Michael Noonan of St Patrick’s Athletic
Highly-rated Ireland Under-17 striker Michael Noonan will travel to Manchester City this weekend to finalise a move to the Premier League giants.
While the exact details of the deal are yet to be revealed – with Brexit rules preventing Irish players signing for UK clubs until they turn 18 – the Irish Independent understands that the St Patrick’s Athletic talent (16) is set to sign a pre-contract agreement with the Premier League champions.
The Dubliner, whose progress has been closely tracked by City and other big clubs, made his league debut for the Saints against Bohemians earlier this month and also scored three goals to help the Inchicore side win the Leinster Senior Cup a fortnight ago at Richmond Park.
It won’t be the first time that Manchester City have turned to the League of Ireland for up and coming players, as Ireland goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu signed for the eight-time Premier League winners in 2018 for a fee of €400,000.
Noonan joined St Pats’ Under-14 side from Ballyoulster United in 2022 before progressing through the club’s U-15, U-17 and U-20 sides.
As well as his league debut, he made four senior appearances in this year’s triumphant Leinster Senior Cup campaign.
Noonan was also on the bench under Stephen Kenny for their Conference League play-off against Istanbul Basaksehir in August.
The centre-forward has also been capped for Ireland at U-17, U-16 and U-15 levels, and will link up again with Colin O’Brien’s U-17s next week ahead of their three upcoming European Championship qualifiers against Lithuania, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
