Jim Crawford discusses dual nationality issues ahead of duo of under-21 qualifiers

Darragh Burns of St. Patrick's Athletic

Darragh Burns of St. Patrick's Athletic Credit: Ben Whitley (ETPhotos)

Armstrong Oko-Flex is just another on a long list who have represented more than one nation at underage level. The highly rated wide forward has already been on the books of Arsenal, Celtic and West Ham, and is the latest player drafted into Jim Crawford’s Ireland under-21 squad.

“He’s certainly committed to our colours that’s for sure,” said Crawford about the player who has previously lined out for England at youth level.

“He has done well for West Ham and the games I’ve seen him play in he certainly has been a standout player with the 23s.

“He’s coming in off the left and scoring goals. He is a talent, and we have to protect players like Armstrong that are creative and talented.” 

Oko-Flex came through at Dublin schoolboy giants St. Kevin’s Boys before moving to London to play for Arsenal similar to Liam Brady. 

When Celtic had their Covid debacle after an ill-advised training trip to Dubai in the early part of the year, Oko-Flex made some fledgling senior appearances but didn’t make the step up to international football.

“It was just a case that his career was drifting where he was at Celtic when he got in and played a few minutes when I think Covid took over their squad and he got a couple of experiences. But other than that, he wasn’t featuring that much,” said Crawford.

Another Irish eligible striker is Mipo Odubeko who is also on the books at West Ham but is currently on loan in the Championship. He came through the schoolboy system with St. Josephs but has still yet to confirm his availability to the under-21 setup.

“Still nothing from Mipo. He’s at Huddersfield at the minute. I think he’s injured so he hasn’t featured over the last four weeks or something. He played a couple of weeks ago for the u23s and he scored but other than it is where it is at the minute.”

International football remains dominated by issues of dual nationality, especially at underage level. 



St. Patricks Athletic star Darragh Burns has nailed his colours to the mast. 

“Darragh is keen to play which is great news for myself. It’s in the hands of legal at the minute and that’s just standard procedure to get everything over the line. It’s a change of association and it could be a long process similar to Joel Bagan.

“We are in the process of getting it done, he’s done fantastic with St. Pats. I think Stevie O’Donnell has done fantastic work with him and you could see the biproduct of their week on the pitch with St. Pats. The sooner I have him the better.”

Conor Bradley looks to have evaded the clutches of the FAI so far. The highly rated Tyrone right back has made five appearances for Northern Ireland at senior level but has not played in three competitive games which would rule him out of a switch.

Crawford spoke highly of the Liverpool player. “He’s somebody that we were interested in. Liverpool are exceptionally keen on him; our interest was there, and we were talking to the third parties about him and all of a sudden, he gets a call up into the senior team.

“It’s going to be a long process to get him. Anybody of that talent of course we want them involved. It’s going to make it a little bit more difficult now that he’s got a senior cap.”



Anselmo Garcia McNulty trained with his club Wolfsburg ahead of their Champions League tie at home to RB Salzburg. Garcia McNulty spoke to Marca in September and talked of feeling both “Sevillian and Irish” but Crawford had no worries of the talented centre half jumping ship.

“(There is) no indication of switching allegiance when he’s been in with us. I just made the decision to make sure that he gets games. He played against Sweden in the last window for Tom Mohan’s 19s. He’ll be involved in the qualifying phase for the 19s, so I think that is the way to go for him to get those minutes in his legs in international football.”

“Look if something happens to one of our centre-halves on the build-up to the game against Italy I would have no hesitations in bringing him in, because he’s great to have around the place but above all he’s a very good footballer.”

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