He will again come into play in Turkey next month after being named in coach Chris Milicich’s Junior All Whites side for the FIFA U-20 World Cup.
The youngster has made a promising start to his professional career since leaving the Asia Pacific Football Academy in Christchurch to join Burnley in England’s Championship.
Just ahead of joining his national teammates in Fiji, Howieson joined League One side Doncaster Rovers on loan. While game time was hard to come by, the youngster relished being involved and the experience of training with the side, which won the championship and earned promotion to the Championship for 2013/14.
He has since returned to Burnley where he rounded out the English season with the reserve side.
Howieson said making the move from New Zealand to England has been a big step up in terms of his personal development as a player.
“I think since I’ve been there I’ve become a better player and improved a lot, and I’m still learning so in years to come hopefully I will keep improving and getting better,” he said.
“The football is good, the weather doesn’t help, but in general it’s good. It’s tough, quite different to back home. I find that you don’t have as much time on the ball, there’s more contact over there and it’s more physical I find, but you’ve just got to man up and get used to it really.”
With the World Cup just around the corner Howieson’s plans for the future are fairly obvious, but longer term he plans to retain a spot in the All White’s line-up and continue to develop with Burnley.
“If I can get in there and stay in there that would be really good. I’ve got another year in England and hopefully I can renew the contract.”
However for now the focus, along with his teammates, is Turkey.
“We’re just happy to go to Turkey and we’re looking forward to the preparation and just getting over there.”
For more on New Zealand Football visit www.nzfootball.co.nz