{"id":586137,"date":"2026-08-07T16:06:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T16:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/586137\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T16:06:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T16:06:13","slug":"owen-elding-hopes-conference-league-mission-boosts-him-into-ireland-squad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/586137\/","title":{"rendered":"Owen Elding hopes Conference League mission boosts him into Ireland squad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Owen Elding is hopeful of being included in the Republic of Ireland squad for their Nations League matches in the autumn after his blistering form for Hibernian.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The England-born 20-year-old is still waiting to receive his Irish passport after going through a protracted citizenship process.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Elding <a href=\"https:\/\/extra.ie\/2026\/05\/07\/sport\/owen-elding-committed-ireland\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">trained with Heimir Hallgrimsson\u2019s team<\/a> during their camp at the end of last season in May and is hopeful of earning a first proper call-up next month for their Nations League matches against Kosovo, <a href=\"https:\/\/businessplus.ie\/business-insights\/ireland-israel-neutral-venue-fai\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Israel<\/a> and Austria.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2269313255.jpg\" alt=\"owen elding\" class=\"wp-image-1768181\"  \/>Owen Elding of Hibs. Pic: Malcolm Mackenzie\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018Obviously, I\u2019m just waiting on the passport to come now, so, yeah, we\u2019re nearly there,\u2019 he said ahead of the first leg of Hibs\u2019 Conference League third qualifying round tie at home to North Macedonian side Shkendija.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018But obviously, it\u2019s only what I do with club football that will determine if I\u2019m in those squads or not. Starting again tomorrow, I need to put in a good performance and keep pushing on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018Getting that experience in the first-team international set-up in the summer was massive. Just being around the boys for the camp \u2013 I obviously wasn\u2019t able to play the games (against Qatar and Canada) \u2013 I was just getting that taste and seeing what it\u2019s like, and it\u2019s something I want to be a part of.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/3470428.jpg\" alt=\"Owen Elding\" class=\"wp-image-1799085\"  \/>Owen Elding of Republic of Ireland before the international friendly match between Republic of Ireland and Qatar at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Pic: Stephen McCarthy\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Elding got his first taste of European football in the last round against Kosovan side Malisheva, where he scored in the second leg of Hibs\u2019 4-3 aggregate triumph.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The former Sligo Rovers forward is eager to help his team reach the group stage for the first time, with Swedish giants IFK Gothenburg or former Belgian champions Gent awaiting them in the play-off round if they get past Shkendija.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2018Obviously, the biggest stage you can play in club football is the European stage,\u2019 Owen Elding said. \u2018Everyone dreams as a kid to play in those competitions and tomorrow\u2019s the next step towards where we want to be.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Owen Elding is hopeful of being included in the Republic of Ireland squad for their Nations League matches&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-586137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586137","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=586137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}