Sheffield Wednesday loan star Shea Charles feeling the benefit of international football
SHEA CHARLES believes playing for Northern Ireland from a young age has been vital in giving him confidence as he builds his career at club level with Sheffield Wednesday.
Charles, 20, was a regular for the Green and White Army before he had even played a senior club match, making his first international appearance in June 2022 and earning six caps before his club debut followed 11 months later as a substitute for Manchester City.
That game away to Brentford would be his only appearance for Pep Guardiola’s side after coming through the academy, and he was sold to Southampton last summer, making 38 appearances in their promotion-winning season before joining Sheffield Wednesday on loan for the 2024-25 campaign.
Charles admitted the step up to regular senior football in the last year had been tough, but the experience gained with Northern Ireland – Thursday’s 2-0 Nations League win over Luxembourg was his 18th cap already – has been crucial.
“Making my debut for Northern Ireland before I did for City, in that aspect, especially going into the Championship last year, just a little bit of first-team football here really helped,” Charles said.
“It’s senior football, it’s so much different to what under-21 football is, it’s going into it with a little bit of confidence, knowing you can play at that level.”
Most of Charles’ league appearances for the Saints last term came off the bench. Although he remains confident he could play in the Premier League, he accepted the club’s decision to send him out on loan, and jumped at the opportunity to join younger brother Pierce, a goalkeeper, at Sheffield Wednesday.
“I spoke to the manager (Danny Rohl) and I just got a really good feeling about it,” Charles said. “When I heard Wednesday were interested I spoke to my brother, he said good things, and I saw it as somewhere I could go and play good football, and play football, which is what I want to do this year.”
Charles is not the only young northern Ireland player looking to make an impact on loan this season. Callum Marshall has joined Huddersfield from West Ham and scored twice in his first five appearances.
After a frustrating spell on loan at West Brom, where he made only three appearances in the second half of last season, the 19-year-old has found working with former Northern Ireland international Michael Duff a breath of fresh air.
“It’s good to be playing first-team football,” Marshall said. “Obviously the last loan didn’t really work out the way I wanted it to, so it’s good to have somewhere where the manager really likes me.
“I’m playing striker, where I want to be playing. I know in my career I’m going to be a striker, so it’s good to have a manager who is going to play me there, so it’s been going well.”
Marshall, who had a goal disallowed on his international debut against Denmark last summer, started Thursday’s 2-0 win over Luxembourg and had an early chance as Northern Ireland came flying out of the blocks. Now he is hoping for more against Bulgaria in Plovdiv.
“You’d assume they’ll be physical,” Marshall said of Sunday’s opponents. “Bulgaria is not the easiest place to go away to and we know it’ll be a tough game. But we’re prepared to fight for three points.”