{"id":627634,"date":"2026-09-17T16:12:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T16:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/627634\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T16:12:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T16:12:16","slug":"donegal-duo-feature-for-republic-of-ireland-u16s-in-defeat-to-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/627634\/","title":{"rendered":"Donegal duo feature for Republic of Ireland U16s in defeat to France"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two Donegal teenage soccer stars featured for the Republic of Ireland U16 side in a 2-1 defeat to France in Clairefontaine this morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Dungloe&#8217;s Charlie Bonner and Milford&#8217;s Jake Morgan both featured in the international friendly against a formidable French outfit.<\/p>\n<p>Bonner, plays for the Finn Harps Academy, and was part of the matchday squad for Patrick McEleney&#8217;s 1st team against Longford Town at the beginning of August.<\/p>\n<p>Former Keadue Rovers player Bonner has been capped at U15 level for Ireland, and played in international fixtures against Holland and Portugal.<\/p>\n<p>Morgan, is a former Harps and Derry City player, who now plays for Coleraine FC.<\/p>\n<p>Both players started this morning&#8217;s fixture, with Morgan playing the entire 90 minutes in what was a narrow 2-1 defeat.<\/p>\n<p>Ireland had equalised through captain Ronan Keating, but France secured the winner in the second-half.<\/p>\n<p>It was a big improvement on Tuesday&#8217;s fixture between the two teams, with France winning 4-0 comprehensively.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-sans font-semibold text-xl md:text-[30px] leading-9 text-primary w-full\">\n        You may also be interested in\n    <\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.donegaldaily.com\/news\/inaugural-finn-valley-science-festival-to-put-neurodivergent-community-at-its-heart-650134\" class=\"block w-2\/5 shrink-0\" aria-label=\"Inaugural Finn Valley Science Festival to put neurodivergent community at its 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src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/all-welcome-to-this-evening-039-s-recovery-in-action-event-in-letterkenny.jpg\" class=\"max-w-full w-full h-full object-contain relative z-10\" width=\"150\" height=\"84\"  alt=\"All welcome to this evening's recovery in action event in Letterkenny\" \/><\/p>\n<p>            <\/a><\/p>\n<p>A first-half hat-trick from Olympique de Marseille star Edson Mbengui did the damage.<\/p>\n<p>Morgan was an unused substitute in that clash on Tuesday, whilst Bonner again started, before he was withdrawn just after the hour mark.<\/p>\n<p>The Ireland U16 team is managed by former Dundee United and Drogheda United player Graham Gartland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two Donegal teenage soccer stars featured for the Republic of Ireland U16 side in a 2-1 defeat to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1485,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-627634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-donegal","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627634","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=627634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}