{"id":429011,"date":"2026-04-10T09:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T09:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/429011\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T09:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T09:14:13","slug":"benjamin-sesko-blown-away-by-croke-park-ahead-of-man-utds-pre-season-friendly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/429011\/","title":{"rendered":"Benjamin Sesko blown away by Croke Park ahead of Man Utd&#8217;s pre-season friendly"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>   <a class=\"fw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=unitedinfocus.com \" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"28\" height=\"28\" src=\"https:\/\/www.unitedinfocus.com\/wp-content\/themes\/grv-media\/img\/google-discover.svg\" alt=\"\"\/> Add as preferred source on Google <\/a>  <\/p>\n<p><strong>Benjamin Sesko visited Croke Park on Monday night ahead of Manchester United\u2019s pre-season friendly against Leeds in August.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.unitedinfocus.com\/club\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Manchester United<\/a> have spent the last four days in Ireland for a mid-season training camp to prepare for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unitedinfocus.com\/tag\/premier-league\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Premier League<\/a> run-in.<\/p>\n<p>The Red Devils will return to Ireland in August for what looks set to be their final pre-season friendly before the 2026\/27 Premier League campaign kicks off.<\/p>\n<p>It wouldn\u2019t be a surprise to see United return to Carton House in Co. Kildare, considering they enjoyed it this week, and it\u2019s approximately 30-40 minutes away from Dublin.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2270578823-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Benjamin Sesko trains with Manchester United at Carton House\" class=\"wp-image-343569\" \/>Photo by Ash Donelon\/Manchester United via Getty Images         <\/p>\n<p> What do YOU think of Manchester United\u2019s pre-season schedule for 2026? <\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" width=\"819\" height=\"1024\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/UIF-upcoming-fixtures-819x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-341820\" \/>Getty Images       Benjamin Sesko impressed after first visit to Croke Park<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.unitedinfocus.com\/tag\/benjamin-sesko\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Benjamin Sesko<\/a> was among United\u2019s squad that travelled to Ireland this week.<\/p>\n<p>The Slovenian was selected to visit Croke Park, which will host United\u2019s pre-season friendly in Dublin <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unitedinfocus.com\/news\/man-utd-will-play-at-croke-park-regardless-of-leeds-situation\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">regardless of whether Leeds can fulfil the fixture<\/a> due to potentially having EFL or Community Shield commitments.<\/p>\n<p>It will be the first time Croke Park has hosted two Premier League clubs, making it a historic occasion.<\/p>\n<p>After visiting Croke Park on Monday night, Sesko shared his initial impressions of the stadium, which is the headquarters of GAA.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was really impressed,\u201d Sesko said, as per <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CrokePark\/status\/2042241403548303669\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">@CrokePark<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe stadium is really, really big. So many seats.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to playing here because I love it when there are lots of fans, or when the crowd is just genuinely huge, so it definitely gives me goosebumps.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s going to be amazing, and I\u2019m looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cFirst of all, when I checked it, the grass is really nice. The stadium is really big.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sesko won\u2019t be competing at the World Cup and is expected to get a full pre-season under his belt before the 2026\/27 season.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"inline-links multi\">\n<li>\u26a1\ufe0f NEWS IN BRIEF<\/li>\n<li>Benjamin Sesko visited Croke Park for the first time on Monday night<\/li>\n<li>Sesko was impressed by the size of Croke Park as well as the playing surface<\/li>\n<li>The Slovenian talks about how excited he is to play at Croke Park for the first time<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>          Have you been convinced by Sesko like Carrick has? <\/p>\n<p class=\"grv-talking-point__subtitle\">He&#8217;s in amazing form, but what else does he need to add?<\/p>\n<p>     <img decoding=\"async\" width=\"819\" height=\"1024\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/UIF-22-819x1024.png\" alt=\"Sesko Carrick\" class=\"wp-image-334002\" \/>Getty Images       Former Man Utd defender won two All-Ireland titles at Croke Park<\/p>\n<p>Kevin Moran is known as a dual star in Ireland for winning All-Irelands with Dublin and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unitedinfocus.com\/tag\/fa-cup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FA Cups<\/a> with United.<\/p>\n<p>The Irishman was a courageous centre-back for United between 1978 and 1988.<\/p>\n<p>However, Moran won two All-Ireland finals before signing for United, playing Gaelic football for Dublin.<\/p>\n<p>Both finals took place at Croke Park.<\/p>\n<p>Join Our Newsletter<\/p>\n<p>Receive a digest of our best United content each week direct to your mailbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Add as preferred source on Google Benjamin Sesko visited Croke Park on Monday night ahead of Manchester United\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[58393,18,19,17,191184,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-429011","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-benjamin-sesko","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-pre-season","13":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116379652870600252","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}