One of the more bizarre sports stories from 2015 came from way back in May.
When Liverpool could not track down former Ireland defender Steve Finnan for the ten year anniversary of the famous Champions League final win in Istanbul, the #FindSteveFinnan hashtag was born.
The Limerick-born full-back has been keeping a low-profile since retiring and the mystery was ended by The Irish Independent and Off The Ball's Daniel McDonell on the show, when he revealed that Finnan was "in London, enjoying life out of the limelight and not seeking any form of post-football fame or media work or anything like that. I believe he's pretty contented and happy about that".
I know exactly where he was on Wednesday September 24th, round about 9.33pm Spanish time.
The then-32-year-old was was walking off Sevilla's Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium pitch after suffering a match-ending injury.
A rather grainy photo of Steve Finnan on that day in 2008 - taken on a mid-noughties camera phone (image by Raf Diallo)
I had just moved over to Seville on an Erasmus year, but Finnan was doing something more Irish footballers should do, especially with the Premier League being harder to break into than bygone eras.
The Wimbledon youth graduate had moved to Barcelona's city rivals (in a derby rather than competitive trophy sense) Espanyol from Liverpool on transfer deadline day (September 1st) 2008 to start a new La Liga adventure which never got off the ground.
Interviewing ex-League of Ireland striker Padraig Amond on Team 33 last week about his time with Portugal's Pacos de Ferreira reminded me a bit about Finnan's attempt to start afresh in Spain.
But aside from that match in Seville, there were very few memories of Finnan's time there that spring to mind.
He had made his debut for Espanyol four days earlier when he came on as a substitute in a 1-1 draw at home to Getafe with 11 minutes to go, before lasting a further 33 minutes in Seville when he was struck down by a hamstring strain.
Adapting to a new football culture is tough enough in itself, even without constant injury worries and Finnan was unfortunate in that sense.
The Seville injury cost him game-time until November and even then he only returned for two 90 minute appearances in defeats against Numancia and Racing Santander, before disappearing from the first team picture again.
The next time he resurfaced in the league was when he was on the bench for a 1-1 draw at Recreativo Huelva on January 2nd by which time talk of an escape route to the Premier League had reared its head, leading Espanyol sporting director Paco Herrera to insist that "Finnan stays in Espanyol because he is a main man for the second part of the season."
Oddly enough, he never played for Espanyol again after a January defeat to Barcelona in the Copa del Rey when he made a 50 minute appearance, despite those words from Herrera - who he knew from the Barcelona native's time on Rafa Benitez's Liverpool coaching staff - not even making the bench before mutually ending his contract with the club.
But judging from his comments to The Liverpool Post just after signing for Espanyol, it does not seem his move to Catalunya was something he had been contemplating for a long time before it actually happened: "It was totally out of the blue. It's exciting to be going to a great club in Spain but I didn't want to leave. But it was obvious that I wasn't going to get a game by staying so I didn't really have much choice."
In an interview with Spanish football writer Guillem Balague, he did speak positively about settling in as quickly as he could but between injury and international commitments, he never got the headstart he wanted.
"First of all, I want to get settled in the city and nail down a position in the first team. I've signed a two year contract and, if all goes well, I'd like to retire at Espanyol. I've not really had any time in Barcelona so far, as I've been with the Republic of Ireland squad on international duty, so I haven't even had a chance to finish moving in yet," he told Balague a week after making the move to Barcelona.
And the physical side was key, especially when you take into account the fact that he retired from football a couple of years after that aforementioned night in Seville after a brief spell at Portsmouth and reportedly failing a medical in January 2009 scuppered a move to Hull City.
It's unfortunate because what we do need is a high profile Irish player making waves in a continental league to encourage more players to see a move beyond England as an attractive proposition.
But as eso es la vida for now.
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