THE BEGINNING OF a new decade could be the start of a new dawn for Irish football.
While the trauma of off-field events and the perilous future of the FAI have dominated the public consciousness in recent months, on the pitch names like Troy Parrott, Aaron Connolly and Jack Byrne have come to the fore, Mick McCarthy calling all three – 17, 19 and 23 respectively – into his squad.
There are others set to emerge and the criteria wasn’t set in stone; some have already played for the senior international side, others have made a name for themselves in the Premier League.
All, though, know that 2020 might just define their next step in the game.
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Name: Jayson Molumby
Age: 20
Position: Midfield
Club: Brighton (currently on loan with Millwall)
The Millwall dressing room was a welcoming place for Jayson Molumby when he arrived on loan from Brighton last summer.
But there were also expectations. Not just that the 20-year-old would have the ability to make an impact, but that he would be willing to meet the standards required and would buy into what the seasoned, hardened pros demanded.
Straight away he won them over, even if he missed the first two Championship games because of a muscle injury. He has been a key figure in the middle of the pitch ever since and, unlike other vaunted Premier League academy graduates, Molumby had no airs and graces.
“He is always willing to listen and learn, he’s got a great passion about him and the will to win every day,” Shaun Williams, Molumby’s midfielder partner, tells The42.
“He is going to have a great career ahead of him because he’s very level-headed and won’t get above his station. He wouldn’t last a second in our dressing room if we got that impression.”
For Molumby, 2019 is a year in which he has won any remaining doubters over following 14 months out with a knee injury.
In the cut and thrust of the Championship, his energy and composure have never wavered. Before Aaron Connolly burst onto the Premier League scene with Brighton earlier this season, Molumby was the Irish teenager who emerged from the academy into the Seagulls’ first team squad.
The midfielder had dipped his toes in the shallow waters of the League Cup in 2017 before over a year of knee trouble saw his progress stunted.
Molumby has persevered to get his career back on track and 2020 has the potential for much more than a second coming. The qualities laid out by Williams help explain why Stephen Kenny made him captain of the Ireland U21s, and with the Dubliner set to take the reins with Ireland’s seniors next year, that bodes well for Molumby’s chances of ascension.
If he continues to thrive in the Championship, he may well get his chance to shine before that, while a return to parent club Brighton in the summer will give manager Graeme Potter the opportunity to assess his progress.
Next season is the final one on his current contract so 2020 is shaping up to define Molumby’s next step.
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Name: Gavin Kilkenny
Age: 19
Position: Midfield
Club: Bournemouth
Global Premier Soccer (GPS) is an American company which, according to its LinkedIn profile, “establish an identity of excellence as we pursue our pathway to success on and off the field, with our primary focus being the development of players and people. We will develop players who can compete at the highest level of soccer around the world”.
It is, effectively, a football factory which scouts players across the United States. And beyond.
They are the official youth partner to Bayern Munich and, back in 2015, a team of players from around America competed in the Milk Cup, the prestigious underage tournament in Northern Ireland, as GPS FC Bayern.
Gavin Kilkenny, then 14-years-old and with St Kevin’s Boys, was one of the players put forward by the Dublin club when a representative from GPS contacted them and asked for promising players within their ranks to represent the German giants.
Kilkenny was put forward in part because this technically gifted central midfield player was being overlooked by clubs in Britain due to his size, but also because they felt he deserved a different kind of opportunity.
“He had a great attitude and was a terrific player for us,” Alan Caffrey of St Kevin’s explains. “He just needed a chance somewhere because it wasn’t happening for him. We had faith in him and believed he would do it, so to see him get where he has is testament to his hard work.”
The young Dubliner, with the unwavering support of his parents Anne and Alan, ventured north and while he may not have continued his career with Bayern, he was firmly on the map.
Sunderland and West Brom were two clubs who had taken him on trial but passed on offering a contract. As he approached his 17th birthday, and his chances of a move appeared to be dwindling, an agent was able to set up a trial with Bournemouth.
Kilkenny spent a week in the south of England, did enough to warrant a second chance and was then offered a scholarship.
There was no guarantee of a professional contract.
But Kilkenny backed himself and, now 19, he has just signed a new five-year deal as first-team football beckons.
He was on the bench against Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League earlier this season and also made his debut against Forest Green in the EFL Cup.
The summer just gone was when things really began to click for Kilkenny. Not just on the pitch, but off it, too, where he realised he was at a stage where he needed to do more to force his way into Bournemouth’s plans.
Kilkenny reported for pre-season training and began a very simple process of improvement: he started to work even harder. Extra sessions in the gym, with an emphasis on strength and conditioning, have benefited the diminutive 19-year-old.
But it’s his intelligence and composure which have caught the eye of manager Eddie Howe, Kilkenny developing from a number 10 who can operate on the flank to a more deep-lying central midfielder.
He is the perfect role model for his younger brother Ronan – they’re both big Liverpool supporters – whom recently left Kevin’s to join Dundalk’s U17 National League side.
Ronan won’t be the only one looking out for his older sibling in 2020.
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Name: Adam Idah
Age: 18
Position: Forward
Club: Norwich City
Adam Idah had a welcome house guest at the start of last month. As 2019 drew to a close, the Norwich City striker invited his closest childhood friend over to see him in Norfolk.
Jaze Kabia, the Shelbourne forward who hopes to make his mark on the SSE Airtricity Premier Division this season, has been best friends with Idah for as long as he can remember.
“His Nan lived next door to us and he was always there so we got to know each other and spent all our time playing football on the green. I don’t think there has been a day from the age of about four that we haven’t seen each other or spoken to each other,” Kabia explains.
Perhaps the visit was needed, a welcome pick-me-up having appeared to have fallen down the pecking order under Norwich first-team boss Daniel Farke.
Idah, who chose to sign for the Canaries over Aston Villa because Norfolk felt more like Cork, had been included on the substitutes’ bench for the 3-2 win over Premier League champions Manchester City back in September, and maintained his place there for the away trip to Crystal Palace and home clash with Aston Villa on October 5.
He might not have earned any minutes but the signs were promising. Idah hasn’t been near the matchday 18 since, though, and there is talk of a loan move – League One Lincoln City just one club in the frame – this month that could be the catalyst for a strong end to the 2019/20 campaign.
He is still only 18, put pen to paper on a bumper new deal at Carrow Road until 2023 in the summer of last year, and has all the attributes – pace, power, intelligence and an eye for goal – to break the glass ceiling into the first-team.
But with Norwich sitting bottom of the Premier League, this season’s relegation scrap does not look to be the time to blood the inexperienced forward.
It was only in November, though, that Ireland U21 manager Stephen Kenny revealed that he and his staff have been on Idah’s back to plead his case for more opportunities at club level, where he has also formed a friendship with on-loan Manchester City playmaker Patrick Roberts.
“We had to say to him, ‘You need to knock on your manager’s door and say you want to play U23s’, and he did that and he played one or two games. Because in the previous camp, he had gone five weeks without playing a game,” Kenny admitted.
These are the grown-up issues he now has to deal with. It’s all a far cry from his days in Douglas, where Idah learned to love not just soccer with his local club, Corinthians, but also Gaelic Games – hurling and football – and athletics. He excelled in the long jump and it was the influence of his late grandfather, Kevin Hayes, which was so crucial.
Kevin passed away just before Idah played his first Ireland international at U15 level and Kabia recalls the effect that had on him. “They were very close and it was a big loss in his life. I wouldn’t say that it changed him as a person, Adam doesn’t seem to get fazed by things that much, but I think the memory has helped drive him on.”
Idah’s mam, Fiona, was a single mother and so her parents, Kevin and Kathleen, helped raise the boy who has grown into the lightening quick, strong and technically gifted man of such promise.
There is one test he has already passed with flying colours at Norwich, however. “Before he moved out on his own the club made sure he had cooking lessons so he could look after himself,” Kabia laughs.
There will be much bigger examinations of his talents to come for club and country, with qualification for the U21 European Championships still up for grabs and an impact to be made at senior level.
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Name: Michael Obafemi
Age: 19
Position: Forward
Club: Southampton
The boardroom of a PR firm in Dublin city provided the first glimpse of the protected existence Michael Obafemi now leads as a Premier League footballer.
It was April 2019, Obafemi was still a few months away from his 19th birthday and it was only in the previous December that he opened his account with a goal away to Huddersfield Town.
It was the strike that not only made him the club’s youngest ever scorer in the English top-flight, but also the youngest senior Ireland international to score in the Premier League.
Naturally, he was hot property, and Coca Cola Ireland ensured he was flown over to front one of their marketing campaigns with the Premier League trophy.
So it was in the shiny surrounds of a boardroom on Harcourt Street, just a few doors up from Coppers, that Obafemi sat at the top of the table with an agent from the firm who represents him and answered questions about his rise to stardom.
And a little about his Irish links, considering his mother is Nigerian and he was raised in England. “I was born in Dublin,” he explained. “My mum was visiting her sisters. I think I moved back to London a couple of weeks later, where I grew up. So I didn’t stay too long but when I come here I still feel like I am home.”
One of the most enduring images of 2018 was the embrace between Obafemi and his mother in Denmark after former Ireland manager Martin O’Neill had given him his senior debut in the Nations League.
Obafemi confirming his allegiance was certainly one of the major plus points towards the end of O’Neill’s tenure but injury – hamstring ones, primarily – have prevented the teenager from kicking on further.
This season, too, has seen his Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl cast doubt over how he is conducting himself. “When you reduce Michael only to his speed then I don’t think you are doing right by him. He has a lot more than speed.
“The last time I saw him he was saving balls, playing with others coming in the red zone, turning and keeping the ball up front.
“It’s something of his game that developed and is based on his fitness and willingness to work hard for the team. He still has a lack of professionalism in his whole life.
“This is a young guy who must learn quickly. If he does this and gets more physical, fit and can make this workload for a longer time, then he has a big future.”
Those comments were in November. On St Stephen’s Day, the Saints boss was singing an altogether different tune after Obafemi struck a superb solo goal away to Chelsea in a hard-earned victory. “I was so happy, it was a fantastic goal for Michael. Not only the goal, but he was there to help the team. That’s the best Michael we can imagine.”
So the platform is now there for Obafemi to build on the good work of the last few months. He must stay fit and, should he keep his place in the side, as well as chip in with more goals, then a place in Mick McCarthy’s squad for the Euro 2020 play-offs in March is surely up for grabs.
Maybe he’ll toast it with a can of Coke.
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Name: Dara O’Shea
Age: 20
Position: Centre back
Club: West Bromwich Albion
The42 almost cost Dara O’Shea a club fine when we met first towards the end of August.
The Championship season was only a few games old and it was the day before West Bromwich Albion travelled to face Derby County.
Slaven Bilic, the Baggies’ new manager, was gathering his players for a pre-training meeting but O’Shea had been summoned from the canteen by kitman – and fellow Dubliner – Aidan ‘Jacko’ Smyth.
O’Shea was busy yapping away about the influence of workaholic James McClean, the joy at seeing Wes Hoolahan up close and person – even for just a short while – and his desire to make a first-team appearance when he realised he was going to be late for Bilic’s meeting, and get hit in the pocket for his troubles.
The hastily-convened interview in the reception area of West Brom’s training ground came to an end but, by that point, it has already become clear the esteem in which O’Shea was held in around the club.
A product of their academy after he joined from St Kevin’s Boys, he was viewed as one of their own. But for Bilic, only in the door and still an outsider, he was won over by far less sentimental reasons. “Unfortunately, in today’s world it is not a virtue, it’s a flaw if you are focused, if you are fit, if you work hard. Not in football, in every way of life. It’s kind of cool to be lazy and all that but Dara is, like a few of them, they are all good boys but for young kids. They are old-fashioned in a good way and that is the key for a young player.”
This was August, yet it was only in late December that O’Shea finally made the breakthrough with his league debut. With West Brom battling it out with Leeds United at the top of the Championship, O’Shea has been understudy to centre backs Ahmed Hegazi and Semi Ajayi, two international defenders with Egypt and Nigeria respectively.
The young Dubliner came off the bench early in the second half of their 1-1 draw with Brentford just prior to Christmas Day and Bilic was effusive in his praise.
“I don’t like to praise or criticise the players based on half an hour — it’s a bit amateur — but Dara… make no mistake, it’s very difficult for a young player to come into the game against a team who is on the front foot and good,” Bilic said, as reported by the Birmingham Mail.
“I am going to praise him, because I know he isn’t going to be ‘big time’. Dara is the future, and he can be the present. I believe in him. Based on today, he’s a player. I love Dara.”
But it is not unconditional. Should West Brom gain promotion to the Premier League, the task to maintain his place in the squad will become even more difficult for O’Shea. Just as well he’s not shy of some graft.
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Name: Daniel Mandroiu
Age: 21
Position: Forward
Club: Bohemians
The past 12 months were more than just a success for Daniel Mandroiu. They were a salvation.
He returned home to Ballymun to the grateful arms of his mother, Sarah. She had known for sometime that her son wanted to end his time with Brighton and Hove Albion.
She saw the once confident, determined, focused young man retreat into a shell of what he used to be.
Sarah contacted the club and Daniel, who also admitted his behaviour and standards of professionalism had dropped below the levels required, terminated his contract early.
His mam was not the only one waiting with open arms. Bohemians manager Keith Long had been monitoring developments for months. Alan McCaffrey at St Kevin’s Boys, the schoolboy club from where Mandroiu developed, was a conduit to both parties.
Mandroiu returned and thrived. He was named PFA Ireland Young Player of the Year, an award voted for by his peers, and became an established member of Stephen Kenny’s Ireland U21 squad.
That is what happened over the last year. So, what needs to happen in the next 12 months?
Mandroiu must build on the foundations he has firmly established. From a point where it must have felt like it was sand underfoot, the 21-year-old is on solid ground.
His penchant for sublime and important goals made him a fans’ favourite at Dalymount Park but more will now be required as the Gyspies embark on a Europa League qualifying campaign that could well open different doors for Mandroiu.
Jayson Molumby, as already cited above, is a close friend from their time at Brighton. At the weekend, when Mandroiu commented positively on the video of the midfielder that had gone viral for his relentless closing down of the Brentford goalkeeper, former Bohs captain Derek Pender replied saying that kind of work is now required from him.
Pender retired from the game this winter and, while no longer a part of the dressing room, it was a pointed remark from someone who saw up close and personal how Mandroiu worked everyday.
A creative force will not always be able to take full control for the entire 90 minutes but if Mandroiu can marry that ability to split a defence with a pass or a 25-yard shot with an appetite for selfless hard work off the ball, his impact on games – and those around him – should significantly increase.
It might just do more to catch the eye of suitors in England and further afield, where his ambition to progress still lies.
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