Jack Grealish he is not.
Declan Rice is fully committed to playing for the Republic of Ireland, ruling out the possibility of him switching allegiances to England.
The London-born centre-half is due to make his Ireland debut against Turkey on Friday evening having been called up to Martin O’Neill’s squad for the first time.
While O’Neill recently said that Rice’s future was far from determined, the 19-year-old West Ham starlet has offered a much more definitive update.
“There’s no decision to be made,” Rice said via The Irish Times after picking up the U19 Player of the Year at the FAI Awards on Sunday night.
“I’m here now with Ireland at the moment and I’ve been called up by Martin. And if I didn’t want to play for Ireland I wouldn’t be here tonight picking up this award. I’m really looking forward to this week and I’m looking forward to getting to know the boys better.”
https://twitter.com/_DeclanRice/status/975509898560761856
Considering Rice’s promising future in the Premier League, many have expected the FA to make an approach to secure his international services for the future. However, Rice, who qualifies for Ireland through his paternal grandparents, has put paid to that idea by confirming that he has not spoken to the FA.
“I haven’t had a call from anyone at the FA,” he added.
“Not at all. England have never wanted me at under-age level, it’s always been Ireland. I’m fully focused on playing with Ireland. We’ve got an important Under-21 game coming up and if I think about that [stuff] too much, it will start to take me off my football. I let my dad deal with that. Not me.”
“To get called up here by Ireland… my nan and granddad are from Cork and they sadly passed away, so for me to be playing now – and they watched me when I was Under-16 – to be playing for Ireland now, they’ll be looking down on me very proud. My family are very happy that I’m playing with Ireland.”
Rice’s future wasn’t always so positive. He was released by the Chelsea youth academy in 2014 but has revealed that former Blues captain John Terry helped him by calling him and offering some words of comfort during an uncertain period.
“Me and John Terry are really good friends,” he said. “When I got released from Chelsea, he gave me a call and we spoke for about 45 minutes. I told him I was going to West Ham.
“He was my idol growing up and to ask him a load of questions and for him to answer them back, I’ll always remember that call. We live locally to each other and now and then we meet up. We met the other day and we had a catch-up, and he’s always going to help me and pass on his experiences.”
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