BEFORE SIGNING FOR Manchester United and subsequently becoming the fifth most decorated Irish footballer in history after Denis Irwin, Roy Keane, Steve Heighway and Ronnie Whelan, John O’Shea was just another promising young footballer with plenty to prove.

The Waterford native’s talent was obvious. At 14, he went over on trial to QPR, with the club offering the player a four-year contract after just a day there.

Yet O’Shea opted to stay in Ireland and complete his Leaving Cert, after some advice from former Man United and Ireland star Kevin Moran.

And so, outside of youth footballing circles, in April 1998, O’Shea was largely unknown as Ireland kicked off their Uefa European U16 Championship campaign amid a less-than-promising 0-0 draw with Scotland.

What followed is basically what every Irish youngster dreams of — Ireland, guided by the inspirational coaching duo of Brian Kerr and Noel O’Reilly, won the tournament, beating Italy 2-1 in the final thanks to goals from Keith Foy and David McMahon. Andy Reid, Liam Miller and Graham Barrett were among O’Shea’s team-mates, and eight players in total from that side went on to represent Ireland at senior level.

Shortly thereafter, O’Shea signed on the dotted line with Manchester United, watching on in the crowd with the rest of the youth and reserve team players a few months later as the Red Devils completed a historic treble thanks to two last-gasp goals against Bayern Munich.

“To have success [with Ireland] at the European Championships that year was incredible. That got me onto the path of a professional career in Manchester,” O’Shea recalled last year.

And the defender would be forgiven for feeling a tinge of nostalgia on Thursday evening. The 37-year-old, who is now on the books at Championship side Reading, is the official tournament ambassador for this year’s U17 European Championships, which Ireland will host.

Those who are part of Colin O’Brien’s squad for next month’s tournament have long dreamt of hitting the heights that O’Shea has enjoyed in the 20-plus years since announcing himself on the scene as Ireland were crowned champions of Europe on that fateful day in McDiarmid Park, Perth.

Fantastic memories, the real start of my professional career was a few months later, that’s what I was embarking on, but the confidence it gave me and the group, to go and compete against the best teams in Europe,” O’Shea said after yesterday’s draw.

“Not only compete, that was the thing Brian and Noel said to us, look we are competing but we are going to show our quality and our strength, tactical awareness, all the things we spoke about we were able to bring into the games.

“Momentum was key, that’s the thing, going by the draw hopefully this time around Ireland can get a bit of momentum going.”

U17 captain Seamas Keogh, U17 head coach Colin O'Brien and tournament ambassador John O'Shea. Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO

And O’Shea is hopeful the current crop of youngsters can emulate the feat of his famous ’98 side.

“I won’t be here for all of the tournament but I will be over at different stages. I am looking forward to it, I will be in Waterford for the second game, I am looking forward to that and hopefully Ireland are coming there on the back of a win.

“You see the change of teams that have won it, in that time, it’s not been one country. Spain might have won a few, but there has been a good spread of teams who have won it, you see in the groups the teams who have qualified, Iceland have done well at that age, it shows you the success of the senior team has fed into the academies.

“Confidence is a big thing. [Ireland] have qualified automatically, they will have a huge backing from family, friends; they won’t believe it, but that will give them an extra boost. It will be extra pressure, but the confidence and strength that they want to perform better, especially on home soil with family and friends watching, I think it will increase performance levels from Colin’s team. I think that will really give them big momentum.”

O’Shea, meanwhile, says tentative plans are in place to host a reunion for that great ’98 side of which he was a key member.

Hopefully, we are trying to get something together if we can. Obviously we got together last year at the Soccer Writers’ [event]. The day of that, I was able to get over to the afternoon, I couldn’t stay the evening unfortunately. Obviously, a lot of us met at Liam Miller’s funeral as well, and we were thinking of trying to do something around that time if we can. It’s difficult, the way the lads are all spread around, but we are still in contact on WhatsApp, so we are trying to get something done sometime in May. If we could tie it in with the competition, it would be very special.

 “Obviously, you lose touch with some of the boys. You meet lads at some of the different clubs throughout the years, but that’s the advantage now of the WhatsApp groups — we are able to get in touch with everyone. There is plenty of slagging going on, so it’s all good.”

Gavan Casey and Ryan Bailey are joined by Bernard Jackman to look back on a thrilling weekend of European rugby on the latest episode of The42 Rugby Weekly:

https://soundcloud.com/user-200743868/a-thrilling-weekend-in-europe-best-looks-to-the-future-and-murray-on-dealing-with-a-dip-in-form

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