Ireland boss Heimir Hallgrimsson says Seamus Coleman still has a huge part to play for his country on the pitch.<\/p>\n
The Killybegs played in last night\u2019s scoreless friendly with North Macedonia, a game he brought his children onto the pitch for.<\/p>\n
Many fans thought that might be a sign that Coleman was signing off.<\/p>\n
But Hallgrimsson told reporters after the game that he still sees a place for Seamus in the Republic of Ireland team.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cAbsolutely, and we had a good talk. And from all of us, we want him to be as long, long as he can.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, it\u2019s always going to be his decision and it is connected to what he does at his club, but our desire is to keep him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s really important for this squad, for the young players and just for anyone to play next to him. It will help that player to grow.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, you know, and then obviously he\u2019s just a good player and shows a good performance game after game on an international stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coleman has yet to issue any statement on his future.<\/p>\n
Former Irish international Kenny Cunningham, a pundit for RTE\u2019s during last night\u2019s coverage, said somebody needs to put an arm around Coleman and bring him into the Irish coaching squad if he stops playing.<\/p>\n
He argued: \u201cI don\u2019t know Seamus personally.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels to me like the right time for Seamus to take a step down and give the manager and coaching staff the opportunity to integrate another player into that area of the pitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat could be tomorrow. He could put out a little tweet tomorrow to say, \u2018that\u2019s it, I\u2019m done.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThat wouldn\u2019t surprise me, he\u2019s that type of player.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut as soon as he does that and steps down as a player, he\u2019s got to step straight back in as one of our coaches moving forward as part of our coaching team alongside Paddy McCarthy and John O\u2019Shea.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe makes us better and Heimir\u2019s making the argument why he should be taken on as a coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s brilliant around the place, the players love him, he\u2019s so good one-to-one. He is hugely respected.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis words carry weight. Some of the top coaches, these are the attributes that they have.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be sad to see him go but it would be a big mistake if, as he was walking out the door as a player, we didn\u2019t grab him back by the scruff of the neck and say, \u2018you\u2019re staying here, you\u2019re part of our coaching ticket going further\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Republic of Ireland boss Hallgrimsson wants Coleman to play on was last modified: April 1st, 2026 by Staff Writer<\/p>\n
Tags:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland boss Heimir Hallgrimsson says Seamus Coleman still has a huge part to play for his country on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,37897,43,3404,1611,48229],"class_list":{"0":"post-376148","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-killybegs","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-republic-of-ireland","13":"tag-retirement","14":"tag-seamus-coleman"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376148","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=376148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}