‘Just pick one as your grandad’ – How Jason McAteer played for Ireland instead of England

"We’ve come across three McAteers from County Down."

The ex-Premier League defender is from the north of England but was never really patriotic, and preferred watching The Boys in Green rather than the Three Lions.

Speaking on the Under The Cosh Podcast, McAteer revealed how he ended up in the green and white of the Ireland kit and it all began early in his career when he was playing for Bolton Wanderers.

McAteer reveals story behind how he got his Irish passport.

"So, I get called into the (Bolton) gaffer’s office after training one morning and Jimmy Armfield’s in there. He was scouting for England.

"So, he’s in there and I’m thinking, what’s going on here? The gaffer, Bruce Rioch, says to me, Jimmy Armfield wants you to play for England.

"When I was in the pub working in 1990, the Italia World Cup finals was on. I'm a big Liverpool fan, you had Ronnie Whelan, Ray Houghton, Steve Staunton and John Aldridge playing for Ireland.

"I’m working in the pub watching all these games, and of course Liverpool’s got a big Irish connection, so when the Ireland games were on, and they were doing really well with Romania and all that, the games were massive and the pub was full.

"I was thinking, this team is brilliant, they were having a great time, good footballers as well. So I’d become a big Ireland fan, wasn’t interested in England. I was never really patriotic, being from the north of England.

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"Flip forward to my career and Jimmy Armfield says we’d like you to represent England, there’s a B international and we’d like you and Alan Stubbs to play.

"So he leaves and I said to Bruce Rioch, I don’t want to play for England, I want to play for Ireland. So he’s like, why? I went, they done really well in the World Cup, they’ve got loads of Liverpool players playing for them and I’m not really arsed about England.

"I didn’t really get it. So he (Rioch) then said to me, is there anyone in your family who’s Irish. I said, I’ll have to go home and ask my mum and dad.

"So I went home and I said to my mum, England want me to play for them. She said, that’s nice.

"I asked my dad if we had any Irish in the family. His granddad, apparently, was born in County Down. No one really knew. They moved to England, the story goes."

Now we know why McAteer chose Ireland over England, but there was still the matter of proving his eligibility to do so, and that's when the story gets even crazier.

"Do you remember when Russia split up and all the countries disbanded, FIFA and UEFA turned around and said if you play for a country, you have to hold a passport for that country?

"So I was playing on an English passport, I didn’t have an Irish passport.

"The girl from the FAI rings me one morning and goes, listen, we are trying to sort the passport out for you. We’ve come across three McAteers from County Down and we can’t be bothered looking any further, do you just want to pick one as your granddad?

"Alright, what are my options? You’ve got him and him and him. I went, whatever you think. So some random fella, like Sean or Paddy McAteer from County Down was picked.

"The next game I go to, I had to go to court. There were four people in the courtroom. ‘I pledge my allegiance to Ireland…’ and that was it.

"I went from the court back to the hotel, I go in and my passport was on the bed. It was done. I was in.

"So Stubbsy (Alan Stubbs) went and played for England, I think he got one B international cap, and I had 12 years with Ireland and went to two World Cups. So I think I picked the right one, didn’t I?"