According to The Irish Times, Irish U21 boss Jim Crawford says that he hopes to know before the start of the new European Championship campaign in March whether Getafe midfielder John Joe Patrick Finn will declare for Ireland.
The 17-year-old midfielder has featured for Getafe’s first team in LaLiga this season and has been approached by both the Spanish and English associations about his future.
Crawford, along with senior manager Stephen Kenny and U19 manager Tom Mohan had a video call with the player and his mother a couple of weeks ago and believes that Finn was impressed by the presentation they made for him choosing to play for Ireland.
“We had a good chat with both of them,” said Crawford. “He was blown away by the presentation that was put together but now we’re waiting. We’re certainly not going to rush him but I’ll be making contact in the near future to see if there has been any sort of decision made. He’s been playing out on the right and out on the left but his favoured position would be central midfield and if that’s where he would be happiest then we’d be happy to use him there.”
Born in Madrid where he was initially signed to Real Madrid’s youth system, the midfielder’s father John came from Mayo while his mother, Odetta, was born in Cameroon. Now at Primera club Getafe, Finn made his senior debut towards at the end of last season but has featured five times for José Bordalás’s first team in recent weeks.
