Teenage West Ham defender Declan Rice says the last few days have been like a "dream come true" with his senior club debut at the weekend followed within a day or so by the news that he was to join up with the Ireland squad at Fota Island for three days of training.
“To play on Sunday, to make my Premier League debut, something I’ve always wanted to do since I was a kid, and then to get the call from Martin [O’Neill] to say that I was going to come in and train . . . it’s a dream come true.
“My family are so proud. I just wish my nan and granddad could be here to see it because they are from Cork and this training camp is in Cork, so it would have been lovely, but unfortunately they are not here.”
Rice got the news of the Ireland call-up from a coach at his club and says he was stunned to be joining up with the senior squad: “I literally couldn’t believe it and my dad was just: “What?” Nobody could believe it to be honest.
“I can’t put it into words; I started off last year with the under-17s really well but I never would have believed that I would get this far and get the call to come in for three days. Now that I’m here, though, I’ve just got to cherish it really and enjoy the experience.”
Rice says that his involvement with the Irish underage teams has stood to him at West Ham with first-team manager Slaven Bilic having recently taken him aside to tell him he had had him watched at the European Championship in Belgium. Ireland missed out on a place in the finals but the London-born defender was among the players reckoned to have done well.
His hope now is to force his way into Bilic’s squad after the close season but one way or the other, he is determined to play more first-team football.
“Hopefully I’ll go away again with the first team in pre-season, get some games and impress the manager. I want to start over and see if I can get myself into the first team but if not hopefully go on loan and get some experience.”
