place is all but taken for granted.

His performance against Latvia in last Wednesday night’s friendly was more than enough to justify the excitement about a player who has impressed so much since breaking into the first-team at Brighton & Hove Albion. Even aside from his goal.

Front-runner that he is for the start, Stephen Kenny should have made enough changes and thrown enough curveballs in his three years in charge to disabuse us of any such certainties and Chiedozie Ogbene is keeping an open mind over the weekend.

“I think positions are up for grabs. Evan is a fantastic player. I have said many times, I really like Ev. He plays like a player who already has many caps under his belt. He is very mature. This game on Monday is to win and whatever game plan we set up is just to win.

“Sometimes players will be disappointed. My opinion is no-one has merited a start, everything is up for grabs, and I’m sure if the gaffer picks a team, he knows, and the players should understand it is primarily to win the game.” 

Ogbene is surely in the running to feature from the off himself against the World Cup finalists, his goal on coming off the bench four days ago showing again why Kenny promoted him at a time when he was still a relative unknown playing League One football.

The player’s utterances have been every bit as interesting as his considerable contributions on the pitch, his positive and friendly demeanour allied with a feelgood factor derived from his rise from the League of Ireland through to the English game and the Irish XI.

His take on Ireland’s attacking options are considered. Play with two or three up front? He suspects the three allows Ireland press the opposition more but makes the point that they beat Scotland 3-0 with just the pair up front. He is open to both.

His take on Ferguson is particularly eye-catching in that it illuminates the insightful thought process of Ogbene himself while highlighting just how good and how clued-in his young teammate already is despite his tender years.

“Is he 18, Evan? For an 18-year old his hold-up play is very good. He is physically strong. As a No.9 if your hold-up play is good it allows your wingers and No.10, if you want to call them that, to make runs and hold a run and that is something he does very well.

“It does help the team massively, especially when we need an out. My attributes are to stretch the pitch and his are to manage it and get the midfielders up the pitch. That’s what I notice when I am around him and it allows me to calculate my runs a bit more.

“He has an eye for goal. You can see he is in the box every time and that physical presence will attract defenders towards him and maybe leave space for me at the back post.” 

He’d only love to score a fifth goal for his country on Monday. And, he joked, a sixth with it. Ogbene was already feeling the butterflies on Friday night, three days before kick-off, but he welcomes them as expressions of just how much this game means to him.

The excitement is palpable, the message bullish.

“You have to be confident. I see the way we train, the way we prepare. We have to be confident. If you are not confident there is no point in showing up. As I said, we are preparing to win the game.

“We are not going out there to try and stay in the game or draw the game, we are preparing to win. When you have that mentality, you know how football can be, it’s unpredictable, you never know what can happen.”