Michael Obafemi has taken the bold move of rejecting the chance to play for Ireland’s U21 squad for their upcoming internationals preferring to take the chance on a call up for the senior squad.
There has been much talk of Obafemi being called up to Stephen Kenny’s senior team after finding his feet at Swansea with much of the Irish media calling for the striker to be included in the next squad.
The former Southampton man is clearly not short of confidence and will now turn his attention to Kenny announcing his next squad which is due on Friday.
โMichael has made it clear to us before that he sees himself as a senior international player,”
“Itโs unfortunate from an U-21s perspective but Iโve had a conversation with his agent and thatโs where itโs at at the minute,โ Jim Crawford the U21 manager said.
โThe last thing I said to the agent was that if he ever feels that he wants to come to the U-21s, donโt hesitate to call because weโll have a conversation around that. In his own eyes, I think Michael sees himself as a senior player.
“Itโs something that would have stood to him if heโd gone and played with the U-21s. International football can be different. Itโs more tactical. But he chose not to. That was his decision.
“His agent was honest with me about that and I can appreciate that. If heโs scoring goals with Swansea surely now he comes under the radar of Stephen,โ
Hopefully the snub won’t backfire…