How far would the Irish soccer team have gotten in tournaments if Messi was Irish?

14 comments
  1. With the way the FAI is set up and grassroots football in Ireland there is a very good probability he wouldn’t have been discovered or given a chance, unless his da was managing the local team.

  2. Could possibly have won Euro 2016. That time period was arguably prime Messi, or close to it, so near-unstoppable.

  3. We would have qualified, but then he’d give out about the pre tournament facilities and lack of professionalism from the FAI…have a bust up with the manager and then leave the camp in a huff…

  4. Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the Swedish national team is a good example of how you can’t build a team around a single player!
    Apparently they catered to his every whim to the expense of the other players, and the team actually played better when he wasn’t available! That being said, this was a few years ago and they aren’t great at the moment so maybe they could use him back.

  5. Unfortunately if Messi had been Irish he would probably be playing for England like many others so Ireland would have got pretty much the same results as of today.

  6. No where we haven’t had a decent midfielders to supply him since the Keane days. Wes Hoolihan possibly..

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