Blues winger Chiedozie Ogbene was named the Senior Men’s International Player of the Year at the 34th Football Association of Ireland (FAI) International Awards last night.
The 27-year-old was nominated alongside Southampton keeper Gavin Bazunu and Brighton striker Evan Ferguson, with the latter picking up the Young Men’s International Player of the Year gong for the second season running.
The event took place prior to Ireland’s 1-0 UEFA Nations League game victory over Finland in which Town duo Sammie Szmodics and Dara O'Shea featured.
The winners were selected based on their performances from June 2023 to June 2024 with a jury from Soccer Writers’ Ireland helping to select some categories.
Ogbene, who joined the Blues from Luton in the summer, is current sidelined having undergone surgery on an achilles injury sustained at Brentford which required surgery and is expected to miss most or all of the rest of the season. The wideman has won 28 full caps, scoring four international goals.
Speaking last week, manager Kieran McKenna said the nomination was a welcome positive for Ogbene following the injury.
"Hopefully, it’s a big boost for him,” he said. "He’s in a big boot and I'm sure reading plenty of books and watching plenty of Netflix. A bit of good news for him. Hopefully he wins the award.
"But whether he does or not, it signifies how well he did for Ireland last year. And, to be honest, it signifies what a loss he’s going to be for us.
"You can probably look at the likes of Tottenham away, where the pace that Chieo brings can hurt any opposition and can hurt teams who leave space in behind. It’s probably the exact profile of game why we wanted to bring him to the football club.
"Unfortunately, this season we’re not going to see the best of him, that’s for sure. But he’s here for a few years after that and hopefully we will see the best of him when he makes the full recovery that we're sure he will.”