IT’S NO WONDER that Chiedozie Ogbene is seen as one of the brightest young talents at Cork City right now.
The teenager, only in his second year with the Leesiders, played his part in the club’s biggest achievements of 2016.
As a regular in the Stephen Bermingham’s U19s, he won the Enda McGuill Cup and helped Cork become the first Irish club to play in the Uefa Youth League, where they claimed a memorable victory at home to HJK Helsinki before losing out to Italian giants AS Roma over two legs.
The senior side may have been pipped to the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division title by Dundalk yet again, but got the better of their rivals in the FAI Cup final.
Ogbene was introduced from the bench during the second half at the Aviva Stadium and brought fresh legs to Cork’s attack before Sean Maguire eventually grabbed the winning goal late in injury-time.
“You go into the start of the season putting in your best effort with the hope of winning silverware,” the 19-year-old winger told The42.
“But I didn’t expect it to go as well as it did this year — winning the FAI Cup with the first team and the national cup with the U19s.
“That’s incredible and you don’t imagine these things. It pays off when you put in the hard work. You don’t know how and when, but it does.”
Born in Nigeria, Chiedozie moved to Ireland with his parents in 2005 and took a shine to sports as part of PE at Bunscoil Chríost Rí in Cork.
He took up Gaelic football and joined Nemo Rangers as well as lining out at schoolboy level for the neigbouring soccer club Tramore Athletic.
But that Tramore team would fold due to a shortage of numbers and spells with College Corinthians, Kilreen Celtic and Everton followed before Bermingham and assistant coach Declan Coleman saw enough potential to bring him to Cork City in August 2015.
That very month, he put in a man-of-the-match performance for Nemo in the Cork U21 football championship final at Páirc Ui Rinn — scoring 1-2 to earn them a draw with Valley Rovers.
However, that would signal the end of his budding GAA career and Ogbene didn’t appear in the replay after opting to focus fully on City.
“I had to pick between soccer and GAA,” he explains, “but I’ve always wanted to be a professional soccer player and this is the dream. It’s just unfortunate as a lot of people thought I was good at Gaelic football.
“I did like it but I had to choose. You miss it sometimes but a lot of things have been happening that I’ve been dreaming of so it’s all been positive for me.
“It was tough because you play GAA most of your life and you’re leaving friends you grew up with. I always wanted to be a soccer player. People might not have seen it because I played both but those at home and all my close friends knew.
At the end of the day, I always knew what I wanted to pick.”
A pacy, powerful player who says he bases his game on Cristiano Ronaldo’s, Ogbene admits possessing extremely raw attributes. But with the help of the coaching staff at Cork, he has been putting in the hard graft to develop those talents.
“I was coming in from an amateur youth league, so Stephen Bermingham (U19 manager), Declan Coleman (U19 assistant), Andy Goff (U19 fitness & strengthening) and Eoin Murphy (U19 goalkeeping coach) have put a lot of effort into me as well as John Caulfield (first team manager) and John Cotter (first team assistant) and all the staff in the first team,” he says.
“They have worked really hard with me in the gym and on the training ground. We’ve got a great set-up but it comes down to the players and their attitude towards the game as well.
“They have have transformed my game. I feel fitter than last year and more confident on the ball since I joined the club.”
He made his first team debut against Bohemians at the end of the 2015 campaign, but it was last season that Ogbene really broke into the senior set-up with three goals and a dozen appearances during the latter stages of the title race.
Eager to build on those promising displays, Ogbene is already hungry to get started with pre-season in the New Year.
At the time of writing, he had yet to sit down with the club to agree a new deal for 2017 but the sports injury and therapy student in Coláiste Stiofáin Naofa has ambitions to earn a full-time contract.
Next year, the plan is to establish himself in the League of Ireland with Cork and help them obtain more silverware. Looking further down the line, he has his sights set on playing at the top and earning international recognition.
And as he’s eligible to play for both Nigeria and Ireland, Ogbene admits he may one day have a tough choice on his hands.
An opportunity hasn’t come my way yet but when it does I have a difficult decision to make.
“Hopefully it will come but I need to keep my head down and my feet on the floor.”
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Andy Reid has always been a quality player, unfortunately his career coincided with the premier league craze for big athletic centre midfielders and out and out wide players. 442 was his downfall that is why he’s been excellent the last 18 months, he has no position with Forest just picks it up anywhere on the pitch and makes things happen. Donkeys like Chris and Pat just form an opinion without reason, they’ll be wavin their plastic hammers all over the pub when he’s helping Ireland to the next Euros
Fair point but dies that still not mean that physically Reid was/is not good enough for the premier league? He’s had 2 or 3 opportunities to prove himself as a premiership player and has failed every time. It takes a lot more than the ability to “pick out a pass” when it comes to making it at the highest level. I believe Reid wasted his best years because he did not give total and unrelenting commitment to ensuring that he was at his absolute maximum level of physical fitness, which would have allowed him to be a consistent performer at premier league level. Hence he would often string a few decent performances together at Sunderland in particular, then disappear for a few months and suddenly appear again “looking fitter than he has ever looked” (WTF?) for another spell of good form before disappearing again. That kind of attitude would have been acceptable in the 70s or 80s but not in the modern game.
As for Reid’s future with Ireland, well, the guy is thirty something so he is hardly the future is he? Could be a decent option off the bench if we were struggling to break down Georgia away for example, but it would be embarrassing to see him up against Ozil, Kroos, Gotze and co.
The journal has an obsession with Andy Reid though, so expect plenty more articles on him while he is still in the mix for Ireland selection.
I disagree with your point about him not being good enough for the PL, what I was saying was the type of football being played at those clubs (Sunderland, Spurs) at the time was where centre mids were box to box and wide players who could run at people. Now with various formations being used by PL clubs there is more of a demand for players who play between the lines, he could easily play 3/4 of the teams in the premiership now, good players need good players around them. What are all the “” regarding?
I just think he’s vastly overrated by the Irish media that’s all. Who are the 3-4 sides that play these formations nowadays that would accommodate Reid? Teams like west ham/crystal palace/stoke/Sunderland play the same shite football today that they were playing ten years ago.
He’s nowhere near good enough to play for a top 6 side. He lacks pace to play behind the strikers for a top level side. His work rate was also exposed when he came up against top players of a similar style. The difference between the likes of Reid and the world class creative players is their willingness to work off the ball. Based on his career to date I think he has been lazy in the past and that’s what I meant by the quotes about him being in the shape of his career/lost a few pounds etc.. Shouldn’t he always have maintained that level of conditioning? Is that not what he is paid to do?
Professional footballers getting praised for losing a few pounds of fat?? It’s a joke. Like Roy Keane said “it’s like praising the postman for delivering mail”
That’s my opinion anyway
Those comments should be reported on the basis of nothing but stupidity
Ah booo
Feel bad for him I know he has it in him but hasn’t gotten a big enough chance to prove it!
He has had multiple chances at premier league level and with Ireland throughout his career and has never taken any of them or nailed down a proper starting place for a sustained period of time under any manager? Were all his previous managers wrong then?
“Nottingham Forest star”
I must remember that next time I need an example for the meaning of oxymoron.
^^^^^^^
You’re an idiot. You know nothing about football. Better not to speak when you’ve nothing but stupid things to say.
Hes fat anyway!
Big loss for Ireland, he can do things that others can’t.
But Forest, already crippled with injuries, are absolutely fooked without Reid.
Still makes me angry at least 4 years of international duties were robbed off him. Wouldn’t mind if Whelan and Green were worthy their places in the squad