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<\/p>\nJack Moylan is on the verge of winning his first Ireland cap as Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson\u2019s side prepare to face Grenada in a friendly on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Jack Moylan speaks to the media in La Finca(Image: INPHO\/Ryan Byrne)<\/p>\n
Jack Moylan believes Irish football has been a big Brexit winner.<\/p>\n
And he says one big rule change that came in because of the UK\u2019s exit<\/a> from the EU likely kept him on course for his first senior Ireland<\/a> cap.<\/p>\n Players are no longer allowed to move to British clubs before their 18th birthday, which means they either stay in Ireland or move to another EU country from the age of 16.<\/p>\n Moylan moved to Lincoln<\/a> in January 2024 as a 22-year-old, having made almost 100 first-team appearances with Shelbourne<\/a>, Wexford and Bohemians<\/a>.<\/p>\n He was a key player in the Imps\u2019 recent promotion to the Championship and he celebrated that achievement by winning his first senior Ireland call-up.<\/p>\n Moylan believes he would not have been ready to make the move to the UK as a 16-year-old, and if he had followed so many others who left the country at that age, it would not have ended well.<\/p>\n \u201cI always say if I went when I was 16 I would have been home when I was 18,\u201d Moylan said, speaking in La Finca where Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson\u2019s men are preparing for Saturday\u2019s friendly against Grenada.<\/p>\n \u201cI have no shame in that or no problem with that, I just wasn’t good enough or developed enough.<\/p>\n \u201cSo that’s why you look at the likes of Victor (Ozhianvuna – who will move from Shamrock Rovers to Arsenal next January) now who is playing men’s football every single week and I think that’s massive for him.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Brexit is probably the best thing that’s happened to the League of Ireland, to keep boys until they are 18 and play 50-60 games, for them to go over there and go straight into a team, not to go back and play 23s football, it’s fake football. I’ve seen it over there.<\/p>\n \u201cYou want to be going from men’s football straight into men’s football. So I think it\u2019s the best thing ever.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I went when I was 16 I would have been back. I was able to. I didn’t but it’s the best thing now for young lads.<\/p>\n \u201cThey might think the flash life of going off to England is great but they’re better off staying as long as they can and getting as many games as they can under their belt.\u201d<\/p>\n For decades, hundreds of Irish kids flocked to the UK, only for most of them to return having failed to make the cut.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the numbers, the lads my age that went to England I think 95 percent of them came back,\u201d said Moylan.<\/p>\n \u201cI went and got a job when I was 17, 18, I was working, I was training with Wexford (where he was on loan from Bohemians).<\/p>\n \u201cI just loved football so much, I was never ever going to fall out of it. I was never ever going to not want to play at the highest standard and at the time Wexford was the highest standard for me when I left Bohs.<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t know, young lads maybe feel sorry for themselves when they’re told they’re not good enough, probably feel a bit down, which is naturally understandable. I probably did for a couple of weeks.<\/p>\n \u201cBut you’ve just got to have the right mindset to just get on with it sometimes and get over yourself and stay in the game.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you love it that much you’ll stay in the game and you’ll commit yourself to it and I\u2019m probably reaping the rewards for it.\u201d<\/p>\n Moylan still suffered plenty of setbacks on the way to his senior Ireland breakthrough, including being released by Bohs at the end of the 2021 season.<\/p>\n \u201cI was told that (I wasn\u2019t good enough) a lot as a kid. I think every kid might get told that at some stage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut look, I was very small. I probably wasn’t good enough. And in fairness that Bohs team had some really good young lads, and Rossi (Ross Tierney) and Dawson (Devoy) were there ahead of me.<\/p>\n \u201cI was fifth or sixth choice in my position at the time but you just got to get on with it.<\/p>\n \u201cI think a lot of kids and you might see parents feeling sorry for their kids at certain ages but you’re going to get setbacks<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn’t matter if it happens when you’re 17 or 18 or when you’re 30; you\u2019ve just got to get over it sometimes and get on with it.\u201d<\/p>\n