Cristiano Fitzgerald was born in Singapore, lived in London, San Diego and now Portugal, has a French mother and a father from Limerick - but he only ever wanted to pull on a green jersey.
And now that he has signed a four-year deal with Portuguese side Boavista, the teenager hopes that 2023 is the year that he breaks into Jim Crawford’s Under-21 plans.
Fitzgerald (19) has targeted breakthroughs at club and international level this year.
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He signed a long-term deal with the Primeira Liga club just before Christmas, four months after he penned his first professional contract with the side.
And he followed that up by coming off the bench for the first-team in a friendly against French outfit Bordeaux.
A speedy left-winger, he is eager to play competitively before the season is out in order to further his international ambitions.
He told the Irish Daily Star: “I was texting one of my childhood friends that I grew up with in San Diego.
“I was five or six years old at the time when I was telling him that I wanted to play for the Irish national team. He sent me a text saying he remembered me telling him that.”
He realised that dream in 2021 when he was capped twice at Under-19 level.
“For it to be something that I actually achieved was crazy to my friend,” Fitzgerald continued.
“But since I was five-years-old I never talked about France or any other country, I always talked about Ireland. That’s just the way it is.
“My connections to Ireland are big. I saw my grandparents a few weeks ago, they came out here, and my godmother, my father’s sister, and my cousins. I do see them quite often.”
The globetrotting youngster moved from Singapore to London shortly after his first birthday, then it was onto San Diego for seven years, back to Singapore and then to Portugal.
And in between, he spent most summers during his childhood on the family farm in Limerick.
He knows his international dream will only come true if he continues to knock on the first-team door at Boavista.
Former Portugal midfielder Petit promoted him to first-team training last summer when he signed a one-year pro deal - and he was rewarded last month with a long-term contract.
“It was a great feeling. It really meant a lot to me that the club was prepared to invest in my future like that and to trust me with such a long contract,” said Fitzgerald.
He is in a much better place than this time last year, when he suffered a hamstring injury that effectively ended his 2021/22 campaign.
“I do think it is realistic (to push for first-team football this season),” he continued.
“If I keep on improving and keep on showing the coach that he can trust me in an official game, then yes it is realistic.
“I understand that it does take a lot for a coach to trust a young player in a high-stakes game, especially in the middle of the season where we do have a lot at stake.
“We can still push for the European spots. So every game matters. But I do feel like I am making good progress and eventually I’ll get there.”
Fitzgerald added: “The 21s is obviously a goal of mine. I understand that I need to play minutes to be able to achieve that, so that’s why I work hard every day.
“It’s a big, big difference from under-19s football, from playing with teenagers to fully-grown men.
“But I’m adapting well and every day I feel like I am improving and every week I feel like I am a better player than I was the week before.
“Playing against Bordeaux was also a great experience, to play against some good quality players. It was a good match and I felt like I played well. The feedback was positive too.
“Looking back at when I first joined the first-team in September to where we are now, I feel like I have developed a lot in every aspect of my game; not only physically, but mentally, technically and tactically.
“I feel like I have improved a lot.”
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