In the space of 10 days at the beginning of February, Tottenham Hotspur announced the future signing of Irish striker Mason Melia for a League of Ireland record fee of €1.9million (£1.6m; $2.1m), Michael Noonan of Shamrock Rovers scored the winner in the UEFA Conference League tie against Molde, Trent Kone-Doherty made his debut for Liverpool and Ike Orazi his debut for Reims in Ligue 1 in France.
Noonan is 16. Melia and Orazi are 17. Kone-Doherty is 18.
Also in early February, Newcastle United announced they had signed Kyle Fitzgerald from Galway United days after he turned 18.
Six months before Melia’s move to Tottenham, the same Premier League club signed George Feeney, then 16, from Irish League club Glentoran. That transfer came as Ceadach O’Neill, also 16, moved from Linfield to Arsenal and Braiden Graham — who in March 2023, at 15, became Linfield’s youngest-ever player — left for Everton.
There is no official confirmation from Chelsea, but they are signing Christopher Atherton of Glenavon in the Irish League. Atherton was 16 in October; he made his senior debut aged 13 years and 329 days to become the youngest-ever player in UK senior football.
The island of Ireland has two domestic league systems: the Irish League in Northern Ireland and the League of Ireland in the Republic of Ireland. It has two international teams playing this week, but neither has qualified for a major tournament since both appeared at Euro 2016. The Republic were beaten 5-0 by England at Wembley in November.
So it will therefore seem odd to some to be asking: is there something happening with Irish boys?
Over the past week, the answer from managers, recruitment staff, sporting and Academy directors has been mixed — critical, reticent and quietly hopeful.
The picture is complex, but there are two of several notable themes: the boys mentioned have all been given first-team experience and exposure at an unusually young age (it is not just happening in the United States); and in the post-Brexit landscape inhabited by Irish and British football, there is opportunity.
“I think overall, there definitely is something happening,” Will Clarke tells The Athletic at the Football Association of Ireland’s headquarters in Dublin. “Within that, there is nuance.”
Clarke is the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) Academy development manager. He has worked in youth football in Dublin with long-established boys’ club St Joseph’s, then senior club Bray Wanderers. Melia played for both before his current club St Patrick’s Athletic.
Melia paying for St Patrick’s Athletic against Drogheda United last month (Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile via Getty Images)
“A door’s been opened by Brexit,” David Healy says after his club Linfield defeated Glenavon at Windsor Park last Saturday. “And we have noticed the numbers have risen and the calibre of the clubs has changed back again — we’ve had players going to Everton, Arsenal, Leeds.
“You’re never going to know fully until you see the fruits of what is being put into the players, so you err on the side of caution. Cautiously, I’m optimistic.”
But it is not a settled issue and, when The Athletic puts the idea of a seam of talent to Irish football’s most high-profile figure, Damien Duff, on Friday night at Tolka Park, his professional opinion is blunt: “I’m not fooled by young Noonan doing well at Rovers or Mason going for £1.5million. I don’t get carried away.
“Mason Melia going to Spurs — ‘Unbelievable move, great money, life-changing for the boy, world-class club, oh, everything’s rosy’.
“It’s not.”
On January 31, 2020, the United Kingdom formally withdrew from the European Union. It was an enormous political, economic and cultural act with consequences that are still washing through five years later.
One of them, unexpectedly, concerned Irish football.
Brexit arrived at a moment when internal and external perceptions of the domestic Irish game were beginning to shift. The financial power of England’s Premier League and its clubs’ expansion in infrastructure, physical and bureaucratic over 20 years had chimed with globalisation.
English clubs’ player recruitment became multinational and even as academy intake numbers rose, gradually a traditional source of teenage talent — Ireland — withered.
But Brexit brought an end to under-18 international recruitment. British clubs had to pivot and, in many cases, their view returned to Ireland, north and south. (The League of Ireland is under EU jurisdiction so boys cannot leave until they are 18. The Irish League is in the UK; boys can leave at 16.)
Post-Covid in Ireland, there was fan-fuelled growth. Dundalk reached the group phase of the Europa League in 2020-21 and faced Arsenal. In August 2022, Evan Ferguson, 17, scored his first goal for Brighton and, in 2023, 44,000 watched the FAI Cup final in Dublin between Bohemians and St Patrick’s.
Ferguson celebrates scoring Brighton’s third at Forest Green in August 2022 (Alex Burstow/Getty Images)
Irish football, particularly in the League of Ireland, began to look at itself afresh. ‘Perception’ can feel vague as an explanation of development, but it counts and it can feed change.
Clubs which had essentially been semi-professional started a process of professionalisation. Having previously fielded a men’s first team and a reserve team for generations, academies were opened and girls’ and women’s football was introduced. All teams in the League of Ireland Premier Division are now full time. There was some individual investment in clubs such as Cork City, Shamrock Rovers, Galway and current champions Shelbourne.
This season, Rovers finished 10th in the new UEFA Conference League format and lost in the knockout round only on penalties to Molde. Noonan’s goal — making him the second-youngest ever scorer in Europe behind Nii Lamptey (‘the next Pele’) — brought a new rush of interest. At 16, Noonan is still at school.
When the FAI launched national under-19 and under-15 leagues in 2015 and 2017 respectively, it took talent away from historic and influential boys’ clubs in cities like Dublin. In terms of sports politics, it caused problems locally.
But the greater problem was and is funding.
FAI negligence and mismanagement has been so ingrained that books have been written about it. The Irish government, in whatever version, grew wary of the Association and, while monies have been pledged for League of Ireland club academies, the new Irish government said last month it is “not imminent”.
The FAI want the funding to increase staff — there are only 10 full-time academy staff across the League compared to, say, almost 200 in Croatia — and to increase boys’ and girls’ contact hours. They need around €10million per annum to facilitate this.
It is money the FAI do not possess and, as Clarke acknowledges, clubs have quickly outgrown physical infrastructure. It is a week-to-week problem.
“Our Academy system is very much in its infancy but we’re trying to create full-time models that you would recognise in a modern-day football ecosystem,” he says. “It’s a massive cultural shift.
“This is a medium to long-term plan. We’re a relatively small country with a limited player pool. But overall I would say that the ability level has increased, there’s a better environment. An issue is that everyone else is progressing. And our starting point was later.
“In the past, we basically relied on UK clubs to develop our players.”
Were Irish academies sufficiently strong and numerous, these boys being given first-team debuts in men’s football would be playing for their club’s academy instead. Boys are thus being provided with a platform they would not receive in England and that can create unrealistic expectation. A few names can also mask broad deficiencies.
But profile matters. As Clarke says: “Forty per cent of clubs in the League of Ireland play in Europe every year. That’s a platform for young players to showcase ability. If you look at Michael (Noonan), there would not be many 16-year-olds across Europe who get the opportunity to play at that level.”
Noonan scores for Shamrock Rovers in the shootout against Molde (David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile via Getty Images)
Fitzgerald has four goals in three games for Newcastle’s under-18s. It is noticed only by a few fans and inside the club. Were those goals scored for Galway, the attention would be significantly greater.
Clarke is realistic about it all and he, like everyone involved in youth football, recognises “early developers”, of which Melia is one and Ferguson before him another. These are mid-teenagers who can cope with men’s football. It does not mean they will have the same impact at 21 or 25.
The reluctance to shout is understandable, but it does feel as if Brexit has helped initiate these first steps on the path to professionalism. Clarke says an impact can be seen in the fee generated for Melia.
“In my experience, clubs in the UK placed a valuation on the environment around a player rather than the potential of the player,” he says.
“If you look at Mason — if he’s still playing for St Joseph’s and Spurs are coming over to do a deal, they’re looking at a boys’ club with one full-time employee, playing on council pitches, training two nights a week with a coach who may or not be qualified. They put a valuation on that environment.
“Now Mason is at this facility every day, playing and training with other senior players, competing in Europe, he’s surrounded by full-time staff. So for Spurs, looking at that, it’s completely different.
“You go back to Seamus Coleman and it’s ’60 grand’ because of where he’s come from. Then you look at his career.”
The undervaluation of Coleman, who was with Sligo Rovers before joining Everton in 2009, where he has played over 400 games, remains an embarrassment for Irish football. It was 16 years ago yet, in 2023, Mark O’Mahony left Cork City for Brighton & Hove Albion on his 18th birthday for £50,000.
But Cork were supporter-owned when O’Mahony signed his contract. The club had few resources and low revenues. It was a small business, and still is by comparison to English clubs. But a takeover by businessman Dermot Usher, allied to a general shift, has altered attitudes.
O’Mahony is congratulated by Cameron Peupion and Carlos Baleba during the Carabao Cup win at Crawley in August (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
It means, for example, the current player exciting interest, Cathal O’Sullivan, 18 a fortnight ago and with 30 senior appearances already, will not be leaving Cork for ‘50 grand’.
In the competitive and sometimes deliberately opaque world of teenage recruitment, Nottingham Forest and Celtic are said to be at the head of a lengthening queue for O’Sullivan’s signature.
Cork City are developing a reputation. In the past three years, the club has sold players to Milan, Benfica, Crystal Palace and Hoffenheim. They are building club-to-club relationships; their youth team travelled to Spain to play Sevilla and Real Betis last year.
It breeds confidence in Cork as a club and creates a new awareness as to where they are on professional football’s food chain. Clubs such as Genk, Borussia Dortmund or Brighton are saluted for their savvy recruitment and sales. Why not Cork City?
In the Irish League, the same applies to Linfield. Healy’s club won the title for the 57th time on Monday night but only turned full time in season 2021-22. They have sold several teenagers to English clubs and right-back Matty Orr might be next.
He is 17 and has played over 20 first-team games. Newcastle and Sunderland have been linked. The latter signed Trai Hume three years ago when he was 19. The cost was £140,000; Hume is now worth 10 times that. Linfield will not be selling Orr for £140,000.
“Irish clubs were probably too keen to accept derogatory amounts in the past,” Glenavon manager Paddy McLaughlin tells The Athletic. “They saw the money rather than the potential. That’s a fault in the system.”
Funding has also been a question for the Irish League. As far back as 2011, £36million of government funding was set aside for the Sub-Regional Stadia Programme — for infrastructure improvements. In January 2025, the local government said it was accepting applications for grants.
At institutional level, Irish football north and south has been so poorly governed.
Hume, now of Sunderland, challenges Preston’s Kaine Kesler Hayden (Ben Roberts Photo/Getty Images)
Linfield-Glenavon was a patchy match. It makes player assessment even harder. McLaughlin sent on Atherton in the second half, along with Paul McGovern. It was a 16-year-old accompanied by a boy who turned 17 in January.
“We believe in them,” McLaughlin says. “We took off our top scorer to put Chris Atherton on. We’re already losing Chris. We don’t want to lose another.”
Does McLaughlin have any hesitation about placing young boys like Atherton in a men’s environment?
“Not with Chris’s ability or his temperament. My only hesitation is that referees in our league don’t protect him enough. I wouldn’t play a player unless he was good enough. I wouldn’t put a player in at an early age to make it look good.”
As others note, McLaughlin feels there is an educational element to teenage experience in an adult match and says English clubs “do mention” it. “They look at more than ability, there’s mentality, there’s a lot of boxes to be ticked.
“I think a lot of the learning here would be physical and mental, as well as tactical. In England, they’ll have better day-to-day facilities than we can provide, but for the mentality, playing in front of 3,000 people, against players who’ve played in Europe, the level can toughen them up. They’ll be away from home when they go over. They need a strong mentality.
“There’s a level of development in playing here and down south that’s invaluable.”
‘Down south’ in Dublin the night before, Shelbourne 1-1 Cork City was better, but a notably bumpy surface can undermine a lot of training and it did.
The performance contributed to Duff’s mood but his views on the FAI are well known. Duff has been as important as anyone in lifting the status of the League of Ireland since agreeing to manage Shelbourne in November 2021. Last season, Shelbourne were league champions for the first time since 2006.
Attendances are up — 33,000 watched this season’s opening match between Bohemians and Shamrock Rovers at Lansdowne Road — and there is a new TV broadcast deal. Shelbourne are just one of the clubs making off-the-field appointments.
Duff before Shelbourne’s game against Cork City at Tolka Park (Sam Barnes/Sportsfile via Getty Images)
But all involved professionally on a daily basis know Irish football is playing catch-up and there is a long way to go. Bristling at the mention of Irish teenage talent, Duff says: “You can go down to contact hours, what have you — ’til the day I die, footballers are built on the street and nobody plays football any more on the street.
“So you get four nights a week here? Great. But we still won’t produce footballers like we used to. That’s just the way of the world.
“But to go back to Mason Melia, it’s great, all the very best of luck; but I’m not fooled by the system just because Mason’s going.”
Duff was an outstanding teenage footballer (and later of course) who was signed by Kenny Dalglish when Blackburn Rovers were Premier League champions — “The most exciting place, believe it or not, in England.”
His frustration is with the FAI in general and with a childhood environment that rarely involves street football, but Duffs’ reference to contact hours is interesting. It is different to Wrexham’s James McClean, who said in a recent interview with the Irish Independent that his son Junior gets more practice hours in fourth-tier Crewe Alexandra’s academy than Irish boys.
“My upbringing was street football,” McClean, who grew up in Derry, said. “I did end up missing certain attributes in my own make-up as a player because of that.
“Now I look at Junior and the hours they get each week and the training they go through. There’s a plan in place and they are given the opportunity and it’s up to them. Back home, they don’t have that opportunity and that puts us miles behind.”
The FAI are seeking to hold centralised camps for elite teenagers, as the Irish Football Association’s Club NI programme introduced in the north over a decade ago.
Jim Magilton and Michael O’Neill initiated it — Magilton said the numbers showed a boy in an English academy had five times as many hours of practice as a boy at a part-time Irish League club. The best Irish footballer around, Liverpool’s Conor Bradley, 21, came through that programme.
Of his contemporaries, Duff asks: “How did Robbie Keane, Richard Dunne, Shay Given… how did they all (thrive)? It wasn’t from an academy system. I know I fight for academy systems, but that wasn’t what got me to England.
“I had no distractions, absolutely no distractions. I just lived for the ball. I loved the ball as much as my family. And I played football on my own or with my friends more than any footballer in the League of Ireland system now. It’s not rocket science.”
He looked towards a slogan on the wall and read it back: “If you put your mind to anything, you work hard, you dedicate your life to it, you can do anything you want. Aligning that with banging out 20-25 hours a week with a football, I had a good bloody chance.
“But I might not be good enough now. I would have had an iPhone and PlayStation for the last 10 years and I’d be brutal. I’d be s***. It’s a different animal from 20-30 years ago.”
It was no rallying cry.
Clarke had pointed to the minutes played by senior Republic of Ireland-eligible players in Europe’s top five leagues — “In 2023-24, we’d have 13 players in one of the top five leagues getting on average 615 minutes per player. The research suggests you need around 34 players playing on average 1,300-1,400 minutes a season.
Clarke, the FAI’s academy development manager (Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)
“That’s where we’re at. So when you ask if there’s something happening by design or are these isolated incidents, yes, there’s more players coming through the system and there’s definitely something happening, just not on the scale we would like.”
Scale is often overlooked in this discussion. The fact is the island of Ireland has a population of approximately 7.3million. Two million more people live in London alone. London does not host two leagues of two divisions, nor does it field two international teams.
But it will soon host Mason Melia.
(Illustration: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic; Photos: Michael Noonan – Ben McShane/Sportsfile; Evan Ferguson – Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile/Getty Images; Mason Melia by Seb Daly/Sportsfile; Ceadach O’Neill – Cameron Smith)
