IT HAS been an exciting couple of days for the Irish international football side.
Irish under 21 manager Jim Crawford has confirmed that promising La Liga teenager John Joe Patrick Finn is happy to play for Ireland.
Finn made his debut for Getafe recently, and his extremely highly rated by those in the know in Spain.
The 17-year-old was born in Madrid but is eligible to represent Ireland through his late father who was born in Mayo.
He missed out on the latest under 21 squad due to injury, but could well be in the new squad according to Crawford.
Speaking in a press conference on Friday, Crawford said: "I’ve been speaking to John-Joe and his mother numerous times and he certainly wants to play for the Republic of Ireland.
"Unfortunately, he picked up an injury a couple of days ago and is out for 10 or 12 days. That’s a little bit of disappointment for us and John-Joe.
"But the most important thing is that John-Joe gets himself fit and back playing again. We had a lot of conversations over the last number of weeks and they’ve all been positive.
"I’ve no doubt for the next window, if everything is fine, we’ll have John-Joe onboard."
Squad announcement | Jim Crawford names 14 uncapped players as part of a 22-man squad for #IRLU21🇮🇪 friendly with 🏴 next week
Full reaction and details 👉 https://t.co/GW59C254Lf#WALIRL | #COYBIG pic.twitter.com/VrI9TUy3hA— FAIreland ⚽️🇮🇪 (@FAIreland) March 18, 2021
Finn is also eligible for Spain, Cameroon and England, but based on the above comments, he's going to represent the boys in green.
Now we just need to work on Liam Delap and Patrick Bamford and we are well on our way...
