Transition year student Carla McManus has been called up to the Ireland U17 soccer squad for their next encounter against Switzerland in Spain. It is not a new experience for the talented player – Carla played her first international match against Wales last April 2016 in Wales with the U16 squad, having been scouted the previous June at the Gaynor Cup in Limerick. At the 2016 Gaynor Cup Carla secured the honour of top goal scorer having scored a very impressive thirteen goals.
She travelled with the Ireland team to Hungary in May 2016 for the round robin tournament. They won their first match 2-0 against Slovakia with Carla scoring her first international goal in the last few minutes of the game. They went on to beat the other teams involved to win the tournament, Carla scoring her second international goal on the final day against Hungary.
In August, Carla was called up to the U17 Republic of Ireland squad after her performance in Hungary. They travelled to Finland for friendlies in preparation for the UEFA Elite Qualifiers which took place in Cork in October 2016. In this tournament Carla scored 5 international goals helping Ireland secure top spot in this group after playing Iceland, Belarus and the Faroe Islands. She had a hat trick against the Faroe Islands and was top goal scorer out of all the countries in that tournament.
Carla played recently against the senior Australian team in the AUL Complex in Dublin and scored a goal at this match with Ireland securing a draw against a tougher, older Australian squad.
On 13 February Carla will travel with the squad to Spain for friendly matches against Switzerland. Then in March she will travel to Belgrade and it is the outcome of these matches that will decide who will progress to the UEFA finals in the Czech Republic in May 2017.
A very bright future awaits this exceptional forward. We wish her and the team all the best in the tournament.