Finnish national team striker Jutta Rantala hopes that Leicester City, which he represents, will soon find a new head coach to replace the fired Willie Kirk.
Emma Hyuppa,
Hinn Hirvonen
The last few weeks of Leicester City, which plays in the English Super League, i.e. the women’s main league, have been “quite turbulent”, admits the team’s goalkeeper Jutta Rantala.
Last Thursday, at the end of an internal investigation, Leicester fired their head coach To Willie Kirkbecause he was considered to have been in a relationship with a team player and thus violated the club’s operating principles.
According to Rantala, the national team games will go well after the incident. The Finnish national team will start qualifying for next year’s European Championships this week. Helmarit will face Norway away on Friday and Italy next week in Helsinki on Tuesday.
– It was really nice to get away from there for a while, to focus on these games and forget about the whole thing, Rantala told the national team’s press conference in Helsinki.
Rantala said he is happy at Leicester, although the relationship turmoil has recently affected the team negatively. The coaching responsibility is now temporary With Jennifer Foster and By Stephen Kirbywho were part of the coaching group even before Kirk was fired.
Leicester’s information line on the matter has been scarce, and Rantala also weighed his words carefully.
– It was quite a shock, but maybe I don’t want to comment on the matter more than what the club has announced. Hopefully we will get a new coach soon, Rantala said.
The relationships between football players and their coaches have been the talk of the town recently in English professional football. More on the subject here.
Norway, Holland and Italy play in the same EC qualifying group with Helmari. Each of them is higher than Finland in the Fifa rankings, but Rantala is confident in Helmarie’s potential.
– I think (in the group draw) I could have had worse luck. We have good seams to take points from every opponent. We are really excited, and hopefully we will get the points home from Norway, Rantala said.
In the previous European Championships 2022, Rantala did not get playing time, but in a few years he has become one of Helmarie’s key players.
– Of course, the last European Championships left me very hungry. I want to play a lot in these qualifiers and European Championships and get responsibility, Rantala said.