Leicester City winger Kasey McAteer was boosted by a call-up to the Ireland senior team for the first time this international break.
Having been eligible for England, Northern Ireland and Ireland, Kasey McAteer recently declared for Ireland and was rewarded with his first senior international call-up for the September fixtures.
Leicester City will be pleased to see McAteer gain international recognition with Steve Cooper bringing the 22-year-old on late in all three Premier League games so far.
It is a good sign for McAteer’s international prospects that he made new manager Heimir Hallgrímsson’s first squad and the Leicester winger made his debut off the bench in the 2-0 Nations League defeat to England at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.
He was again brought off the bench as Ireland lost by the same scoreline against Greece on Tuesday night but can hold his head high after making an impact.
Irish media impressed by Leicester City’s Kasey McAteer in Greece cameo
The defeat to Greece meant Ireland have won just two of their last 12 fixtures, with one of those victories coming against Gibraltar.
Despite the poor state of the national team, McAteer showed that there is some hope for the future after replacing Jason Knight in the 74th-minute in Dublin on Tuesday night.
Irish media were certainly left optimistic by McAteer’s showing, with both the Irish Mirror and sport outlet Balls rating his display a six out of ten despite playing just 16 minutes.
Balls commented on McAteer’s performance, saying: “Did well to engineer Will Smallbone’s guilt-edged chance near the end. A rare bright spark for Ireland in the closing phases.”
RTE went one better, scoring McAteer a seven, commenting: “Replaced Knight and took up station around the left wing as Ireland went in search of a much-needed equaliser.
“Lovely reverse pass played Brady in to set up Smallbone but the goal didn’t follow. Then helped set up Robinson’s 84th-minute chance.”
Leicester City summer target Fotis Ioannidis nets against McAteer’s Ireland
McAteer wasn’t the only notable player involved in Ireland’s 2-0 defeat to Greece from a Leicester perspective.
Cooper’s search for a striker eventually ended with a Deadline Day loan move for Odsonne Edouard but before that Leicester had been scouring Europe.
This saw them make a big-money bid for Panathinaikos centre-forward Fotis Ioannidis after he registered 32 goal contributions in all competitions for the Greek side last season.
That move did not materialise as Ioannidis stayed put and the 24-year-old was on target to open the scoring against McAteer’s Ireland.