Search icon

Football

23rd Mar 2015

Video: Jack Grealish reveals he hopes to be back playing for Ireland this year

Good news for Irish soccer fans

Ben Kiely

It looks like the future is green for Jack Grealish.

Jack Grealish was in Dublin for the FAI International Awards ceremony last night where he scooped the U21 International Player of the Year accolade.

The Aston Villa winger admitted being slightly taken aback by the award but added that he was enjoyed representing the Ireland U21s immensely.

It’s always a joy to come over here and play for Ireland and put the green jersey on.

Grealish was one of the standout players for the U21 side in 2014 but he has been notoriously dragging his heels on committing on a country to represent at senior level. The Birmingham-born midfielder is eligible to play for either England or Ireland.

However, during an interview with FAI TV last night, he dropped a major hint about the future of his international career.

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.

Grealish dismissed feeling any pressure from the fans to choose which country he wanted to commit his future to, before reiterating his intent to return to the Boys In Green.

No, not at all, really. It’s a big decision to pick what country I’m going to play for and it’s a bit of an honour really to have that decision but at the moment, like I says (sic) I’m just concentrating on my club football and like I said, hopefully in September I’ll be back playing for Ireland.