Northern Ireland national team talent pool: September 2024

With the close of the summer transfer window I thought I would update a piece I posted last year. I aim to show how deep the talent pool is for the Northern Ireland national team.

To analyse our depth I have kept track of each player (hopefully not missing anyone) who has been called up to the senior or under 21s squads. I have organised them by general position eg. Defender, midfielder etc. rather than their specific positions, and organised them by their club and league. I have assigned each league a grade based on quality, this is subjective and after last year’s I have changed a few grades, notably moving the Irish Premiership, League of Ireland and Welsh Premier League up a tier and dropping Premier League 2 down a tier. I am sure there is still some debate about these but essentially we are focused on grades A-C as O’Neill rarely calls up any player playing below these league grades. The full list includes 137 players. 

Following Jonny Evans’ retirement we only have one player in the Premier League (though some are with Premier League clubs but either playing in PL2 or out on loan). Justin Devenny made the bench for Crystal Palace this week but he stays in the PL2 list until he makes a senior appearance. The Premier League is the only league currently in grade A. We have 32 players in B grade leagues, which is an encouragingly high number. This figure included Ronan Hale, I have broken my own rule to include him because it seems he is in O’Neill’s plans once his clearance to redesignate for Northern Ireland is through. We have 21 players in C grade leagues, which includes League 1, and from where several core players are selected including;  Bailey Peacock-Farrell, Josh Magennis, Eoin Toal, Brodie Spencer, Dale Taylor, Callum Marshall, Dion Charles and Shayne Lavery among others.

There are currently several players yet to find a club for this season at the time of writing with the most high profile being Corry Evans and Shane Ferguson.

This summer has continued the recent trend of Irish League players moving across the water, with Lee Bonis making the move to The Netherlands. The consistent increase in quality of the Irish League bodes well for the future of our national team and players are showing they can make the step up with Trai Hume, Ronan Hale and Paul Smyth being the standout performers in recent months. It will also be interesting to gauge how Larne performs in the Europa Conference League, perhaps it is another way for some bright young players to be noticed.

The League Grades are as follows:

A Grade:

Premier League

 

B Grade

EFL Championship

Scottish Premiership

Greek Super League

Brazilian Serie A

MLS

Belgian Pro League

 

C Grade

League 1

Australian A League

 

D Grade

League 2

Veikausliiga (Finland)

Premier League 2

Keuken kampioen Divisie (Dutch 2nd tier

 

E Grade

Scottish Championship

Scottish League 1

National League

Canada Premier League

Irish League

League of Ireland

Welsh Premier League

Other English Youth

 

F Grade

Lowland League

 

G Grade

National League South

National League North

 

You can see the breakdown of the number of players in each League Grade below.


 

You can see the A-B league grade players below:




You can also see the C-D league grade players below, since we use a lot of League 2 players and several League 2 and Premier League 2 players are young prospects.



E Grade is largely made up of Irish League players who have been called up to the Under 21s.




Northern Ireland are still in a period of transition, but we have lots of exciting young players ready to take their opportunity. One player not included here is Fra Turley who has made appearances off the bench for Celtic this season, but he is still waiting for a call up to the under 21s. I am sure there are other players in a similar scenario and most likely plenty of great prospects at Irish League clubs. Who are you most excited to see get a call up in the future? 

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