SPARE a thought for those of us who have to pick a team to follow at the World Cup.

With the exception of those of you watching during USA 1994, many of you won’t know how that feels.

Incidentally, 1994 - alongside 1990 and 2002 - was a year it was less difficult for me.

Cards on the table: I have never been able to support ‘my wee team’, Northern Ireland, at a World Cup.

Fair enough, they qualified for Mexico 1986, but I was nine months old so you'll give me that.

Instead, in order to give myself something lose, I pick a team and I follow them throughout the tournament.

Many of the Welsh among you will, I'm sure, know the feeling.

I’m from a town just outside Belfast, so for many people it wasn’t the done thing to support the Republic of Ireland... but that’s, generally, what I do (when they’ve qualified, that is).

They did so in 1990, 1994 and 2002 and, were it not for Thierry Henry’s hand, they probably would have in 2010. I'm pretty sure the nation is over that, now.

So in 1998, 2006, 2010, 2014 and now 2018, I’ve had to pick a team.

1998 was easy. France. Hosts, Zidane.

In 2006, I went to Germany for a few weeks so Deutschland was an easy choice.

In 2010, I opted for Ghana. Felt like I should go for an African team given it was the first World Cup in the continent.

In the end they were cheated by a player who has gone on to carry out his fair share of cheating.

Good player, though.

2014 was difficult. In the end, I found it hard not to be impressed by Colombia (I’d always loved Carlos Valderrama and the maverick goalkeeper René Higuita).

This is where things changed a bit.

Two years later, I found myself in Lyon watching Northern Ireland beat Ukraine 2-0 in the European Championships. It was the stuff of dreams.

Incredibly, because we didn’t get absolutely hammered by Germany in the final group game, we even got to the second round, where we were beaten by football giants Wales.

Our qualification campaign for 2018 couldn’t really have gone better. Germany won the group at a canter and Northern Ireland came second, which meant we were drawn in a two-legged playoff.

Short story: we lost 1-0. Switzerland scored one penalty; a penalty which the referee has since apologised for giving.

Last night, they drew 1-1 with Brazil. Just think what we could've done! 

So now I have to pick a team for this year. And I'm torn.

Something else has changed in the last few years.

I'm now dad to a one-year-old boy, who, God love him, has already spent countless hours on my knee watching people run about on a green background on the TV screen; whether it's last year's British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand, the Six Nations or Match of the Day, he seems content by it.

And it has recently occurred to me, he's English.

He was born in an English hospital, is looked after by some incredible English people alongside other English children while his Dubliner mum and I work during the day, and is pretty soon going to be talking with an (albeit distorted) Essex accent.

He won't have this trouble. So maybe I should just join him, give up this 'picking a team' lark and just plump for England?

I'm told it's easy being an England fan, right?