The defender first represented England at U17 level when he featured for John Peacock's side in the annual Nationwide Tournament on home soil in August 2008, whilst still on the books of his first club Charlton Athletic.
However, with an English father and a Finnish mother, he switched his international allegiance to Finland and went on to earn caps at U17, U19 and Under-21 level with the Baltic nation over the following years.
A move across London to Arsenal in 2011 saw him feature more regularly in the Premier League and England Manager Roy Hodgson selected him for the Three Lions squad to play Sweden in November 2012, after the player had previously trained with the squad ahead of their World Cup qualifier in Poland a month earlier and committed his international future to England.