Cork City's Mark O'Mahony is named the FAI U17 player of the year

CORK CITY striker Mark O’Mahony has been named the FAI’s U17 Men’s International Player of the Year for 2022.

In his first year of international football, the Cork native became a key figure for Colin O’Brien’s Republic of Ireland MU17 side as he scored six goals in 10 appearances at that level.

To date, O’Mahony has scored a total of 14 goals in 16 international appearances as he has also represented the Irish U18s and the U19s - scoring a hat-trick for the latter against Gibraltar in September.

The former Carrigaline United forward signed his first professional contract with Cork City back in January and he quickly became a key member of the U19 squad before he then made his first team debut as a substitute away to Longford Town in March.

And speaking after the winners of the 32nd FAI International Awards were announced recently, Head of Cork City Academy Liam Kearney insisted that O’Mahony ‘thoroughly deserved’ his prize for the work he has done for club and country.

“We’re delighted to see Mark win this award, he thoroughly deserves it,” said Kearney.

“Mark has been outstanding for his club and country over the last couple of years. His goal record speaks for itself and he epitomises everything good within our Academy at Cork City.” Cork City manager Colin Healy was also keen to praise the young striker, who played his part in helping the senior squad land the first-division title.

“Mark is a player who has come through our Academy. He has done very well from Under 15s right through to this season when he made his first-team debut.

“This award is a testament to the hard work he has put in and his performances at international level,” added Healy.

Fellow Corkman David Meyler has seen O’Mahony’s performance firsthand due to his involvement with the Ireland U17s as a coach and he believes the hitman has a very bright future ahead of him.

“Mark has done extremely well,” Meyler told the Echo.

“He was involved with myself and Colin O’Brien, who is the head coach with the 17s last year.

“Mark has been excellent for us, his goals-to-game ratio was phenomenal. He scored on every trip we went on and in every camp we had.

“He then broke into the U18 squad as well which we were overseeing and he scored numerous goals there as well.

“It was great to see him get bits and pieces with the Cork City first team which will prove to be great for his development.

“Mark is a tremendous lad, he works extremely hard and he has got a great attitude so he is one of those lads I will be watching closely and I hope he does really well.”