Reidy talks about under-21 international call-up
The sunny climes of Cyprus are a common destination for a summer holiday – but for City’s teenage striker Jamie Reid, it’ll be strictly business when he visits Nicosia whilst on duty with the Northern Ireland under-21s.
Reidy attended a provisional training camp with the international youth set-up in County Antrim last week. From the initial pool, he was picked amongst the 18-man squad to represent the Green and White Army against their Cypriot counterparts – his first taste of international football at any level.
The 18-year-old confessed that he didn’t feel like he had shown his full potential at the training camp, and that the news had caught him off guard when he got the call from club secretary Mike Radford – while he was visiting the Devon County Show!
“I didn’t feel like I’d really played to the best of my ability while I was there,” admitted Jamie. “I thought I’d done okay, but perhaps I was a bit rusty as I haven’t been playing football.
“I’ve been keeping my fitness up, but it’s totally different to being out on a pitch.
“I was at the Devon County Show and Raddy called me. I’d been getting texts saying ‘well done’ from people at the club, and thought maybe they’d only just found out that I’d been called up to the training camp.
“But then when I was called up by Mike, he asked me if I knew I’d been called up and I couldn’t believe it – and I checked my emails and it was on there.”
Reid was also surprised at the crop of talent that the Northern Ireland squad have at their disposal, too. There were plenty of other players involved at the training camp at some of the giants of British football, and he felt that it was a good learning curve to play alongside such talented young individuals.
“They had great facilities there, and the pitches were good. The training camp was close to the hotel too so we didn’t have to travel too far.
“There were lads there from Celtic, Rangers, Hull, Bolton, Nottingham Forest, QPR – the standard was much higher than I thought it was going to be. I don’t know why, but I didn’t expect the players to be quite so good as they were. But that meant it was a really experience for me.
“A lot of them have gone through the age-groups from under-16s right through to the under-21s – and I’m 18, and I’m straight into the under-21s.”
Jamie is due to fly to Nicosia on May 27th and spend two-and-a-half days training before the match takes place on the evening of the May 30th at the Makario Stadium. Northern Ireland are taking an 18-man squad so Reid is guaranteed a position on the bench as a minimum – and he is hoping that he’ll get a chance to feature.
“Hopefully I’ll get a cap,” he continued. “It would be great to have a chance to get on.
“It’s been a big year and I’ve had a bit of success, but it doesn’t stop there. I’ve got to keep working hard and pushing on as an Exeter City player – this is where I want to make my name.”