Just over five years ago, in March 2018, one Declan Rice honored his second choice for Ireland at the Stade de France against the Blues, who had not yet crowned their second world champion star. Five years later, he has 43 selections… for England.
It is therefore inevitable that the new Arsenal midfielder, who signed this summer for a dizzying €116m from West Ham, will not be on the lawn of the Parc des Princes this Thursday evening 7 September to defend the green and orange Irish jersey. . against the same French team. After three friendly matches with Ireland, which are not considered “official” elections in the eyes of FIFA, Rice was finally able to make a choice in favor of three lions with its famous success.
Rice is not the only Englishman to change his mind. Slightly above him in the ranking of the most expensive Britons in the history of football is Jack Grealish, who joined Manchester City two years ago for 118 million euros and has since established himself as a key player for Pep Guardiola’s team, defending the Irish colors in the U18, U19, U20 , U21… before the flag change.
Tom Cannon, last at the center of the battle between the British and the Irish
The Irish’s ugly habit of culling young talent over other candidates, England is at the top of the list. The prestige is to blame, perhaps, the 53rd nation in the FIFA ranking, which did not participate in the last Euro and did not get to the World Cup since 2002.
Last May, when his Boys in Green faced Greece (2-1 loss) and Gibraltar (3-0 win), Irish manager Stephen Kenny was asked about the young 20-year-old who made his first appearance in a group after watching youth selections.
“I met his agent who told me that the England U21s had approached Tom,” he explained at a press conference. He just needed time to think and see what the situation was, and he wanted to talk to me after the internship, sit down and talk. »
In recent months, Cannon, who has represented Ireland at the U19, U20 and U21 levels, has begun to attract attention with convincing performances (8 goals in 20 games) in the English D2 at Preston North End, where he was loaned out to his training club Everton. . Thanks to this, Stephen Kenny named it very quickly. In the end, Cannon was unable to complete his first choice because he fell ill.
Bellingham: Irish Passport to Get Around Brexit
In the case of Rice and Grealish, as with Cannon, the players were born in England but took advantage of Irish grandparents to move between the two sporting nationalities. At least such a link is necessary to represent the national team of the country in which you were not born, FIFA provides.
The same family ties could bring other famous English players to Ireland: Harry Kane, the England goalscorer whose father is Irish, Harry Maguire, Calvin Phillips or Jude Bellingham, who moved to Real Madrid this summer for more than 100 million euros.
Although he never wore a green jersey as a footballer, a recently released photo of a very young Bellingham in an Irish shirt revealed that heritage, as his father is of Irish descent.
On the other hand, he will use his roots in a different way: the other day, Marca reported that the player was waiting for an Irish passport. Brexit is binding, so he will not take up Real Madrid’s non-community space reserved in limited numbers for non-European Union players. On the other hand, it is already too late for him to change his jersey as he has already acquired a kit in England with which he already has 24 picks.
Source: Le Parisien
I have worked in the news industry for over 10 years. I have a keen interest in sports and have written for many different publications. I am currently working as an author at 24 News Recorder. I cover mostly sports news but also write about other topics such as current affairs and politics. I have a strong interest in social media and how it can be used to engage with audiences.
