A QUICK HISTORY of Irish players in Serie A.
First up, Matts Kunding, a player on whom so little information survives that there are ongoing doubts as to whether he was simply invented. But certain dusty record books in Turin record him as among the very first Irish footballers to play outside of the UK, lining out Torino in 1909 and then moving to Juventus a year later.
There followed Armagh man Paddy Sloan, who spent three years in Italy with AC Milan, Torino, Udinese, and then Brescia. He scored nine goals for a Milan team that finished second in Serie A, before he went to Tornio, whom he joined after the Superega air tragedy.
Italy’s ban on foreign players meant opportunities to follow in Sloan’s footsteps were limited, until Liam Brady came along to leave an indelible mark. He won two league titles with Juventus, famously scoring the final-day penalty to secure the second of those scudetti. He then went to Sampdoria, Inter Milan and, finally, Ascoli, whom he later lamented he joined for the money.
Robbie Keane’s stint at Inter Milan was brief, but was a more successful Italian sojourn than compatriot Ronnie O’Brien, who can had one of the more bizarre careers. Ronnie O’Brien was part of the Irish side that won the 1998 U16 Euros and he signed for Middlesbrough, from where he was cut loose and joined Juventus. He played one first-team game for Juventus while becoming a meme before the word was known when an Irish email campaign hijacked TIME Magazine’s 1999 vote for the Person of the Century to vault O’Brien’s name into the running alongside the likes of your Einsteins, your Mandelas, your Luther Kings, and your Mother Theresas.
O’Brien tallied 57,000 votes to lead the poll until TIME magazine withdrew his name, saying there was no place for whimsical candidates. Juventus also foolishly threw open to the public a vote for their greatest ever player that same year, which O’Brien again threatened to win before being taken out of the running.
But last season came a new addition to the Irish in Serie A list, when Wexford defender Festy Ebosele made his debut for Udinese in August of last year, coming off the bench in a 4-2 defeat to AC Milan in the San Siro.
While Ebosele struggled for gametime last season, he has been a regular this time around, appearing in each of Udinese’s 12 league games so far this campaign. The 21-year-old has also been rewarded with a senior international debut, coming on for the closing stages of the defeat to France in Paris in September.
“I definitely feel I’ve come a long way, it’s a different style of playing in Italy so I’ve had to adapt and add some new aspects to my game and I think I’ve done that in the year and a half that I’ve been there now”, says Ebosele of his time in Italy so far.
“Yeah I think it suits me, in England the style maybe in the Championship suited me a bit more, it was more physical but I’ve learned the Italian style now and I really do enjoy it, it’s definitely helped me with my football. It’s more tactical. I’d say you have to be more concentrated in the games, tackling-wise, just positioning and everything, I’d say that’s the main difference. It took me a few good months to actually understand the difference. Once I adapted to it, towards the end of last season, I was able to get more playing time and started doing well.”
Ebosele’s most striking trait is his pace. He assures us that nobody is beating him in sprints at Irish training, and it’s easy to believe, given he has been clocked as being the fastest man in Serie A.
“I do feel I’m the fastest in the league”, he grins.
Ebosele moved to Italy from Derby County, defying the expectations of his then-manager Wayne Rooney, who believed it was the wrong move for him.
“I did speak to him”, says Ebosele. “He said to me to consider all my options, and I did. I still felt Udinese was the best one for me.”
It’s hard to argue it isn’t working out. Stephen Kenny has checked in on him regularly, and Ebosele is now hoping to force himself further into the selection picture ahead of Saturday’s Euro 2024 qualifier in Amsterdam.
“I’m ready to play, whatever minutes I get, whether I get any minutes, I’m looking forward to it.”
