{"id":205390,"date":"2025-12-22T16:50:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T16:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/205390\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T16:50:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T16:50:10","slug":"mayo-celebrates-as-ireland-eligible-youngster-follows-in-dads-footsteps-by-making-manchester-united-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/205390\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayo celebrates as Ireland eligible youngster follows in dad\u2019s footsteps by making Manchester United debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim handed a debut to Jack Fletcher during Manchester United\u2019s 2-1 Premier League defeat to Aston Villa<\/p>\n

16:24, 22 Dec 2025Updated 16:28, 22 Dec 2025<\/p>\n

Jack Fletcher of Manchester United replaces Benjamin Sesko for his first-team debut(Image: Catherine Ivill – AMA\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

A popular Mayo Facebook page was celebrating after Manchester United handed 18-year-old Jack Fletcher his first-team debut at the weekend.<\/p>\n

Fletcher has followed in the footsteps of his dad Darren<\/a> by lining out for the Red Devils<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And although his dad played international football for Scotland<\/a>, he was eligible to play for the Boys in Green<\/a> – and so are his sons, twins Jack and Tyler.<\/p>\n

We are unlikely to see either in the green jersey, however, as they have both represented England<\/a> AND Scotland at underage level.<\/p>\n

Jack even played against Ireland in a Victory Shield game for Scotland in Waterford three years ago, and more recently has lined out for England at under-19 level.<\/p>\n

But that hasn\u2019t stopped \u2018What\u2019s on in Achill\u2019, a Facebook page with 54,000 followers, from celebrating another piece of local sporting heritage.<\/p>\n

A post on Monday read: \u2018Congratulations to Jack Fletcher, the latest Premier League footballer with strong Achill connections. His grandmother, Bridie, is from Dooagh, and Jack is a regular visitor to the island. His twin brother, Tyler is also a professional footballer with Manchester United.<\/p>\n

\u201818 year old Jack made his Premier League debut for Manchester United yesterday, marking an important milestone in his career. He now takes his place in a proud sporting lineage that includes his father Darren Fletcher, a UEFA Champions League Winner and 5 times Premier League Winner, former Ireland international Kevin Kilbane, and Women\u2019s FIFA World Cup winner and Olympic gold medallist Rose Lavelle.<\/p>\n

\u2018His twin brother, Tyler is also a professional footballer with Manchester United.<\/p>\n

\u2018Another remarkable chapter in Achill\u2019s long and varied sporting story.\u2019<\/p>\n

As the Mayo News<\/a> reported, Edinburgh native Darren Fletcher remains proud of his Irish roots, despite winning 80 caps for the country of his birth.<\/p>\n

The newspaper recalled how in 2013, an injured Fletcher attended the All-Ireland final between Mayo and Dublin instead of the Manchester derby.<\/p>\n

It quoted him as saying: \u201cI tried to play a little bit (of Gaelic football) when I used to come over on holidays – not very successfully. I was better when the ball was on the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a really entertaining game and a really great sport to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jack Fletcher came off the bench for Benjamin Sesko in the 73rd minute of United\u2019s defeat to Villa, while Tyler recently signed a professional contract with the club.<\/p>\n

The Fletchers\u2019 achievement was noted on the official Manchester United website, where it was stated that it was just the second time in the club\u2019s history that a father and son represented the club at first-team level.<\/p>\n

\u2018The first history-makers are John Aston Snr and John Aston Jnr,\u2019 it read.<\/p>\n

\u2018The elder figure helped the side win the first trophy under Sir Matt Busby, the 1948 FA Cup, and was also part of a title-winning side four years later. The younger Aston was famously Man of the Match in the 1968 European Cup final win over Benfica.<\/p>\n

\u2018This came the season after he also won the league with Busby’s men.\u2019<\/p>\n

There have been a few other close calls. Robbie Savage was part of the famous \u2018Class of \u201892\u2019, but he did not make a first-team appearance. His son Charlie did.<\/p>\n

Darren Ferguson played for United\u2019s first-team under his dad Alex. There have been other player\/coach combinations, while Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s daughter Karna played for United Women.<\/p>\n

Click here to sign up to our soccer newsletter, bringing you the top stories and biggest headlines from the League of Ireland and beyond<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim handed a debut to Jack Fletcher during Manchester United\u2019s 2-1 Premier League defeat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[107924,11148,61,60,4316,8764,43,57217,107925],"class_list":["post-205390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-darren-fletcher","tag-england-football-team","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-manchester-united-fc","tag-mayo","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-national-football-team","tag-scotland-football-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}