LAST UPDATE | 15 Nov 2021
STEPHEN KENNY’S ABILITY to pluck and polish a few hidden gems has more than survived his transition from club to international management.
Last night’s man of the match is the latest example.
“This time last year I was in a leg brace when Stephen rang me and showed an interest in me declaring for Ireland”, said Chiedozie Ogbene. “I owe it to him for believing in me. In 12 months my career has really taken a drastic change, to experience football at this high level, it’s a joyful one for me, I am happy to be doing well for my country.”
Ogbene has been at the heart of Ireland’s turnaround. Kenny made it a priority to ensure he was eligible to represent Ireland: he began pursuing it on his second day in the senior job. A lengthy Fifa process took almost a year, but Ogbene was cleared in time to be called up for the summer training camp in Barcelona, making his debut in the 0-0 draw in Hungary.
He was in a leg brace when Kenny first rang owing to a troublesome knee injury that took him out of most of Rotherham’s ultimately fruitless effort to stay in the Championship after promotion. Kenny has admitted Ogbene wasn’t picked on form for that June training camp, but was brought in to see what he might offer to the squad.
Kenny tried to sign Ogbene for Dundalk a few years ago, but the attacker instead switched to Limerick from Cork City in search of regular game-time. His single-mindedness is a trait he shares with his manager: Ogbene decided to swap an upwardly-mobile Brentford side for Rotherham of League One, again to ensure regular game-time.
At the end of a week in which he scored another international goal and left Danilo Pereira of PSG suffering vertigo, Ogbene may not be in England’s third tier for much longer.
“We sacrifice so much, we know we had a tough patch, now we are reaping the rewards of our hard work, I am just really happy to be part of it and I am looking forward to the future”, said Ogbene.
“Good things are happening to me right now. I do believe in my own ability, the same way the coaches believe in me. I didn’t expect to be scoring goals, I just wanted to be the best for the team, to give my all, all my effort and I am happy to be getting goals for my effort.
“I am really excited for what the future holds, I said a few months ago when we were having difficult times that good things will happen, it was only a matter of time for us to click.
“To come to Luxembourg, score three goals and, most importantly, concede zero goals, it doesn’t matter what team you are playing it’s a good team performance we have been scoring a lot of goals and keeping a lot of clean sheets, everyone is buying into the system, everyone believes in what we are doing.”
Love this boys enthusiasm and clear joy he gets playing for his country.
Those goals last night were just class. Never seen Irish goals like that before.
Should have been mom against Portugal as well
@Tony Mcgrath: But Callum Robinson got it! You can only have one man of the match that’s kinda how it works.
Limerick fc can take a bow by giving him his chance in the Loi .Cork it seems we’re top heavy and he decided to give Limerick a stint .The rest is history .
His GAA roots serving him well!
He’s been brilliant, and has shown real pride and determination when playing, one or two other fellas could learn a thing or two about that from him.
Well done son!
Ogbene…it’s in his name
he’s young …and he’s good !!
Us Limerick fans were lucky to have him in 2017…
Cork’s loss was our gain…(and yes, they did end up champions anyway without him).
He was running around and through opposing defences then too;
usually at least 2 of the defenders would be on yellow cards by half time from trying to contain him ….
he was simply spectacular.
And he was so nice to young fans after the game .
As a Limerick / Treaty Utd fan ,it’s just great to see him make it.
Let him breath, his numbers for Rotterham are poor, he still has so much development in him. Talking to a few Rotterham fans on twitter last night they said if he sorts his end product out he’ll be in the PL in no time, his pace, power, dribbling constantly see him being targetted in L1 but he has to improve his end product.
Why did he need to be cleared?
Did he not grow up in Cork?
@Fiach Moriarty: he was claiming Irish eligibility under the residency rule. Assume there’s some I’s to dot and T’s to cross before you’re sanctioned by FIFA.