Randolph calls for Irish patience as Rice decides next move
“GO on boy!” “Ger out of it!” “Here hi!” “On me ’ead!”
In the teasing September sunshine, a football field in west Dublin echoes with the familiar vocabulary of people at play.
The accents vary wildly. Derry air mingling with cutting Cork, via devilish Dub and daring Drogheda, interspersed with a dash of the English midlands.
They are united in the garb of the Irish international soccer team. Home is where their heart is. Many of them have different stories; they are not alone, as the turmoil amongst many of their supporters has illustrated while Declan Rice ponders where his future allegiance lies.
Take Darren Randolph. A Bray childhood cannot disguise the thick capital city accent but it does belie the fact that he could be playing his international soccer for the USA, by virtue of the fact that his dad is renowned basketball player Ed.
All it would have taken was one phone call. It was his choice to make. He chose Ireland.
“I wouldn’t have been allowed back in Bray if I hadn’t!” laughs the Middlesbrough netminder.
“I’ve got two passports, Irish and American. I kind of understand the position Declan is in. Myself, because I played from U-16 level all the way up, it seemed only natural to stick to it and try and progress.”
In his mind, there was no choice to be made. ‘No. I already had it in my head I wanted to play for Ireland.”
Beside him, Ciaran Clark had no qualms either even if he had been born in England and played until U-20 with them before Richard Dunne stepped in and did the FAI’s job for them.
Jon Walters, who arrived in camp yesterday, is also English-born but the premature death of his mother prompted him to follow his own heart, too, and opt for Ireland.
Derry’s James McClean is quite open about the fact that he willingly played for another country at underage but always wanted to declare for the Republic.
City comrade Shane Duffy feels Irish, not Northern Irish, but also
played underage football for the North.
Should Rice return, Ireland’s squad will welcome him with open arms once he is given time to make his call, just as McClean also altered his hard-line opinion after some thought.
“If he comes back in, he’s back in,” reasons Randolph. “He’s been part of the squad. Forget about it and get back on the pitch and perform.
“He’s a good player. Obviously, he was breaking through when I was at West Ham. He’s only 19 so he’s obviously decided to take a step back and take some time.
“It’s probably tough, being a 19-year-old, and he’s having those decisions. But it’s really down to him to choose and do whatever he feels is best for him.
“If he decides to come back and he’s playing well, I don’t think anyone will be worrying about it too much. They’’ll say, ‘Thank God, he chose to play’.”
No more than the dilution of national identity in society, no bad thing in an aspirationally multicultural, tolerant age, national eligibility in international sport has become an increasingly watery concept, and not just within football.
Since the relaxation of FIFA’s eligibility ruling more than a decade ago, we have witnessed more than one set of brothers facing each other for different countries and a host of diplomatic spats between competing nations.
Often, as Ireland may be about to discover, the heart does not always rule the head; frequently, the choice of flag arises not necessarily from conscience but convenience.
Some readily accept such fluidity, especially as lucrative club football continues to rival the international game aside from biennial major tournaments; others find it repugnant, particularly when allegiance seems self-serving, removing the one true distinction between country and club.
It is a debate that will remain intense; the key outcome for Ireland is to remain competitive and, in this two-year international cycle, that process begins in Cardiff tomorrow night.
Had Ireland qualified for the summer World Cup, argue some, Declan Rice would be starting tomorrow night, as Martin O’Neill confirmed he would have done if available.
Instead, England’s Russian resurgence renders them a potentially more attractive lure. Ireland’s failure last autumn against Denmark still reverberates.
“You watch the World Cup and look at other countries going there and doing well and you just think, ‘Ah, I wish we were there,” admits Randolph.
“And I think we would have done well. We’ll never know. You can only look on and wish and hope and think of what could have been.”