One player has dominated the football headlines this week.
It wasn’t Javier Hernandez, whose late strike was enough to give Real Madrid their first win in eight over local rivals Atletico and earn Los Blancos a place in the Champions League semi-finals. Nor was it Thomas Muller, who epitomised the steely passion of Bayern Munich when they overturned a 3-1 first leg deficit against Porto to steamroll their way into the semis.
Rather, it was a Fr. Damo lookalike by the name of Jack Grealish and almost everyone worth listening to in the footballing community has weighed in this week with their opinion on which country the Aston Villa winger should declare for after the 19-year-old played a starring role in Villa’s 2-1 victory over Liverpool in the FA Cup semi-final at the weekend.
Manchester United Paul Scholes is the latest to give his take on Grealish and, unsurprisingly, he is hopeful that he will select England.
In his Independent column this morning, Scholes says:
“I had the same options as Jack Grealish when it came to international football, in fact I could have played for Northern Ireland as well as the Republic. On my mum Marie’s side, my Nana was from the Republic of Ireland and my Granddad was from the north. Lots of families in Manchester have strong Irish connections but it never occurred to me to play for anyone other than England.”
“I really like Grealish as a player. He has got promise. I haven’t seen enough of him to know whether he is a No 10 or better coming off the left-hand side. Only time will tell how many goals he has in him. Only time will tell if he is going to pull his socks up, too. Juan Sebastian Veron had that habit as well.”
Scholes, who has 66 caps for England, doesn’t know why it’s taking so long for Grealish, who has represented Ireland at underage level on a number of occasions, to make up his mind on his international future and will have touched a nerve with a few Irish supporters by referring to England’s set-up as being at a “higher level” than Ireland’s.
“What I don’t understand is why he has taken time off from international football. You need to start playing international football first before you think about taking time off. I guess it is about giving himself time to choose between Ireland and England. The Republic will always need him more but England is where he will play at the higher level. The fact that he is prepared to take his time probably tells you he is a confident boy.”
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