Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill hopes to see every player born in the North playing for the Green and White Army.
A number of Northern Irish-born players have ended up switching to the Republic of Ireland national side - like James McClean and Darron Gibson - but O'Neill who is the first Catholic manager of the Northern Ireland team for 50 years, hopes to see more players staying put.
Speaking to Off The Ball tonight, the former Shamrock Rovers boss said: "Everyone has their own belief or their own preference in terms of how they see themselves and what their nationality is. But for me, I want every Northern Ireland-born player to want to play for Northern Ireland."
He added that the atmosphere at Windsor Park has been "fantastic" recently as society moves on from the divisions of the past.
The team are in a very strong position to make it to France via the front door or even the back door, as they are four points clear of Hungary, who occupy the final playoff spot. Meanwhile, Finland are a full eight points behind the North at the halfway stage of qualifying.
Kyle Lafferty celebrates scoring against Finland ©INPHO/Presseye/Brian Little
"We've played away in Romania, Hungary and Greece and they're arguably the three toughest away games that we'd face in the group. So having done that and having the return fixtures at home, it was very important that we won the game on Sunday [against Finland] which we managed to do and we played very well," said the 45-year-old, who also spoke about his relationship with in-form striker Kyle Lafferty and how focusing on mindset is helpful with players at international level.
O'Neill also looked back to a difficult period earlier in his reign, when Northern Ireland lost 3-2 to Luxembourg in the World Cup qualifiers, in a campaign which saw his team finish second from bottom behind Azerbaijan.
"It was a poor performance but it was a game we shouldn't have lost. We really committed kamizake stuff at times. But you get those along the way and in international football, you're vulnerable based on the selection you have at that time. I look back at the players that I had available on that night and it certainly wasn't as strong as what I have now," he said, alluding to the relative inexperience of the squad at the time and that they had achieved results sporadically in that era.
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