Colin O'Brien on Ireland at the U17 World Cup and Cork's Jaden Umeh

With five months to go until the Republic of Ireland make their debut at the FIFA U17 World Cup, Cork City legend Colin O'Brien is doing everything he can to get his players prepared for showpiece event in Qatar.

The Boys in Green will face Panama, Paraguay, and Uzbekistan with a squad that includes Mahon native Jaden Umeh, who ply’s his trade with Portuguese giants Benfica.

All eyes are on O'Brien, the manager that made this long held goal a reality through Euro qualification last March. The real work starts now with Ireland getting ready for a series of friendlies against Norway, Turkey, and Croatia.

“Great – since we qualified from the Elite Phase there’s been certain stages of the plan for the World Cup that we were able to begin,” he talked preparing for Qatar 2025.

“The draw, the anticipation leading up to the draw, and then of course being the last country pulled out. It was pretty exciting. Once we had the draw, the mindset went into overdrive with organisation, planning, and [it is] the real football side of things now. We can zoom in, looking at the beginning of November.” The two big games in the squad are Shamrock Rovers' Michael Noonan and Umeh, Cork City's youngest ever goal scorer.

O'Brien has had a close eye on the striker that once lined out at Turner's Cross before moving to Benfica, where he plays in an academy famous for producing some of the greatest players in European football.

“I would be in touch with Jaden – we would be in touch with the club more so as well,” he said.

“We have access to all his games. Wyscout is a great resource tool. You can get games in countries at different so it is not just senior. It is a broader base. It is a fantastic resource.

“How is he doing? He played a year up for us last year with the U17s as well. He has gone over since last year.

“What has excites me about Portugal is that when you think of the type of clubs and players – attacking players, full-backs, and wingers. Midfielders. He has big challenges because they are big on wide play and those creative players in wide areas. For him to be getting up every morning, going in there, and picking up stuff from coaches.

“You can see the improvements. Real certain details in his game that have improved massively and that had impact for us massively.” As microscopic as this sounds, O'Brien's real focus is on scouting and preparing dossiers.

The coach had to be precise, especially going into a group that has an Uzbekistan side that made it to the semi-finals of the 2023 U17 Asian Cup and narrowly lost to South Korea.

The two year turnover means very little to O'Brien, as it shows that something is in the water in that part of the world.

“Our preparation – no matter who we play down through the years, myself and the staff, we will be very diligent in our preparation,” he said.

“No matter if it is a Tier One country, as they are called, or Tier Four. Or a few unknown countries across the other confederations.

“Football is so global and universal that you can’t take anything for granted, especially at youth level. You might look at their senior teams and make up some judgement at this level. But we started preparation post draw, straight away. Their first game is Panama.

“What is interesting is that you have three different confederations. That is really exciting. Panama and Paraguay, are similar sized countries to ourselves and maybe have a million more in population. Panama have come out of the American confederation which has the United States, Mexico, and Costa Rica. They are the kind of opponents that they will come up against.

“Uzbekistan is a country of over 35 million people and football is number one. Lots going on in their infrastructure over the last ten years, and rightly so. In the last World Cup they beat England.

“Look at youth level you can’t take anything for granted,” he added.

“Every country will feel like they have a chance in it. No doubt that a lot will happen between now and then.”