AN INTERESTING FOOTNOTE to QPR’S loss to Leicester on Sunday was prompted by the appearance of Reece Grego-Cox.

At 18, the Ireland U19 international is playing Premier League football at a remarkably young age.

Big things are nonetheless expected of the player and with that in mind, here’s what we know about him so far…

• Despite his meteoric rise to the first team, he only signed on as a professional player for QPR last December, earning a two-and-a-half year contract that runs up until the summer of 2017.
• A strong and quick player, Grego-Cox can play either up front or on the wing.
• He was born in Hammersmith, London, but has represented Ireland — qualifying to do so through his grandparents — since U17 level.
• He has been in fine form for the QPR U21 team this season, scoring a number of goals.

• Sunday was his first start but not his first appearance at senior level — he has made substitute appearances already against Tottenham, Crystal Palace and Newcastle.
• He has a penchant for scoring the odd spectacular goal, as can be seen below.

• He has been compared to Charlie Austin by QPR U21 manager Steve Gallen. In an interview last year, Gallen said: “They are tenacious, they cause problems for defenders and they can score goals. They won’t give you a moments rest. Like Charlie has done at times for the first team, Reece creates a goal out of nothing. Both of them play off instinct, look at Charlie’s goal at Southampton. That was instinct; he just did it without thinking. Reece does the same, he can win you games that you don’t deserve to win just by playing off his instinct.”
• Grego-Cox scored in the Ireland U19s’ UEFA Championships qualifying match against Switzerland last November, though didn’t feature in their subsequent 2-0 win over Azerbaijan.

• He can be found on Twitter – @reececox9 — though his updates tend to be quite sporadic.

A version of this post originally appeared on 8 March, 2015

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