World Cup is a step on a journey for Brody Lee

Roscrea youngster and the Republic of Ireland start their World Under 17 Cup campaign today (Wednesday) against Panama in Qatar.

By Stephen Barry

How about this for a weekend? On Saturday, Roscrea’s Brody Lee will be part of the Republic of Ireland squad facing Uzbekistan in the second game of their World Cup campaign.

The following afternoon, the Cork City winger will find a quiet corner of their Qatari hotel to watch his club teammates contest the FAI Cup final. There’ll be no shortage of banter viewing that Aviva Stadium showpiece event alongside his international colleagues from Shamrock Rovers.

It’s been quite a journey for Lee since his days starting off with Roscrea United and coming through the ranks at Killavilla United. The 17-year-old acknowledges the role of so many locals to help him reach the world stage.

“I've been watching Ireland games since I'm a young child and I've always wanted to play for my country. I couldn't be prouder. It's a great honour,” says Lee.

“It's a really good opportunity. And representing my family, my town, and my club is really nice. Words can't explain it.

“Everyone in the community and my family, they've all been very good to me since this journey started. I couldn’t thank all of them enough.”

Lee started on the road from Roscrea to the World Cup when taking up football at the age of six. Ever since then, he hasn’t so much been following a master plan as seeing every step fall into place.

His dad, Shane, was his first coach before making the switch across town to Killavilla United. In 2020, he took the leap into the Dublin District Schoolboys’ League with Belvedere, who have developed Ireland internationals such as Wes Hoolahan, Matt Doherty, and Troy Parrott.

“Going to Dublin, I wasn't really sure what to expect. Obviously, I was only a young kid, and I went up there without being overconfident,” reflects Lee.

“I knew it would be good quality football, but I played with North Tipp before I went up, and that gave me a decent standard of football. I was ready for the level up there.

“I was making it very soon in the DDSL. Me and my dad were thinking about it, and we said, ‘We can actually go at this here.’ We were just confident in ourselves, confident in each other, and we pushed on. It’s fallen into place nicely, but we have to keep going now and see what happens.”

Lee signed with Shamrock Rovers in 2022, and later that year scored on his international debut at U15 level.

With the League of Ireland champions, Lee encountered many of his current boys in green teammates, such as Michael Noonan, who became the Europa Conference League’s youngest-ever goal scorer in February, and Victor Ozhianvuna, who last month signed a pre-contact to join Arsenal for a guaranteed fee in the region of €2m.

After securing World Cup qualification, Lee moved to Cork City in July, where he made his debut in a friendly against Glasgow Celtic attended by 26,580 fans at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

In his short spell so far on Leeside, the exciting attacker has already been on the field for two joyous pitch invasions – after that Celtic game and the 3-0 FAI Cup semi-final victory over St Patrick’s Athletic.

“I've liked Celtic since I was a child, and that crowd was the biggest I've ever played in front of, so it was just unbelievable for me,” he recalls.

“I was only 16 at the time, so it was a great experience.

“The Cup semi-final was unbelievable. The joy I had that night, I was just so proud of the team.

“It was a no-brainer to change over to Cork. (Head of Academy) Liam Kearney and all the coaching staff have been very positive and very professional with me. I'm very happy with my move so far and how it's worked out.”

He’s equally grateful to manager Ger Nash for entrusting him with a first Premier Division start against Drogheda United just over a fortnight ago. It was another milestone achieved before flying out to Qatar on Ireland duty.

Their group-stage campaign begins against Panama on Wednesday (12.30pm Irish time), followed by fixtures against Uzbekistan on Saturday (3.45pm) and Paraguay on Tuesday (1.30pm). Each game will be broadcast live on RTÉ2.

“We have a lot of grit in the team. That's what pulled us through qualification,” says Lee. “We have quality as well, so we all believe in each other, and we all believe that we can do it.

“We're going to the World Cup, it's the biggest stage, and hopefully we can give it a rattle.”