Madison McGuane has a "huge future ahead of her", according to Shelbourne's Rachel Graham, who also believes the Treaty United starlet will be among the up-and-coming players that will benefit if a Republic of Ireland women's under-21 grade is introduced.
Shelbourne kicked off their SSE Airtricity Women's Premier Division season with a 2-0 win over Limerick side Treaty at Tolka Park on Saturday.
While Treaty might have lost, it was no surprise that McGuane stood out for them across her 90 minutes on the pitch.
The 16-year-old first featured for Treaty senior side in March 2025 and in the year since, former Ireland international Graham had already highlighted her as one to watch on the RTÉ Soccer Podcast.
And on Saturday, Graham came up directly against her in the midfield battle during the final 20 minutes after coming on as a sub for Shels.
And based on that, the first-hand evidence continues to stack up that McGuane has a very bright future at club and international level.
"It's probably not too far away to be honest, she was excellent again against us," she said on this week's podcast episode.
Listen to the RTÉ Soccer podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
"She's only 16-years-of-age. It's unbelievable how good she is. She played centre-mid and all of their good play was coming through her.
"She really is a special talent and definitely someone who has a huge future ahead of her.
"I'd imagine a lot of clubs will be interested in her. We tried to sign her. But she's just too young at the moment I think to be moving away from home.
"Maybe in the summer, you never know, but definitely she has a huge future ahead of her."
In recent years, the need for an Ireland under-23 side to be introduced has been oft discussed, given that no age grade side currently exists to bridge the gap between under-19s and the senior team.
However, UEFA are planning to bring in a new tier of competition which is likely to be at under-21s level.
At last week's FAI strategy briefing for the 2026-29 period, Irish football's governing body's CEO David Courell said they were keen to among the first national associations to sign up when it is introduced.
It will be beneficial to McGuane and others, according to Graham.
"It will be 21s, that's the way UEFA are going," she said.
"It is for the likes of her and there are other young players around the league as well that will do a jump from 19s to seniors and it is huge.
"It's been spoke quite about a lot lately and it is coming down the road. It's just how quickly we can get it in.
"But it is crucial for these young players who are such high potential but are they missing out on two to three years where they could play international football?
"It is coming definitely, it's just obviously the sooner the better."
Watch Liverpool v Galatasaray in the Champions League on Wednesday from 7.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on the RTÉ News app and on rte.ie/sport
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
