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Finnish winger Mikael Soisalo spent an eventful year and a half with Middlesbrough.

Signed from Ilves Tampere in January 2017 as a highly-rated teenager in his homeland, he was tipped as one for the future when he put pen to paper.

He did feature regularly for Boro’s Under-23 development team but with the club fighting for their Premier League lives in his first few months in England, and pushing hard for promotion last season, his chances of a first team role were slim.

Soisalo did travel with Garry Monk’s squad for the pre-season training camp in Portugal last summer and made two 45 minute friendly appearances against Oxford and Chesterfield in the Algarve.

After arriving back in England, the Finn got 90 minutes under his belt at Mansfield and came off the bench at Rochdale, a cameo which turned out to be his final first team appearance for Boro.

He did make two starts for Middlesbrough’s Under-21 side in the Checkatrade Trophy at Accrington and Wigan but he also had injuries to contend with from time-to-time.

Now he’s plying his trade in Belgium with top flight side Zulte Wagerem following his move from Boro to the Low Countries last month.

In an exclusive chat with Teesside Live, he was happy to speak about his move to England, his time with Middlesbrough and his future ambitions.

He admits he didn’t know a great deal about the club when he was made aware of Boro’s interest.

“Middlesbrough made contact during my first season in Finland,” he said.

“The only thing I knew about Middlesbrough was that it’s a huge club in northern England who played in the Premier League.

“Also, I knew that Aitor Karanka was the coach and the whole club was quite Spanish.”

(Image: CameraSport)

English football is, of course, huge overseas and many foreign youngsters support one of the Premier League giants.

Soisalo, however, didn’t have a favourite English club but he did admire a Three Lions legend.

“I wasn’t a big fan of English football but when I was young I liked David Beckham a lot.”

A teenager a long way from home, Soisalo admits he arrived in the North-east in deepest mid-winter and said his first impressions were of the “cold and rain”, which is certainly something coming from a Finn.

He did, though, discover a warm welcome on arrival.

“Middlesbrough was a really nice place to come to and everything around the club was very good, Rockliffe Park especially.

“The club workers helped me to settle in, it was amazing.

“I also became friends with many players and hopefully those friendships will last for a lifetime.”

So he was happy off the pitch but what about making the transition from Finnish football to the English game?

“Playing in Finland is a bit different compared to other parts of Europe but Finnish football is growing all the time and is improving, the tempo of the game is speeding up.

“Playing for Middlesbrough Under-23s, the tempo surprised me but the tactical side of the game was not particularly important at that level.

“My only goal,” he added, “was to break in to the first team.

“I had hard times at Boro due to the injuries but that’s how it is sometimes. It’s the side of football where you have to show some professional athletic skills to get through those problems.

“I developed a lot physically in England so that side of my game advanced a lot I would say.”

He didn’t have too many first team opportunities but Soisalo enjoyed the time he spent in that environment, especially as it game him the opportunity to train and play with the likes of Cyrus Christie, Adam Clayton , Gaston Ramirez, Adama Traore and Cristhian Stuani.

“My experiences with the first team were really good, the football was naturally of a higher standard and playing with very good players is always very nice.”

So was it a tough decision to leave Boro?

“No it was easy decision because this Belgium club wanted me bad and I didn’t feel that Boro would have wanted to keep me.

“I didn’t feel that I would fit into Tony Pulis’s team so I thought it would be better to leave.

“And things in Belgium are brilliant at the moment. We have had three games and I’ve scored three goals so the start of the pre-season has been really good.”

Still only 20, Soisalo’s career is just starting and he’s not ruling out a return to England somewhere down the line.

“I hope that in the future I will be successful,” said. “I’m working hard every day for it to happen so why would it not happen.?

“Would I come back to England? It’s always possible. I don’t have any countries where I don’t want to play.”