Many Irish greats have graced top European clubs like Juventus, Chelsea, Manchester United, Barcelona, Tottenham Hotspur, Celtic, Arsenal, and lots more. Despite Ireland’s recent shortage of stars in the biggest European clubs at the moment, one need not search too far into the past to see how many greats the country has produced, but for the sake of this write up we will examine the greatest five. You can use a coursework writing service if you an article on the subject.

Players of the Republic of Ireland descent have at some point played football at the highest levels like English Premier League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup, and FIFA World Cup, of professional football.

Below is a look at our top five (5) greatest Irish football players of all time, that have at some point in their career, made the nation proud:
Despite battling through severe knee problems and alcohol addiction, Paul McGrath has a place in our list of the Republic of Ireland’s greatest footballers.

The former central back, who had his best club stints at Manchester United and Aston Villa is in a league of his own. McGrath was a titan in Ireland’s historic victory over Italy at the USA 1994 World Cup, stopping the prolific Roberto Baggio from breaking down the Irish defense line, helped him cement his place as a top player.

During his international career filled with the tale of defiance and rebellion, Paul played 83 times for the National team and scored eight goals for the Republic of Ireland.
The Nation’s all-time leading goalscorer and most loyal servants made his international debut in 1998. His over 131 appearance s for the national team has seen him score over 65 goals for the Republic of Ireland.

A true leader, the Irishman although hasn’t won as much as his talent and efforts deserved, will always remain fans favorite anywhere he plays. His goal for the National team against Germany at the 2002 FIFA World Cup is still fresh in the memory of football fans in Ireland. That brilliant goal sent his Nation to the last 16 of the World Cup, with boylesports.com dropping odds for every single match he played in his career.

Due to his Nations failure to qualify for major competitions over the last two decades, the former Tottenham striker hasn’t had the opportunity to prove his worth on the biggest football stages, but has still managed to play in over 10 clubs and has scored against top National teams like Spain, Netherlands, Italy, and German.

• Liam Brady

This attacking midfielder-cum-wingers’ longest club spell was at Arsenal. The creative maestro won two Serie A titles with Italian giants Juventus, before another successful spell at Sampdoria, Inter, and Ascoli.

Undoubtedly Republic of Ireland’s best footwork trickster, Brady’s passing talent laid the foundation for 72 appearances for Ireland from 1975 till 1990.

• Roy Keane

Though Roy’s time representing his Nation was mired with controversy with then-boss Mick McCarthy at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, there’s no denying his extraordinary talent. He played 67 matches for his Nation from 1991 till 2005.

Despite his controversy in 2002, the former Manchester United midfielder will still go down as the best player to ever play for Ireland.

• George Best

The controversial nature of the ex-Manchester United player’s persona off the field meant that he never reached the figures recorded by others on this list, with best scoring only nine goals in 37 matches for Ireland.

Able to play anywhere in the attacking line, his Manchester United career saw him play 470 matches for the club and scored 179 goals in total.

He passed away in 2005, having battled alcohol addiction for much of his playing days.

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The clash we have been waiting for since Roy Keane began working with Sky Sports. Even though it wasn’t really was it, as when Jurgen Klopp looks back at the footage from Monday’s edition of Monday Night Football he will see how mistaken he was in his bizarre rant over Roy Keane’s ‘sloppy’ comment.

Keane in his job as an analyst on the show and not a cheerleader for Klopp and his team, although its hard to tell these days with some football ‘analysts’, was clearly pointing out that in a game Liverpool completely dominated there were evidently some sloppy moments, that might have led to another result on another day.

In fact Keane was wholesome in his praise for Klopp’s team for much of his review of the game, but mentioned that some aspects of the defending was sloppy.

What followed was Klopp’s bizarre rant over Keane’s sloppy comment that was as unnecessary as it was mistaken.

The Liverpool manager said that he believed Keane had called their performance during the 3-1 win sloppy, which he clearly didn’t, merely stating that there were some sloppy moments but that Liverpool had thoroughly deserved the win.

“It was a good night’s work for Liverpool, who were by far the better team. There were one or two scares but they deserved the win. They’re like a machine and one of the fittest teams around. They like to suffocate teams. It’s never easy to score goals but they managed three tonight, four against Leeds. It got a little bit sloppy at the back but it’s job done.”

Keane is right Liverpool are a winning machine, but it is his job to analyse football matches and Liverpool have definitely been lax defensively at some points over the last few weeks in the Premier League. They conceded 3 goals to a newly promoted Leeds team and it could have been more, and again last night they completely outplayed Arsenal but again certain moments of defensive slackness could have come back to bite them.

Their forward players and their top quality attacking play may mean they wont lose these games, but surely a pundit is there to highlight and describe what they see during a ninety minute performance and that’s exactly what Keane did.

The performance by the Liverpool manager after that however, just unnecessary.

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Appearing on Sky‘s Monday Night Football, Keane discussed the problems his former club would have if no additions were brought in before October 5

“if they don’t invest in the next week, then it’s tough days ahead.”

The former United captain has been left unimpressed with his former club’s start to the season, not just defensively but all over the pitch.

“It’s early days but they’ve given up a lot of goals and a lot of chances against Crystal Palace and Brighton so the signs aren’t great. It would be different if it was against Manchester City or Liverpool, with their brilliant attacking players but you’d expect them to have done better against Palace.

Roy Keane also discussed the pressure that current United boss and his former teammate Ole Gunnar Solskjaer may be under if drastic improvements aren’t seen at Old Trafford this season.

“The remit will be different for Ole this year,” Keane told Monday Night Football. “I think last year, it was about getting into the top four – I know they got to three semi-finals – but it will be higher this year.

“They will certainly have to get a bit closer to Liverpool and Manchester City. The points total cannot be the same as it has been over the past three or four years.

“Ole will probably have to get his hands on a trophy. I think the honeymoon period is certainly over for Ole, and the pressure starts to mount now, particularly with the performances like that over the last week or so.”

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