Last week Josh Keeley fulfilled a lifelong dream of being called up to the Irish international senior squad for the first time when himself and Ireland under 21 team mates Bosun Lawal and Andrew Moran were asked to train with the Ireland senior squad.
Keeley spoke at this morning’s press conferences ahead of tomorrow’s u21 international friendly against Croatia about the pride he felt getting the opportunity to fulfil a lifelong dream.
He stated, “It was great, ever since I got the news I couldn’t really believe it. From watching your country for years but actually getting the call up to come and train with them was one of the best feelings I had.”
“It’s one step closer to hopefully getting in the squad over the next couple of years.”
The former St Pats shot stopper moved to National League side Barnet in January on loan to get his first taste of men’s football to show parent club Spurs and potential loan suitors next season how he can adapt to a first team environment.
On his time at Barnet Keeley said, “I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was beneficial to me massively. For a young keeper it’s tough to get a loan move that works out for you and stay in the team and play. I really enjoyed it.”
A clip that went viral about a year ago was of Ben Foster saying that all Premier League keepers would struggle majorly in the Conference due to the physical demands and Josh Keeley spoke if he found that to be the case.
“It was something I was looking forward to. It’s definitely a part of my game that I like a lot. I love the physicality of it, collecting crosses and everyone coming into the box. One thing that definitely helped it was playing Gaelic back home.” The young goalkeeper stated confidently.
For context 👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/dfG8CtvUkY
— Rep of Ireland Player Tracker (@reptracker) June 6, 2024
Josh has been on quite a journey as a footballer and despite his youth he has had some tough moments in his career even dating back to his days with St Kevins as a 11 year old. The Spurs man started off as a centre back at the Dublin club and was deemed not good enough to remain at the club. Josh spoke on if he ever thought he’d make it at this level after the emotion of finding out the news as a kid and moving on from his boyhood club.
“I never thought I would make it. I remember the day well. I came home and my parents said that we’ve just got to let it go and that was my club since I was a kid. I burst into tears and thought this was terrible being let go here.”
“I went to Shelbourne and learnt what it meant to be a goalkeeper and here we are today.”
Josh and his team mates have two big international friendlies over the next week against England and starting tomorrow against a strong Croatia side in Zagreb.
Thankfully for Jim Crawford’s men they can head into Friday’s fixture with assistant manager Paul McShane confirming there is almost a fully fit squad to pick from with FC Zurich winger Armstrong Okoflex the only player that is doubtful.
“Pretty much everyone is fit, Armstrong Okoflex has a little something but we’ll see how he is in training today and then we’ll make a decision on that. Everyone else is ok.”
Ireland will look to kickstart the international window with a victory over Croatia on Friday. Kick off at Gradski Stadion Vrbovec is at 5pm. (Irish Time)