Eoin Wearen and his Republic of Ireland team-mates will get their UEFA European Under-19 Championship campaign under way on Wednesday.
The Irish will take on Greece in the Romanian town of Buftea in their opening Group A fixture at the eight-team tournament. Ireland face Czech Republic and host nation Romania in their other two group-stage matches on 23 and 26 July respectively
The official website caught up with Wearen at the squad's training camp in the Italian capital, Rome, ahead of their first match.
Eoin, how have things gone so far and what have you been up to? I understand you've been at a training camp in Rome and have even managed to do a bit of sightseeing?
We have trained every day since we arrived on Sunday - sometimes twice a day and sometimes once. The hotel is really nice and has been used by the likes of the Italian, German and French national teams and also Inter Milan, Arsenal and Shakhtar Donetsk, so we are preparing in a good place.
On Thursday, we spent the afternoon visiting the Colosseum which was amazing and the squad was then invited to the Irish Embassy in Rome, which was also a great experience.
How is the mood in the camp ahead of the tournament?
Training has gone well, with everyone fighting for starting places. Everyone is fit and confident and looking really sharp, so everything is really positive at the moment and there is a good atmosphere among the lads.
You have Greece in your opening fixture and you have spoken about gaining revenge for being knocked out of the UEFA European Under-17 Championship by them in March 2010. Has that result given you extra motivation? What do you know about the Greek squad?
Well, we have a different manager now so it will have no relevance towards him - he just wants to set his stall out to get a positive start to the tournament, no matter who we play!
We know they are physical and good going forward as we have watched some videos of them in the Elite Round qualifying, when they won all three games and knocked out France.
We know they will present a tough test. They have a few good individuals going forward but defensively aren't the best, so hopefully we can make a winning start.