IRELAND might not have qualified for Euro 2020 but there will be a bit of craic about the Finland team this summer.
From playing League Two football in England to heading for a spell of national service and now playing on the international stage, it’s been some journey for Daniel O’Shaughnessy.
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The 26-year-old’s father Robert is from Galway, and his mother is Finnish. But with his dual-nationality O’Shaughnessy nailed his mast to the Nordic country.
And that decision has worked a treat – O’Shaughnessy made the cut for boss Markku Kanerva’s Euro 2020 squad after an impressive season with HJK in his homeland.
But the defender learnt much of his craft playing in the lower reaches of the English football league.
After spells with Finnish outfit Klubi-04 and Metz B, O’Shaughnessy signed for Brentford in 2014.
But his two years with the Bees were restricted to the development squad and loan spells with Braintree Town and Danish Superliga side Midtjylland.
However there was one English club who decided to take a chance on O’Shaughnessy – Cheltenham Town.
He joined them in 2016 and played a vital part in helping The Robins avoid relegation back to the National League that season.
He featured for half of the next campaign before moving back to where he had played some youth team football in Finland, HJK.
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And now the left-sided centre-half is preparing to feature on the international stage hoping to keep the likes of Christian Eriksen, Romelu Lukaku and Kevin De Bruyne quiet in Finland’s Group B.
Will Boyle played alongside O’Shaughnessy for Cheltenham four years ago, and isn’t surprised to see his former team-mate making decent strides in the game.
Speaking to SunSport, the 25-year-old Yorkshireman said: “He always had the ambition, that was always something he planned to do.
“Technically he was a very good player. He could strike a great ball, long range of passing, good on the ball, a right good player.
“He definitely had the capability and I think the international game probably suits him and his characteristics a bit more than say club football in England did to be honest.”
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In his second season back in his country of birth, O’Shaughnessy had to enrol in conscription, mandatory for all males in Finland.
And now the Riihimaki-born star will be hoping to come out all-guns blazing this summer and help his team provide a few shocks.
Boyle continued: “I got on quite well with him, we spent a few afternoons in the gym together and when you got to know him he was a really nice lad.
“Within the group he was quite quiet. He was a really nice lad.
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“We played very similar positions, left-sided centre half, he played left-back aswell. We had a good working relationship.
“We talked how we could work together and improve to complement each other’s games and try and improve each other’s games.
“We played a lot together, we played a back three and he played on the left.”
And according to Boyle, despite his strong Irish name, pulling on the green jersey was never going to be an option.
The former Huddersfield man added: “He classed himself as definitely Finnish as oppose to Irish. He spoke really good English, and only had a twang of the accent.”
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