IT’S ENOUGH TO MAKE A GROWING MAN CRY
Miko sizes up crucial season at Dons and looks to put past pain behind him
Growing pains stopped him from flourishing in his time at Everton.
Miko Virtanen is now ready to show his old Goodison Park pals that he can blossom at Aberdeen.
The Finnish midfielder grew up in the Toffees academy alongside current star Tom Dav ies and f i rst - team youngsters Beni Baningime and Morgan Feeney.
Virtanen had moved to Merseyside as a kid with his family as he chased his dream of being a footballer.
He loved his time as a Blue, being coached by Everton legend Kevin Sheedy and getting to know an iconic figure like Duncan Ferguson.
But a teenage growth spurt resulted in injuries that curtailed Virtanen’s progress.
A niggl ing back injury wouldn’t go away – and any chance evaporated of him breaking into the first team under Roberto Martinez or Ronald Koeman.
In 2017, the 21- year- old needed a fresh start and the Dons took a chance on him.
La s t s e a son, before lockdown, he enjoyed a successful stint on loan at Arbroath in the Championship.
As well as being a key man on the pitch for manager Dick Campbell’s side, the Finn with a Scouse accent also made his mark off it.
But now he’s back at Pittodrie, ready to fight for a place in Derek McInnes’ team.
With one year left on his deal, Virtanen is facing the most important season of his career when the league action gets underway.
Even though he’s desperate to do it for himself, he’d love to show Davies & Co down at Goodison that he can make the grade as well.
Virtanen told MailSport: “I had a lot of injuries at Everton. I had a back problem that kept recurring and I couldn’t get past that.
“I was in the same school as Tom, who’s obviously in the first team now. I trained with him a lot. Morgan also got his debut recently and Beni has played as well.
“Injuries definitely held me back there, 100 per cent.
“My growth spurt prevented me from really making a push for the first team.
“I grew from 5ft 5ins to 6ft 2ins in the space of a year at Everton. That didn’t help at all. Injur ies were almost constant during my time at the club. The way people saw me was, ‘He’s either injured or he’s going to be injured again.’
“I had to get rid of that. I had to start afresh where people didn’t have that perception of me.
“The growth spurt at 16 was really bad. It was one injury after another and I just couldn’t get a break.
“Being growth-related made it worse because I had no influence over it. I wasn’t doing anything wrong.
“But what it did allow me to do was build up my mental fitness and get my body to a stage where it doesn’t break down again.
“Since that bad period, it hasn’t happened again for three years.
“I’ve had no major injuries since I signed for Aberdeen.
“It would be great if the likes of Tom looked at our results or read the paper to see I was doing well here.
“I think they’re doing that anyway. We were a really close group at Everton and I still message a few of them.
“But it’s more for myself, to prove that I wasn’t just this guy who was always injured.
“I want to show them I can actually play at a good level and if I can do that at Aberdeen, that would be ideal.”
The surpr ise move to Pittodrie came courtesy of a FaceTime call with ex-teammate Ryan Harrington, who was a youth player at Aberdeen three years ago.
At that time Virtanen was delighted to secure a deal at another big club, having grown up at Goodison.
He said: “Spending four years at Everton meant I had a strong feeling for that club.
“You realise how passionate everyone is who is connected to the club. Life there was unlike anything I’d ever seen in Finland.
“The people there live and breathe football. That was a different world to what I was used to. So to learn and take something away from that was massive for me. The Aberdeen move was a bit bizarre.
“My mate at Everton, Ryan, moved to Aberdeen before I did and we were speaking on FaceTime.
“He said he could put a word in for me with the youth coach Paul Sheerin about possibly getting me a trial.
“That was on a Wed n e s d a y , then on Thursday night I was f l y i n g up to Scotland.
“I trained for a couple of days and played a game.
After that, they of fered me a contract for the r e s t of t he season. I was del ighted at the time because I hadn’t had any luck coming back from a bad injury.
“I wa s
I’ve got one year left on my deal so the season is massive .. I wasn’t ready a year ago but now feel I’m a step closer
struggling t o ge t a showing anywhere.
“But Ryan helped me hugely and I’ll always be thankful to him for that.
“I’m still at the club and playing well so it has all worked out brilliantly.” In t erms of brea k ing into McInnes’ f irstteam, Virtanen did himself no harm at Gayfield last season. He was named Arbroath’s Young Player of the Year and he feels he has gone back to Pittodrie a better player than the one who left. The Finn says he’s now capable of competing with the likes of Lewis Ferguson, Dylan McGeouch and others for a place in the Aberdeen engine room. He said: “The loan helped me a lot. It matured me and gave me experience. “Overall, I’ve come back as a better player from Arbroath because I learned an awful lot under Dick Campbell and I can’t say a bad word about the club.
“My aim is now to break into the first team and play.
“That’s my goal and I am going to chase it for as long as I’ve got a contract here.
“It’s realistic for me now to push further on because I did we l l in the Championship.
“The next step for me is to see if I can get in at Aberdeen. It ’s really all down to me now, how I show up and put myself about in training.
“I have to impress the mana ger becau s e I ’m competing with top- class midfielders at Aberdeen.
“Lewis was the footbal l writers’ Young Player of the Year and Dean Campbell won that award at the club.
“There’s Craig Bryson, Funso Oj o , Dyl an, a l l experienced, big players. It’s not easy to dislodge them but I’m ready to compete, that’s the challenge I want.
“I’ve one year left on my deal so it’s a massive season.
“The loan at Arbroath was much needed because I wasn’t ready a year ago but I feel that I’m a step closer now.
“I want to manage as many minutes on the pitch as I can to secure a new deal.”