WHATEVER else Chiedozie Ogbene achieves in his career, he’ll be held up as shining example of where hard work and a burning ambition can lead you.
Ireland’s first African-born senior international footballer has backed himself at every juncture and is now playing his trade in the lofty environs of the English Premier League with newly promoted Luton Town.
Ogbene’s family landed in Ireland in 2005 even though his father had job offers in Florida when they decided to up sticks and leave their homeland.
Nigeria's loss has been Ireland's gain.
A hugely talented Gaelic footballer with Nemo Rangers in his teenage years, it’s only a few short years ago he couldn’t get a game for Cork City and went to Limerick to get some game-time.
In 2018, he gained a cross-channel move to Brentford and after a couple of stopovers at Exeter and Rotherham United, the 26-year-old Nigerian is playing in one of the best leagues in the world.
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Wearing a beaming smile when he meets the Irish media, Ogbene has become one of the most popular members of Stephen Kenny’s squad.
So, is he surprised by where he finds himself having won a senior international call-up two years ago and been a regular ever since?
“I didn’t think my international career would take off as quickly as it did,” he said.
“I was fortunate to have Keith Andrews working with me every day, players took me in. Who would have thought two years later I’d be in the Premier League?
“That’s what gives me confidence. Someone asked me is Premier League the ceiling.
“I’ve told myself, ‘I’ve got here. Now I’ve got to improve again to be better.’ I’m 26. I’m hoping I’ll be sitting here in two years’ time at 28 encouraging the young lads and saying, “Look at my journey, look where I’ve come.’
“I’m still ambitious but I don’t take this for granted. I still get butterflies every time I come here [to the Ireland set-up].”
He’s yet to start a game in the Premier League this season but was thrust from the bench in their trio of defeats to Brighton, Chelsea and West Ham so far – but he’s hoping a good international window against France and Holland will see him force his way into Luton’s starting line-up upon his return.
“I'll be honest with you, I did not have any idea of Luton Town coming in for me,” the player said.
“I had some options in the Championship and one Premier League team watching me from a distance. After Luton Town got promoted, they gave me a phone call and said they would like to have me on board as my attributes and skill is something they thrive on, my upbringing and the way I have developed my career is the personnel they want at the club.
“It was a quick decision from me because to get the opportunity to play in the Premier League, I was never going to say no. The manager [Rob Edwards] sold me this idea of how we're going to play, and it suited me down to the ground and a decision I would have said ‘yes’ to many times.”
And just as he took to international football like a duck to water, he’s unfazed by the challenge of making his way in the Premier League.
“I think from watching at a distance, there is a lot of spaces,” he explained. “The Premier League is very structural and the full-backs are forward thinking.
“If we can just get that right tweak in terms of knowing when to press in transition, we can hurt teams because we have a very athletic team and if we can catch teams on the counter-attack, we could really thrive in that league.”
Ruled out of the last window against Greece and Gibraltar due to hamstring trouble, Ogbene’s pace and unpredictability were sorely missed, in Athens in particular.
He won man-of-the-match in the corresponding fixture with France back in March and gave their left back Theo Hernandez of AC Milan his fill of it.
Kenny will be wanting more of the same from his livewire striker in Paris on Thursday night as the Irish try to put themselves back in the qualification frame for next summer’s European Championships in Germany.
“We watched clips of them. If we can overload the full-back, that gives us a chance as one of the best players in the world is playing on the left side [Kylian Mbappe], and the full-back has to do double running for him, so I saw that as an effective way, if we can overload them.”
Ogbene added: “We will show France respect but not too much respect. They are one of the best teams in the world but we need to go out there and raise the intensity, no matter who you play against.
“If you raise the intensity it will be a difficult night for anybody, That's what we try and to, play a high intensity game, frustrate them a bit. It really worked in our favour [in March] and we were unfortunate to give away the long range shot.
“But, overall, the performance was good. We just need to tweak it and hopefully the fortune will fall in our favour and we can go a goal up.”