Jukka Jalonen says goodbye to the A national team at the Czech World Championships. Now you can repeat Jalonen’s huge Leijonat years of success with a 15-question trivia quiz.
Jukka Jalonen, 61, a dizzying career as the head coach of the Lions culminates in the World Hockey Championships, which will be played in Prague and Ostrava, Czech Republic, from 10 to 26. May.
Jalonen already announced in June 2023 that the current season will be his last at Leijon. Jalonen’s successor is 45 years old Antti Pennanen.
However, Jalonen’s coaching career continues. He has said in interviews that he is interested in coaching in a top European team. Jalonen said that he was confident that he would get a competitive offer.
– There’s probably not two words about it, but whether it comes now or later is a different matter.
In the past, Jalonen has talked about his NHL dream, but that path has not opened up for him.
Jalonen’s playing career was so modest that he only played two matches in the SM league, in JYP in the 1985–86 season. Jalonen, currently an honorary doctor, graduated from the University of Jyväskylä with a master’s degree in physical education in 1988.
Jalonen started his coaching career in Ilves, where he became head coach at the age of 30.
In the late 1990s, Jalonen sought momentum in Italy and England as well, until he made his real breakthrough at HPK.
At the time of this spring’s SC league finals, Jalonen took HPK’s SC gold in 2006 as his most significant championship. It opened the way to Leijon.
Then Jalos has become perhaps the most significant, successful and respected coach in the history of Finnish sports.
Jalonen has coached the A national team in 2007–13 and then from 2018 onwards.
Through the trivia quiz below, you can test your Leijonat knowledge and summarize the achievements of Jukka Jalonen’s era. In Visa, the focus is on the stages of the A national team, so there are therefore no questions about, for example, the World Championship gold of the Young Lions.
IN CLUB TEAMS:
1989–1992 Ilves (head of coaching)
1992–1995 Ilves (was fired in the middle of the 1994–95 season, was hired back as head coach in the same season, and Ilves was the league’s jumbo, retaining its league position in the qualifiers)
1995–1997 (started as assistant coach, became head coach in the middle of his second Lukko season)
1997–1998 Sport (played in the then I-division)
1998–1999 Alleghe (the Italian team finished 12th in the Alppiliiga and missed the quarter-finals of the Italian championship series)
1999–2001 Newcastle (silver in the British league in the first season, league jumbo in the second season)
2001–2007 HPK
2012–2014 St. Petersburg SKA (losses in the third and second round of the playoffs, SKA fired)
2016–2018 Wildcards (losses in the first and second rounds of the playoffs)
IN THE COUNTRY TEAMS:
1991–1992 (assistant coach in the U17 team)
1994–1995 (assistant coach in the U18 team)
1995–1996 (head coach in the U17 team)
2007–2008 Lions (assistant coach)
2008–2012 Lions
2014–2016 Nuoret Leijonat, or the U20 national team
2018–2024 Lions
Achievements as head coach: