{"id":620883,"date":"2026-09-11T00:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T00:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/620883\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T00:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T00:16:09","slug":"shane-longs-son-signs-academy-deal-to-join-his-dads-former-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/620883\/","title":{"rendered":"Shane Long&#8217;s Son Signs Academy Deal To Join His Dad&#8217;s Former Club"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Shane Long&#8217;s son looks set to continue his legacy after putting pen to paper on a deal to join Reading at Academy level.<\/p>\n<p>Shane got his big break in professional football with the English club at a time where they boasted a strong Irish contingent, also featuring Kevin Doyle as well as brother Stephen and Noel Hunt.<\/p>\n<p>\n        Recommended\n    <\/p>\n<p>                        <a :href=\"https:\/\/www.balls.ie\/football\/article.url\" :title=\"article.title\" :aria-label=\"article.title\" class=\"not-prose col-span-2 md:col-span-1 ga-event\" data-category=\"Recommended Article Tracker\" data-action=\"click\" :data-label=\"https:\/\/www.balls.ie\/football\/article.url\" :data-value=\"https:\/\/www.balls.ie\/football\/article.url\"><\/p>\n<p>                                            <img class=\"aspect-video\" width=\"130\" height=\"73\" :src=\"https:\/\/www.balls.ie\/football\/article.image\" :alt=\"'Image for: ' + article.title\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                        <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Long enjoyed a lengthy Premier League career, scoring some vital goals for the likes of Reading, West Brom and Southampton while he was a regular face in the Irish starting XI.<\/p>\n<p>He would return to Reading for one final season before retiring from professional football in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Shane Long&#8217;s son signs for Reading academy<\/p>\n<p>However, Shane&#8217;s son Jax will follow in his father&#8217;s footsteps after signing a deal to join the club&#8217;s academy.<\/p>\n<p>Shane&#8217;s wife Kayleah took to social media to share news of her son&#8217;s big move to a club that played such a defining part in Shane&#8217;s career.<\/p>\n<p>She wrote: &#8220;There was always only one academy that Shane would allow Jax to sign for, and of course it was where he started his career, Reading FC!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Shane Long\u2019s lad in the <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/ReadingFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">#ReadingFC<\/a> academy \ud83d\udc40\ud83d\udc4f\ud83c\udffb <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/WQBMoVmXLk\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/WQBMoVmXLk<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Erik O\ud83c\uddf8\ud83c\uddea (@Erik_O86) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Erik_O86\/status\/2097567576574292065?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">September 9, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Long <a href=\"https:\/\/www.balls.ie\/football\/shane-long-ireland-england-declan-rice-610507\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">spoke eloquently in the past<\/a> on how he will not stand in the way of his son potentially playing for England instead of Ireland, if the opportunity ever presents itself down the line.<\/p>\n<p>If he is anything like the player his father was he is sure to give defenders serious trouble on the pitch, that is for sure.<\/p>\n<p>SEE ALSO: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.balls.ie\/football\/ian-harte-northern-ireland-better-republic-662941\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ian Harte Claims Northern Ireland Has &#8216;Taken Over&#8217; From Republic As Top Nation<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shane Long&#8217;s son looks set to continue his legacy after putting pen to paper on a deal to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,263659,112],"class_list":["post-620883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-shane-long","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620883","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=620883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}