Manchester City of England’s Nigerian-born youth team goalkeeper, Gavin Okeroghene Bazunu has received an official invitation to Republic of Ireland’s senior national team for their upcoming international matches, megasportsarena.com reports.
This comes following a string of top notch performances since the 19-year-old shot-stopper joined The Citizens from Shamrock Rovers in 2019, but is this season spending time on loan in the lower division at Rochdale.
However, the youngster, who made his debut for Shamrock in June 2018 at the age of 16 and his first starred for Man City’s under-18 side on February 9, 2019 against Stoke City, has been deemed good enough for Iceland’s camp at the start of the 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign.
This provides another lift for Bazunu, who was named in City’s UEFA Champions League squad for a round of 16 second leg match against Real Madrid of Spain in August 2020, after which he signed a contract extension until 2024.
He then joined League One side, Rochdale on a season-long loan deal later that month, after which he started and kept a clean sheet on his debut on September 5, 2020 in a 1-0 EFL Cup win away to Huddersfield Town and made his first league appearance the following week in a 3–1 defeat at Swindon Town.
Bazunu has now been called up by Ireland for World Cup qualifiers against Serbia and Luxembourg, with coach of the Irish side, Stephen Kenny naming the lad among four goalkeepers in his squad.
The list includes uncapped Liverpool keeper, Caoimhin Kelleher, who is currently working his way back from abdominal tear, thereby suggesting that Bazunu could be in line for a senior debut in Belgrade on March 24.
