International Career
Delany represented the Irish under-21s as a 17 year old in a triangular Celtic tournament involving Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Delany looked to be Ireland's most promising young goalkeeper after the 1999 World Youth Championship, in which he was part of the "Golden generation" of Irish youth football (which included talent such as Damien Duff, Richard Dunne and Robbie Keane), a side that eventually made it to the quarter finals of the competition. He was also part of the Irish UEFA Under-18 Championship winning squad of 1998, the following year he was eligible again and played a big part in securing a bronze medal in the third place play-off in Sweden. He made 28 appearances for the Republic of Ireland youth teams, including an impressive 21 appearances for the Irish under 21s under bosses Ian Evans and Don Givens.
He later was noticed after making a start to the 2004 season with Port Vale by the then Republic of Ireland manager Brian Kerr who called him into the senior international squad for a training camp before the crucial European championship qualifier against Georgia.
Read more about this topic: Dean Delany
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“From a hasty glance through the various tests I figure it out that I would be classified in Group B, indicating “Low Average Ability,” reserved usually for those just learning to speak the English Language and preparing for a career of holding a spike while another man hits it.”
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