The Finnish national football team may see a 29-year-old debutant in September’s Nations League matches. Adam Ståhl is a citizen of both Sweden and Finland.
Yesterday, in the qualifiers of the football Conference League, Ilves scored a goal Adam Ståhl may represent the Finnish national team in the future. The 29-year-old Swedish defender of Djurgårdens IF has not yet played international matches in his career.
Representing the national team could become relevant when the Huuhkajie’s head coach Markku Kanerva heard that Ståhl also has Finnish citizenship.
The fullback’s mother is Finnish and the player has both a Swedish and a Finnish passport. There are many Ståhl families living in Finland.
He tells a Swedish football website In Fotbollskanalen’s articlethat Djurgården’s Finnish player Rasmus Schuller hinted to Kanerva about Ståhl’s dual citizenship. After this, the Huuhkajat pilot called the Swedish player.
– I have to thank Schüler, who told Marku. Then he (Kanerva) called me and I thought what the hell? Ståhl recounted his feelings.
After talking with Kanerva, he had made a video call to his mother. The mother had started to cry, after which the player himself also started to cry.
Ståhl says that he has known since he was 20 years old that he wanted to represent the Finnish national team specifically, if the matter ever came up. He would like to make his mother proud.
– I would be very proud if I could wear the Finnish national team shirt, Ståhl said.
– I hope things go well and I can participate in the camp and play in the national team in the future, says Ståhl.
Huuhkajat will gather in September for the Nations League matches against Greece and England.
Ståhl has managed to avoid the obligation of Finnish men, because he has not been in the army. He had received a letter about military service around the time he came of age.
– My mother explained to me that I need a sufficient reason to avoid the army. So we explained that I have asthma and I can’t do physical performances.
– Otherwise, the police would have picked me up and driven me to Finland, Ståhl laughed to Fotbollskanalen.
There is some color in the explanation, as you can avoid conscription as a dual citizen if you have lived abroad for at least seven years, as the Djurgården player has.
Ståhl is playing his eighth season in Sweden’s highest league level, Allsvenskan. There have been 142 matches in the Swedish premier league.
Djurgården knocked Ilves out of the Conference League qualifiers with a 3–1 home win and will face Slovenia’s Maribor in the last qualifying round.