Benfica <\/a>in 2024, and the Department of Education have allowed the FAI to take his exam papers packed tightly in their suitcases ahead of the Saturday flight to Montreal.<\/p>\nWhen Umeh was talking about how he manages his time between football and his final exams, cool, calm and composed was the best way to describe him.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s going good. Of course school is important as well, education, so I just want to get it done and over with now, have it on my profile, it will be good,” he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no clue (about times). You know, I just have to see how it goes. But, I\u2019m ready for the challenges both on and off the field, I just give everything my 100 percent.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be something special, definitely (to play against Canada). I\u2019m trying to keep in the right mindset with school and football. I think I\u2019m managing it well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The striker came on in the 75th minute against Qatar and quickly became a fan favourite, as the crowd roared the moment he strode onto the pitch and every time he got onto the ball.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I got onto the pitch, I wanted to show the fans what I can do, even in small minutes. I think I did that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were on my side. Especially at the start when I touched the ball. It just gave me that race of energy, and I just wanted to show something I can do.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ex-Cork City player didn’t know he’d be making his senior debut on home soil, and only got the go ahead from head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson on the bench. His biggest fans were also in the crowd, brimming with joy as one of their own shines.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had no clue, honestly. When he gave me the go-ahead on the bench, I felt that rush of excitement. Not only for me, I know it\u2019s something my family wanted to see,” he said warmly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey sacrifice a lot, you know, even travelling up here from Cork \u2013 it\u2019s a long drive, you know. This is what they wanted to do for us since we were young.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey brought us to a lot of places. I\u2019m just grateful for everything they\u2019ve done for me. They sacrificed a lot, and they wasted their own time to just give us the time. I\u2019m just grateful to my family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Could we be seeing more of Umeh after these friendlies..? With the Euro’s only two years away, Canada is the perfect opportunity to get his name on the team sheet.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s definitely one of my goals. I\u2019m here right now, I just want to show the gaffer what I can do. Maybe there might be many more in the future. Who knows?<\/p>\n
\u201cBut anytime I\u2019m in here, I just want to show not only the staff, the gaffer, I just want to show even the fans who are coming to watch the games, because they\u2019re here to support us all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Click here to sign up to our sport newsletter, bringing you the top stories and biggest headlines from Ireland and beyond<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"His senior debut on Thursday and the Leaving Cert next Wednesday, Umeh is booked and busy 14:31, 29…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43,57383,57217,79974,79975],"class_list":["post-474001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-football-team","tag-republic-of-ireland-national-football-team","tag-republic-of-ireland-soccer","tag-republic-of-ireland-soccer-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474001","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=474001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Republic](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/94872_2967419.jpg\")
<\/p>\n