Ryan Brobbel has touched down in Belfast and tonight will represent The New Saints in Europe once again when they take on Glentoran in the UEFA Europa Conference League.
A stalwart for the Oswestry club, Brobbel is familiar to Northern Ireland after featuring for the youth teams of the national side from under 17 to under 21 level.
However, the route to playing for Northern Ireland came when Brobbel was playing youth tournaments for Middlesbrough as the Hartlepool-born player explained.
“When I was at Middlesbrough as a youth player, we did a few youth tournaments around the country and there were Northern Ireland scouts there”, added Brobbel.
“They asked our manager at the time at under 15’s if there were any players that could represent Northern Ireland whether there was a grandparent or a parent.
“It just so happened that I had a grandparent that was Northern Irish, so I had a trial, and it went from there.
Embed from Getty ImagesBrobbel will come up against an old teammate, Luke McCullough on Thursday evening who Brobbel remembers from when he played in the Northern Ireland youth teams.
He said, “Luke was our centre half when I was there from Under-18 to Under-21s, he was at Manchester United and Doncaster at the time.”
The Saints player is hopeful of a good result over the two legs against the Glens and is positive heading into the Conference League tie.
The 28-year-old said, “I’m confident for a good result. We don’t know too much about them.
“I know they have got a few decent players on some of the clips that we have seen but hopefully we will beat them.”
It will be the first time since the 23rd of July in 2019 when TNS played Copenhagen in the second qualifying round of the Champions League that there will be fans in the European competition at Park Hall.
There will be 200 fans in total for the second leg. Brobbel says it will be nice to have the fans back having it been strange not having any in the Cymru Premier last season.
The Northern Irishman said, “It was a strange season with not having any of the fans in any of the grounds.
“It will be nice to be home and hopefully the fans can get behind us.”
Embed from Getty ImagesThe past season has been a rollercoaster for Brobbel having been injured against Cardiff Met last September, an injury that would leave him sidelined for seven months.
His injury would coincide with the dismissal of Scott Ruscoe, who would later be replaced by Anthony Limbrick. Brobbel made the perfect start to a new era at the club, scoring away against Flint Town United back in March under the then caretaker stewardship of Christian Seargeant.
It was Brobbel’s longest injury but came back firing with scoring 12 goals overall in the Cymru Premier campaign.
Brobbel describes his comeback last season as the worst he had suffered: “It was the first long-term injury that I have had in my career.
“Touch wood I hopefully don’t get anymore.
“I didn’t expect to get in the team so quickly, the lads were doing well and were top of the league when I first came back, and just happened that a few of the other boys picked up injuries.”
“The gaffer said “do you think you can get 45 or 60 in” and I just went from there. I came back in good form and manage to grab a few goals, try to push us to win the league but it just didn’t quite happen.”
But after a personal successful end to the season, he will now hope to continue his goal-scoring form in the UEFA Conference League.
The former Middlesbrough man would be happy for any of his teammates to score come the whistle.
He said, “Of course, any goals would be good whether it would be from me or anyone in the team. “Obviously to score in Europe would be a good achievement and help the boys out as well.”
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