Afolabi putting experiences to good use at Dalymount

St Joseph’s Boys, but left in pursuit of first-team football. “Southampton are the type of club to nurture players from a young age and build them up into the first-team,”he said.

“So I always had that hope and it was always realistic — because I was doing so well, I was playing 23s as a 17 and 18-year-old — that the opportunity would come at some point.

“My last season, in particular, was a really good one. I started really well, got offered a new contract halfway through, but I was thinking then I’m really close to doing something here, to maybe even getting a minute on the pitch.

“There were a lot of us in that 18s to 23s crop that were doing really well. “Obviously it went to my good friend Michael Obafemi, he got his debut against Spurs, and I was obviously grateful for him, he’s a top player and a top lad, he’s one of my close boys.

“That was probably the gap I was hoping for as well.

“In football you hope for a bit of luck, you create your own luck, and everything happens for a reason, really. After that I was probably like, it’s probably time to move on now.”

Summer

And so he left St Mary’s in the summer of 2019, just weeks ahead of Ireland’s Euro Under-19 campaign.

His goal against the Czech Republic was crucial in earning Tom Mohan’s side a place in the last-four, but a harsh yellow card in the last minute of that 2-1 win earned him a suspension for the defeat to Portugal.

Afolabi still made UEFA’S Team of the Tournament and in the days after he returned home his phone was lighting up with offers from across the UK and beyond.

“A lot of teams came in, so I had to pick which was best suited to me, which I thought was Celtic, so I went with them,” he explained.

“I moved up to Glasgow, which was really nice. Everything they had set up for me going up there,