Zack Elbouzedi hopes Swedish strides with AIK enhance Republic of Ireland dream

Ireland are in the ascendancy and Sweden back-pedalling. Zack Elbouzedi can see Connor Ronan bursting down the left into acres of space and carries on his run into the box and when the low cross is eventually played across the six-yard box, the Dubliner is on hand to tap it in.

It's the fourth goal of a glorious night for Stephen Kenny's Under-21 squad at Tallaght Stadium in late 2019. When the full-time whistle blows on the European qualifier, the Boys In Green have triumphed 4-1 and at a difficult time for the Irish game, it's at least a sign of green shoots.

Almost 20,000 hours have ticked by since all told and with Kenny now leading the Ireland senior set-up, a good chunk of that Under-21 crop have gone onto become full internationals.

While that night against Sweden might not have been ultimately consequential in and of itself, from that starting line-up, Gavin Bazunu, Nathan Collins, Jayson Molumby, Adam Idah and Jason Knight went on to win their first Ireland senior caps under Kenny, while Troy Parrott and Lee O'Connor all made debuts in a November 2019 friendly with the former going onto establish himself as a regular call-up under the current boss.

Elbouzedi has his sights set on following in their footsteps in the green jersey but his performance against the Swedes did prove consequential in another way. It was the key game that eventually led him to embarking on a career with AIK, one of Sweden's leading clubs, signing for the club last July.

"That was probably the reason I'm here to be honest," the 23-year-old winger tells the RTÉ Soccer Podcast over a Zoom call after a training session at his Solna, Stockholm-based club.

Watch the full interview below and you can also listen to the RTÉ Soccer podcast on Apple