Richard Dunne is one of the greatest defenders this country has ever produced. A stalwart and regular in the heart of the Irish defence for over a decade, Dunne is a player which Irish fans will hold close to their hearts for quite some time.
The former Manchester City defender also put in the one of the bravest performances ever seen in an Ireland shirt back in 2011 in the scoreless draw against Russia during European qualifying campaign.
Now it seems that the next generation of Dunne defenders is here, Richard's son Tayo.
Tayo Dunne received his first international call-up earlier today and will be part of a high-flying Ireland U15 side who take part in the Torneo Delle Nazioni tournament in Italy next week.
The squad is made up with 18 players currently operating in League of Ireland academies, with Tayo Dunne being one of just four players based abroad.
Apart from Tayo, who's a defender just like his dad, the other members of the squad who play away from the League of Ireland are Blackburn's Rory Finneran, Vancouver Whitecaps' Grady McDonnell and Ramon Martos of Almeria.
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Richard Dunne on the advantages of playing in Europe
Richard and the rest of his family moved to Monaco after he hung up his boots back in 2015. Tayo Dunne is currently playing with the French amateur club US Cap d'Ail Monaco, whose senior side play in the 8th tier of French football.
Even before Brexit meant promising teenage Irish footballers could no go to England, Richard Dunne didn't fancy putting his own son through the traditional route.
Back in 1994, Dunne left Home Farm for Everton where he later made his professional debut for the club, but the 80-times capped Ireland defender wasn't keen on his son following in his exact footsteps.
Speaking to the media back in 2017, when Tayo was just eight-years-old, Dunne said:
Players aren’t coming through Academies at all anymore
From the age of five, they’re all doing the same training and the search is to identify one for the first-team. It’s like a factory and box-ticking exercise.
Everton have their kids training four days per week and playing a match on a Saturday.
Those include one-on-one sessions, yoga, strength and conditioning and then hand coordination. And these were U9s. That’s mad stuff.
Dunne also spoke about the big differences in academies across Europe compared to the Premier League.
I've been around to a few Academies and there’s no desire to build a team and let the kids enjoy themselves. England’s senior team is like a factory-produced side; they’re all pretty similar in terms of how they play. There are no standout players or character about the side. And it doesn’t like look it’s changing. They keep going with the same system.
Tayo is eight now and plays for Monaco.
They just train on a Wednesday and play their match on a Saturday. The rest of the time he plays with his friends outside on the road. Kids learn as much from playing six hours in the field than spending six hours throughout the week at club sessions trying to get fit. Kids develop at different paces and Monaco get that. People think because they’re a great club that they must have this big Academy but they don’t even have one.
Six years on from Dunne's comments about the English academies, it seems he wasn't far off considering the success of Irish wonderkids operating around Europe.
Interestingly, 17 of Tayo's Ireland teammates are part of the LOI Academy.
Richard Dunne has a huge interest in the development of young footballers, and is involved in the FMC Elite Football Academy, which has bases in Monaco and England.
Whether this route suits Tayo for the long run is yet to be known, but if he can achieve even a quarter of the career his father did, then he's bound to have a successful journey is football.
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