The Northern Ireland Junior national football team, commonly referred to as Northern Ireland Juniors, represents

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

in international

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

matches for teams selected outside national professional leagues. Originally selected on an all-Ireland basis, the team is now limited to selecting players appearing in intermediate and junior leagues within Northern Ireland. A number of players have graduated from the Junior international side to the senior international side, notably Norman Uprichard and Dick Keith who played at the

1958 World Cup The 1958 FIFA World Cup was the sixth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Sweden from 8 to 29 June 1958. It was the first FIFA World Cup to be played in a Nordic country. Brazil be ...

. The most recent player to graduate to the senior team was

Stuart Dallas Stuart Dallas (born 19 April 1991) is a Northern Irish professional Association football, footballer who plays for Premier League club Leeds United F.C., Leeds United and the Northern Ireland national football team, Northern Ireland national team ...

History

Ireland Juniors played their first representative match against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

in 1890. The Scots became the primary opponents for Ireland Juniors through to the 1990s with only occasional matches against Wales and the Republic of Ireland for variety.

Today

The main competition for junior level national teams in Europe is the UEFA Regions Cup. Northern Ireland Juniors first entered in 2000 but a change in the rules mean that since 2007 the national team has been unable to enter and a regional select has entered in its stead. Since this change the Eastern Region have been the representatives five times and the Western Region once having won a

play-off The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

. In addition Northern Ireland Juniors regularly compete in the International Quadrangular Tournament along with

, the Republic of Ireland and the

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. Northern Ireland have won this competition three times, in 1995, 1996 and 2017.

Current squad

The following players were selected for the

Junior International Quadrangular Tournament The Junior International Quadrangular Tournament (most recently known as the Umbro Trophy for sponsorship reasons) is a football tournament held on an irregular basis between junior representative teams from Northern Ireland, the Republic of Irela ...

held in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

from 11–14 October 2017.

Competition Records

UEFA Regions' Cup

Since 2007, Northern Ireland has been represented by the winner of a play-off between the Eastern Region¹ and Western Region².

Quadrangular Tournament

¹ A Mid Ulster side represented Northern Ireland

References

{{Football in Northern Ireland Juniors UEFA Regions' Cup