It's safe to say over the next week - and possibly longer - that Irish football fans will get a profound first-hand view of the talent levels within our current under-17s crop.
For the first time, the Republic of Ireland will be represented at a FIFA World Cup at that age grade and Colin O'Brien's Boys in Green have arrived in Qatar ahead of Wednesday's opening game against Panama.
That fixture and the remaining Group J games against Uzbekistan and Paraguay will be broadcast live on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player. And if the team goes deeper into the tournament, broadcast details for those subsequent fixtures will be confirmed at a later date.
On this week's RTÉ Soccer Podcast, former Drogheda United, Longford Town and Shamrock Rovers player Graham Gartland shared an excellent insight into the players included in the 21-strong Irish contingent at this upcoming U17 World Cup, a number of whom's development he has overseen at various points as an academy coach at the Hoops.
"If they can play to their strengths, they have a really good chance of going deep into the tournament"@Garts06 delivers a player by player insight into 🇮🇪Ireland's squad for the FIFA U17 World Cup #COYBIG
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) October 30, 2025
📺/🎧 #RTESoccerPodcast: https://t.co/PVuJMsRwKm @RTE2 @RTEplayer pic.twitter.com/qbklg8mbns
But many League of Ireland fans will be more than familiar with a good chunk of the squad, considering how many have already gained first-team opportunities at club level.
Shamrock Rovers striker Michael Noonan is the most prominent of those and although the newly-crowned SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division champions have a Sports Direct FAI Cup still on the agenda next Sunday as well as UEFA Conference League assignments between now and Christmas, Stephen Bradley has reasoned that the 17-year-old will be best served experiencing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity at a World Cup.
His potential is clear, given he's already been capped and scored for the Ireland under-21s.
As ex-Ireland U17, UCD, Shamrock Rovers and Sheffield Wednesday midfielder Paul Corry also noted on the podcast, the degree of men's football that some of this Irish squad have already been exposed to through the prism of the LOI in the post-Brexit era is one of the more noteworthy aspects going into the tournament.
"I think that's the most exciting element of it, is the fact that this talent now is no longer in the UK," he said.
Indeed, 16 of the squad have come through the LOI pyramid, with 12 currently lining out for clubs here.
Fourteen of them have played at least one minute of senior club football whether that's in the Premier Division, First Division, FAI Cup, European league phase games or qualifiers - that's including Grady McDonnell who has featured in Belgium's second-tier Challenger Pro League.
And when you tot up the minutes played within what would be considered to be the adult game, those players have amassed a remarkable 13,392 minutes of action - the equivalent of approximately 148 full games.
But how does that compare to their peers? There are ten other European nations taking part at the U17 World Cup, who unlike Ireland, are not debutants at this age grade.
They are Italy, Portugal, Croatia, Belgium, England, Switzerland, Germany, Czechia, France and Austria.
Of those, only the Belgians have a squad that are in a similar ballpark to the Irish when it comes to minutes at what could be deemed men's professional or semi-pro club level. Restricting it only to their second-tier league and above - plus those based at neighbouring Dutch clubs like Ajax's Jorthy Mokio - and including European games, the Red Devils' U17s have amassed approximately 12,812 minutes.
At the other end of the experience scale are Germany and France with 35 and 73 club minutes respectively if the cut-off point is the countries' third tiers and above.
However, that's where the quality of minutes and the manner in which players are fast-tracked through the age grades needs to be acknowledged, as well as the fact that in the more populous elite nations, the pool of talent is such that making it to the highest level is far more arduous.
For example, if you watched the Champions League highlights on RTÉ from the most recent matchweek, one of the standout young talents on show was Bayern Munich's Lennart Karl. He scored the opener in their 4-0 win over Club Brugge - he would also find the net again a few days later in the Bundesliga at Borussia Monchengladbach.
He is still 17 and eligible to play at the World Cup, but Bayern have opted not to release him given his value to the first team, hence why he is not going to be part of Germany's squad in Qatar.
Meanwhile, England's squad have a total of around 557 minutes within the Football League, Ligue 1, domestic cups and European games with Bradley Burrowes (Aston Villa), Alejandro Gomes Rodríguez (Lyon) and Reggie Walsh (Chelsea) the ones to have had brief cameos in the Premier League, French top flight and European games respectively.
None have been loaned out as of yet so the lowest level any of the English have played at at senior level has been the ones based at Championship clubs.
Among the Italians, only Empoli's Thomas Campaniello has played at Serie A level (three times in his case).
Coming back to Ireland, the aforementioned Noonan has the highest quality of minutes with a total of 2,192 across various competitions.
The vast majority of the 13,392 minutes accured among the Irish contingent however has come in the First Division, and it's a similar case for most of the European nations.
Each case is distinct though. In some countries, the players are part of their reserve, B or under-19 teams which are embedded within the league system unlike here in Ireland currently - many of Austria, Switzerland, Portugal, Czechia and - to an extent - Belgium's squad members would be prime examples who are gaining experience in their second or third tiers.
So one thing is for sure. U17 World Cup debutants they may be, but much of this Ireland squad certainly won't be lacking when it comes to having players seasoned by the vagaries of the men's game whether it be in a top flight or not.
That, of course, does not give an indication as to the developmental ceiling of those players vis a vis their European peers but the next week or two will be a fascinating watch nonetheless.
Approximate minutes played by the 11 European nations
Republic of Ireland: 13,392 (down to First Divison or equivalent)
Belgium: 12,812 (down to second tier Challenger Pro League and equivalent)
Switzerland: 4,751 (Swiss third tier and above)
Austria: 3,046 (Austrian 2.Liga and above)
Czechia: 1,213 (down to Czech second tier)
Portugal: 1,039 (down to third tier)
England: 557 (League 2 and above)
Italy: 492 (down to Serie D)
Croatia: 289 (down to second tier)
France: 73 (top three tiers)
Germany: 35 (top three tiers)
Listen to the RTÉ Soccer podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
