Pic: The mystery behind Sean Lynch’s inclusion in the Croatia squad has been solved

It was all so simple, really.

The appearance of one Sean Lynch in the Croatia squad for the World Cup on the ESPN mobile site last night prompted quite a lot of debate and numerous questions amongst Irish fans. Who is this Sean Lynch? How have we never heard of him before? Surely, with a name like that, he must have a bit of Irish in him and if so, how did an association like the FAI, normally very good when it comes to unearthing eligible players for the national team, let him slip through the cracks? Numerous Sean Lynches contacted JOE directly last night in scurrilous and mischievous attempts to claim that they had been summoned for World Cup duty by Niko Kovac, but as it turns out, the truth is far more innocent than that. Thanks to the cunning detective work of Sherlock-like JOE readers Pauric McGlone and Gary Burke, we discovered that a simple Google Translate search of the name Sean Lynch from English to Croatian reveals that it was in fact Hamburg midfielder Milan Badelj who had been selected and not the unlikeliest sounding Croatian footballer in history.

@JOEdotie pic.twitter.com/jMagHAblrU — Pauric McGlone (@pawrick) May 16, 2014

  Disappointing though it is to hear that there isn’t actually a footballer with Irish links making waves elsewhere in the football world, now that Milan’s secret is out, we think that it’s worth exploring the possibility of persuading the 25-year old to switch nations even at this late stage. The fact that he has no Irish connections whatsoever apart from a name that conveniently translates into the most Irish name possible and the fact that he has already played for Croatia nine times might prove a problem, but hey, it worked for Tony Cascarino, right? Hat-tip to Pauric McGlone for sending this one our way