The Irish Martial, they’re calling him.
Festy Ebosele is fast, he’s skilful and he thinks of nothing else but beating a man every time he gets squared up.
The 16-year-old attacker from Enniscorthy in Wexford lit up Tallaght Stadium on Thursday night with one typically explosive run that left a defender eating dust and forcing a foul in the box which he tucked away himself.
Ebosele is a forward who was selected on the left of a 4-2-3-1 for Ireland under-17s in the international friendly against England.
Having signed with Derby County in the summer, big things are expected from the precocious talent who has starred at Moyne Rangers, at St. Joseph’s and at Bray already.
His last game with Moyne saw him rattle home a hat-trick in an under-13 cup final where local journalists were said to have described his performance as the best schoolboys display they’ve seen.
Despite going 2-0 down in the game against England, Ebosele sparked the Irish into life when he picked up the ball on the touchline a good 40 metres from the goals and just lit it up from there.
A few teasing touches enticed the English right back to take just one half a step towards Ebosele and that’s enough for a man with his arsenal. He proceeded to burn his opposite number for having the balls to approach him and he did it with some neat footwork and pure power. In the space of a second, he was clear and bearing down on goal until he was pulled back and awarded a penalty.
From there, he scored.
📽Festy Ebosele's penalty means #IRLU17🇮🇪 trail @England 2-1 at the break in @tallaghtstadium #COYBIG🇮🇪 pic.twitter.com/IXX8b14cRr
— Ireland Football ⚽️🇮🇪 (@IrelandFootball) November 8, 2018
In that English defence is also Dublin-born Dennis Cirkin but he reduced the side to 10 after his second yellow card saw him leave the game in the first half.
The highly-rated Tottenham Hotspur under-18 player is a bright talent who has scored two goals and set up one already in four games from the Spurs defence in the underage league.
Cirkin moved from the Irish capital to London though when he was just three and is now in the English system.
Maybe he’ll one day snub a call-up and begin flirtations with his native country.
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