“I won’t come back,” the Cork native told the magazine [France’s ‘So Foot]. “I feel nothing for the national team. I don’t feel at all guilty when they lose and when they win I never say ‘oh dear, I could have been there’.
“Even if Ireland had qualified for the World Cup I wouldn’t have gone. People are calling for me to return, but I only ever played five games guys!
“International soccer doesn’t interest me. Going away for three days to play in Andorra – I’ve got better things to do.
“Also, when you’re Irish you know you’ll never win the World Cup. Even when I played for the youth teams, I got fed up at having to go away. Everyone else was from Dublin and I came from Cork. I had to get the train on my own, pay for a taxi, there was no hotel, no food. The organisation was amateurish.”
On Italian Trapattoni, who once met with the player in an attempt to entice him back into the green shirt, he raged on: “I’ve never seen anyone so arrogant.
“I met him once. He was taking calls every two minutes and made me hang around for 15 minutes in his office.”
Mmmm. He’s such a challenge. Rarrr.
Ireland Has A Go – At Everyone (Setanta)
Previously On Broadsheet: Slide Show: Inside Stephen Ireland’s Home