Harvey Neville, son of the England Women manager Phil Neville, has been called up by the Republic of Ireland Under-19s for Friday’s friendly against Denmark in Sligo.
The 17-year-old defender, a youth player at Manchester United, qualifies for Ireland through his maternal grandmother. He has never represented the country. Ireland finished fourth in July’s Under-19 European Championship, losing in the semi-finals to Portugal.
Neville joined Manchester United, for whom his father made 263 appearances, in July 2018 after leaving Valencia, where his father was a coach and his uncle Gary was manager. Phil Neville won 59 England caps.
Neville Snr, speaking after England Women’s 1-0 win over Portugal, said: “I’m super proud, he’s a good kid and he’s got a long way to go but he’s very determined. He makes his own decisions, he creates his own pathway and he knows what he wants to do and knows where he’s going.
“He know’s he’s got a long way to go and a lot of improvement to do. I’m proud of him because he wants to do it his own way and he’s not influenced by anyone in the family and he’s always been that way since the day he was born, very determined boy.
“The proud thing is that he works so hard, half the family are Irish, half are English, my wife’s side are all Irish. I look forward to watching him play on Friday against Denmark and I’ll be a super proud dad.”
Other new call-ups to the Ireland squad include the Germany-born forward Conor Noss, an 18-year-old included in Borussia Mönchengladbach’s first-team squad for last weekend’s Bundesliga game against Augsburg.
