Highly rated young Sevilla midfielder Ryan Johansson has won his battle to play international football with the Republic of Ireland.
The 20 year-old who signed with the La Liga club from Bayern Munich last summer was born in Luxembourg, his father is Swedish and his mother's family are from Mullingar in county Westmeath, making Johansson eligible to play for all three countries.
He has played for the Republic of Ireland at Under-19 level, as well as featuring for the Luxembourg Under-21s.
Luxembourg fought hard for his services and Fifa blocked his plans to switch allegiances because his first appearance for Luxembourg came before he had secured an Irish passport. However Fifa’s updated eligibility rules now allow players to switch their nationality in these circumstances - a player can change to a new national team even if they did not hold that nationality at the time of their first appearance for their old national team, as long as they last played for the old national team before the age of 21.
Johansson is available to play in Ireland’s under-21 internationals against Switzerland, Australia and Denmark at the end of the month.
