Near the end of June 1997, a plane took ranks of Brian Kerr's youth squad who excelled three years ago has made the senior examines why only one off in the sweltering Malaysian heat and headed northwest towards India for the first leg of its long journey home. On board, a squad of young footballers had had a decent run at the Youth World Cup before being beaten by Argentina, who went on to win the championship. No matter, most of those on board knew that their futures looked bright. Sure enough, in the following three years 13 of the 18 would play first-team football in the world's richest league. Indeed, youngsters like Kieron Dyer, Jason Euell and Michael Owen would come to be recognised as multi-million-pound commodities much more quickly than that.

Behind them, in a place called Shah Alam, Brian Kerr was preparing his players for a World Cup quarter-final. The Republic of Ireland won the game thanks to a Trevor Molloy goal in the second half.

Three days later, they were beaten by the same Argentinian side that had sent England packing. For the Republic's players there was the consolation of a third-place play-off, and on July 5th they beat Ghana 2-1, before embarking on their own long and arduous journey back home.

Aidan Lynch, who then, as now, played his football in Dublin as a part-timer with UCD, recalls the journey and how many of the squad believed that what they had achieved in the south-east Asian heat would have a huge effect on the rest of their football careers.

"I think that a lot of people thought that they were finally going to get the breaks that they'd been waiting for," recalls the 23-year-old. "Some of the lads were at the end of contracts and probably felt that being part of the team that came third at a World Cup was going to make a big difference to what they would be offered. Some others thought that it would impress managers who maybe hadn't really given them a chance up until then."

As it turned out, most were quickly disappointed.

In fact, only one player - Damien Duff - has so far gone on to do enough at club level to catch the attention of Irish senior team boss Mick McCarthy. Most of the players have moved on from the clubs they were with in the summer of 1997, while two, Stephen Murphy and Derek O'Connor, are not currently under contract with any senior club.

O'Connor, one of the Irish heroes of the tournament, is one of many to suffer a succession of setbacks during the intervening period. Arriving back at Huddersfield, along with Murphy and Robert Ryan, the goalkeeper was as surprised as his team-mates not even to be congratulated by the club's then manager, Brian Horton.

Still, the Dubliner did get a chance to prove himself in the first team when Horton promised him five games in a row. O'Connor did well enough, but fate intervened when Horton was sacked and Peter Jackson, who took over, quickly brought in two experienced goalkeepers on loan. It left the young Irishman struggling to get a game in the reserves.

Since then O'Connor has had spells with a couple of clubs in English non-league football. He attempted to return to Ireland, but a trial at Finn Harps failed to yield a contract because he lacked match fitness and was carrying a good bit of weight. He is now training with St Patrick's Athletic and hoping to rebuild his career.

Several others have done it successfully with domestic clubs. Glen Crowe is currently the top scorer in the National League for Bohemians, while Alan Kirby and David Whittle are consistent performers for Waterford United.

Colin Hawkins, meanwhile, grew tired of waiting for an offer from a big English club and moved from St Patrick's Athletic, where he proved himself to be one of the best defenders in the league, to Doncaster Rovers during the summer. Currently, though, he is struggling to get games and, when he does, is being played in central midfield.

"I think that at the outset we would have seen this team as a great collective, a strong team built around the outstanding leadership of Thomas Morgan, rather than a terrifically talented group of individuals," observes Kerr when asked about the players' progress since the World Cup adventure.

"But I wouldn't be entirely negative about it. Damien Duff has become an outstanding player, and if you get one senior international from each youth team, then I think that justifies the trouble and the expense. Certainly if you look at the current senior team, it's about what we've been averaging, from Niall Quinn 15 years ago up to Robbie Keane.

"And the rest of the lads look to be still involved with the game and, for the most part, are making a living from it. For some of them, Malaysia will be the high point of their footballing careers, but they're still young, a few are doing pretty well, and one or two could still have major upturns. I mean, just look at somebody like Mark Kinsella who wasn't playing senior international football until he was 26 years old."

It's a view echoed by Stephen Finn, who covered the tournament for the Star newspaper and became friendly with many of the players. "The whole thing makes fairly grim reading if you go through the list one by one, but even aside from the players who are doing well back here now, there are lads like Robert Ryan, who is playing regularly at Millwall, and Michael Cummins, who is getting his game regularly now since finally leaving Middlesbrough for Port Vale."

Other recent Irish underage teams provide a stark contrast, though. Ten of the under-16 squad that won the European championships in Scotland in 1998 have already made first-team debuts in Britain, and players like Robbie Keane, Stephen McPhail and Richard Dunne from that year's equally successful youth team have prospered at club level.

"I'd say that the difference is down to a combination of factors," says Kerr. "Maybe some of it is that other teams had more talented individuals, and some of it is down to the fact that a few of the Malaysia team had bad luck, just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But another factor is that their success came later than for the two teams the following year. At 19 or 20, there's a fear that clubs had already made up their minds about them, and decided that they weren't going to make it."

For many who sprang to prominence over the course of those three short weeks, the battle continues to prove those who made crucial decisions about their futures were wrong.