Who will win the international tug-of-war over the Aston Villa starlet?
Jack Grealish’s stunning performance in the FA Cup semi final against Liverpool has caused Irish fans a lot of worry. Sure, it may have proved that the midfielder is ready for a call-up to the senior international squad, but it also alerted England to his talents which has left his international future at Ireland in doubt.
We have decided to weigh up all the evidence to see if we can predict which country the Villa midfielder will pledge his allegiances to.
The case for Ireland
Shamrock emojis
Jack’s shamrock emoji game is strong.
He’s played extensively for Ireland
Grealish has already represented Ireland 19 times at underage level and has found the net six times while wearing an Irish shirt. His emoji use indicates he enjoyed playing for the Boys In Green as well.
The “no take-backsies” rule
Grealish stated his intention of playing for Ireland again after he was awarded with the U21 FAI Player of the Year award. As we all know, the no backsies rule is iron clad and failing to live up to his word would be considered “very bad form”.
“This year I spoke to Noel (King) at the start of everything and I said to Noel, ‘this year I’m going to take a year out to concentrate on my club football’.
You know, it helped, I signed a new five-year contract. I’ve had a good, successful year.
So, like I said, hopefully next year I’ll be back in the green jersey.”
Paddy’s Day
Here’s proof that he joins in on the festivities on March 17th featuring even more shamrock emojis.
He once scored a point at Croke Park
Grealish revealed his GAA roots in an interview with the Herald.
“I got a point for Warwickshire when we got to play in Croke Park a while back. I loved GAA, I played from when I was eight up to 14.
“We had won a tournament over in England so we got invited over to play in Croke Park, it was at half-time during a senior game. I can’t remember who was in the senior game but I know I scored a point and my dad was delighted with that.”
He models his hair on Fr Damo
Taking fashion inspiration from Fr Ted is surely a good sign.
He doesn’t call him Shaun Londonderry
Just saying.
Pierce Brosnan film enthusiast
Although he didn’t mention Brosnan by name, it is widely regarded that the Meath man was the star of that summer smash-hit musical. (You can take our word for it, no need to look that up)
Buzzin’
He might not have an Irish brogue, but the key dropping of the “g” here makes this tweet read in an Irish accent.
The case for England
Associates summer with good weather
Clearly he’s never experienced the infamous “changeable Irish weather” that has seen many’s the Irish man caught in a downpour donning Hawaiian shorts and sheepishly grasping a 99.
He’s forgiven Thierry Henry
Admittedly, this is not definitive proof. Plenty of us have learned to forgive and forget the French striker. However, the very utterance of those five syllables is still enough to cause some fans to cry into their giant inflatable tri-colour hammer.
Lacks the Irish cynicism
A great man once said “there’s this Irish expectation that nothing good lasts”, and Grealish simply doesn’t have it.
Born and raised in England
Let’s get this one out of the way. While plenty of Irish football legends were born across the waters, we must include this in the England column.
No relation to Tony Grealish
It’s unfortunate that he just shares the surname with the man with 45 Irish caps. Now that would have been definitive proof.
Oh…
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