For a relatively major footballing nation, Ireland hasn't had as many successful footballing exports as you might have expected over the years. Tony Cascarino had some success in France on the books of both Marseille and Nancy, while Robbie Keane has had spells in Italy (not successful) and, of course, the United States (much more successful).
John Aldridge banged in 33 goals in just over 60 games in Spain for Real Sociedad and David Connolly was, for a spell at least, the highest paid player in the Netherlands.
But with all that considered, not since Liam Brady has a truly world class Irish player plyed their trade abroad but back in 1995, Ireland's second highest goalscorer of all time came very close to joining the elite list of top Irish internationals who have been on the books of a major European club when Niall Quinn nearly moved from Manchester City to Sporting Lisbon.
Speaking to Newstalk's Team 33, Quinn said:
I suppose it came out of the blue. Really why it came about was because we played Portugal here in the old Landsdowne one night and I had a really good game and virtually the next day an agent had rang and said they wanted to speak to Man City. It took a while but Carlos Quieroz was the Sporting manager at the time and he wanted me to go there.
I went out [to Lisbon], City agreed a fee, everything was fine. I just had a row with Manchester City about money that was owed to me which in the end scuppered the deal.
But everytime I see Sporting Lisbon play, I ask myself the question: What would it have been like? Because we went to the point of where we had our house picked. So we knew where we would be living and where there were schools for our children to go. We'd kind of done everything but turn up. They gave me a week to sort it out but it didn't get sorted out and they signed somebody else and that was the end of it.
Sporting Lisbon have had a couple of Irish players in their squad in the past. Alan Mahon had a brief spell in the Portuguese capital in the 2001/2001 season, while Phil Babb played two seasons in the green and white stripes.
A year after the Lisbon move broke down Quinn moved to the less glamourous climes of Sunderland and forged a stellar partnership with Kevin Phillips in the Premier League. We can only guess how many goals the beanpole striker might have plundered in Portugal.
