As we await the squad announcement for the upcoming Nations League Promotion/Relegation Play-Offs against Bulgaria, the major story surrounding the Ireland squad announcement next Thursday is the addition of two League of Ireland based players into the group.
On Friday night, the Republic of Ireland Men’s Senior National Team Head Coach Heimir Hallgrímsson revealed that two Shamrock Rovers players are included in the provisional squad following on from their exceptional UEFA Conference League campaign, which saw Rovers reach the Knockout phase play-offs, where they went out to Molde of Norway in a penalty shootout after a hard-fought draw on aggregate.
Hallgrímsson found himself having to somewhat backtrack on comments he made previously that suggested domestic based players would have to move abroad and play at a higher level on a regular basis if they were to earn senior international call-ups, which he has since denied as being the case.
However, it will be interesting to see whether these Rovers players, rumoured as being defender Josh Honohan and one other, have done enough to earn any minutes, or even make the final cut, as domestic players have found themselves on the fringes of the squad in recent years without any real or lasting involvement.
Derry City goalkeeper and former Ireland U-21 international Brian Maher was brought into the group to train prior to the scoreless friendly draw with Belgium in March 2024, while striker Jonathan Afolabi was called up to the extended panel ahead of the EURO 2024 qualifier at home to the Netherlands in September 2023 while on the books at Bohemians, but didn’t make the match-day squad.
Jack Byrne of Shamrock Rovers became the first League of Ireland based player to earn competitive minutes for the Republic of Ireland since 1985 when he appeared off the bench away to Wales in a Nations League group defeat in November 2020, adding to his two friendly appearances in 2019, before going on to add one more cap. No League of Ireland based player has earned competitive minutes since.
Although the coaching staff will have their reasons as to why League of Ireland players may be called up but not played, be it that they aren’t deemed ready upon seeing them train with the regular squad members, or perhaps they are called up as a means of monitoring the level of quality of the League of Ireland, from the outside it feels like a token gesture rather than a meaningful indicator that the players at home are good enough to represent their country.
While the UEFA Conference League may provide a higher level of quality and competition than the League of Ireland, the opposition faced cannot be directly equated to the likes of the likes of the Portugal or Denmark national teams, both of whom boasting squads filled with players involved in the elite European top flight leagues, and one of whom Ireland will face in the upcoming World Cup qualification campaign. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that Senior International football is beyond the capabilities of our domestic league players.
Crumlin-born Roberto “Pico” Lopes, at 32 years of age has played in the League of Ireland for his entire senior career, initially with Bohemians and now with Shamrock Rovers. He was called up to the Cape Verde national team in 2019 and subsequently made his debut, the same year Byrne made his Ireland debut. Since then, Lopes has had a far more illustrious international career, having gone on to earn 34 senior caps and reach the Quarter Finals of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, playing a key role in their journey.
Markus Poom, who spent the 2023 and 2024 seasons on loan at Shamrock Rovers, earned the past 14 of his 29 senior caps for Estonia while lining out for the League of Ireland club on loan from FC Flora of Tallinn.
The Republic of Ireland faced Gibraltar in both the EURO 2020 and EURO 2024 Qualifiers, with Gibraltar’s national team predominantly made up of players plying their trade in their domestic league. Likewise, the Boys in Green are due to face Armenia in the upcoming 2026 World Cup Qualifiers, and they too tend to rely heavily on their domestic league to make up the bulk of their squad.
Perhaps it may be a little simplistic to say that as Ireland has a higher UEFA Association Club Coefficient ranking than either of these nations, there’s nothing to suggest that a League of Ireland XI could not churn out performances and results reflecting such standings. However, between Rovers’ run in Europe as well as the sheer number of home-based players featuring regularly for our underage teams, it isn’t out of the realm of possibility that League of Ireland players couldn’t make a positive impact on the senior team.
Following his announcement as head coach back in the summer of 2024, Hallgrímsson suggested that as he did with Iceland and Jamaica, he would like to implement additional international friendlies outside of the regular international windows in which home-based and promising young players could be given an opportunity to gain experience on such a stage and gauge whether they could be used in competitive fixtures, stating:
“When we did this with Iceland, we did it with Jamaica as well and played in January and February, with domestic players and players from academies etc.
“It always provided one or two players that we selected for the next window. Because we saw them in this environment, and said ‘he is good enough’.”
Interestingly, not long after revealing this tactic of expanding his pool of options, Hallgrímsson stated that he regretted these comments and questioned that such friendlies would devalue the Ireland caps of those who worked hard to earn them.
While the sentiment behind Hallgrímsson’s reasoning is understandable, it could be argued that unearthing some hidden gems at home who may improve the national team is worth far more to Irish football than worrying about bruising egos. And if such care is to be given in not diminishing achievements, perhaps token gesture call-ups will be a thing of the past.