Starting XI Decades

Following the recent announcement of Heimir Hallgrímsson's first squad of 2025, I noticed that the number of players born after the turn of the millennium in 2000 has risen to 12 - more than half of the 23 players named in the initial squad, with 2003-born Andrew Moran replacing 2000-born Will Smallbone in the build up to the play off against Bulgaria.

That got me thinking - how far are we from the first Irish starting XI populated exclusively with players born after Y2K had stopped being something the world was worried about - and what were the first teams named with players born after the first day of the last few decades?

Starting with the first game where every starting player was born in the 1960s, "the decade of culture and counter culture", (or later) it did not occur until 34 years after 1st January 1960, in a friendly in March 1994 against Russia. This is mainly due to players like David O'Leary(born May 1958), Kevin Moran(b. April 1956), and Paul McGrath(b. December 1959) who were squad mainstays right up until the mid-90's. On that day in 1994, the lineup was made up of Packie Bonner(May 1960), Ronnie Whelan Jnr(September 1961), Tony Cascarino(September 1962), Liam O'Brien(September 1964), Eddie McGoldrick(April 1965), David Kelly(November 1965), Alan McLoughlin(April 1967), Brian Carey(May 1968), Phil Babb(November 1970), Jason McAteer(June 1971), and Gary Kelly(July 1974) - with Babb, Kelly, and McAteer all making their debuts.

Moving on to players born in the 1970s, "the pivot of change", it only took four years to go from a team of sixties-born players to one with players born at least five and a half months after the first moon landing, when Jeff Kenna(August 1970), Kenny Cunningham(June 1971), Mark Kinsella(August 1972), Gary Breen(December 1973), Gary Kelly(July 1974), Lee Carsley(February 1974), Gareth Farrelly(August 1975), Shay Given(April 1976), David Connolly(June 1977), Alan Maybury(August 1978), and Damien Duff(March 1979) took to the pitch against the Czech Republic in March 1998. Duff, Kinsella, and Maybury were all making their international debuts, with Robbie Keane, Rory Delap, and Graham Kavanagh joining them as debutants from the bench.

More than ten years would pass before the first Ireland team of early millennials would take to the pitch, when Limerick's Thomond Park hosted a friendly against South Africa in September 2009. Giovanni Trapattoni named Keith Andrews(September 1980), Liam Lawrence(December 1981), Caleb Folan(October 1982), Stephen Kelly(September 1983), Kevin Doyle(September 1983), Keiren Westwood(October 1984), Sean St Ledger(December 1984), Paul McShane(January 1986), Andy Keogh(May 1986), Darron Gibson(October 1987), and Eddie Nolan(August 1988) in the team that faced the Bafana Bafana, with Lawrence scoring his first goal for the Boys in Green.

Twelve years later, in October 2021, Ireland faced Qatar in a friendly to mark the centenary of the FAI, and Stephen Kenny named the first team with players born after the Cold War. Enda Stevens(July 1990), Conor Hourihane(February 1991), Shane Duffy(January 1992), Matt Doherty(January 1992), John Egan(October 1992), Jeff Hendrick(January 1992), Callum Robinson(February 1995), Jamie McGrath(September 1996), Chiedozie Ogbene(May 1997), Caoimhin Kelleher(November 1998), and Andrew Omobamidele(June 2002), with Robinson marking the occasion with a hat trick.

What does all this point to in regards the first Ireland XI of players born after 19 turned to 20? Personally, I think it'll be within the next two years, possibly in a friendly between qualification campaigns. It's been almost two years since six players born this century - Will Smallbone(February 2000), Michael Obafemi(July 2000), Nathan Collins(April 2001), Jason Knight(February 2001), Gavin Bazunu(February 2002), and Evan Ferguson(October 2004) - lined out against Gibraltar in June 2023, and since then no more than five players have ever been named in a starting XI - v Greece in October 2023 and v Switzerland in March 2024. A reasonably strong team of players born in the early 00s could be named from the recent squad, but would have an average age of around 23 years of age, a little inexperienced in international standards.