“Big dreams and goals lie ahead”

Markku Kanerva, 57, will continue as the head coach of the Finnish men’s national football team. The extension agreement will last until the end of 2024.

Kanerva’s current agreement would have expired at the end of 2022.

Chairman of the Football Association Ari Lahti told Huuhkajai at the information session that the sole goal of Huuhkajoki’s next project is to survive to play in the 2024 European Championships in Germany.

– For myself, this was a big step in being able to focus on the next big dream. Before that, the intermediate goal is the League of Nations and its success, Kanerva comments.

– I am eager to continue working. At no point has there been a feeling that everything has been given. I think there is still room for improvement for myself, the coaching team and most of all, the team.

Kanerva added that the ideas of club team coaching have now been sidelined for the time being. He said he is grateful to be allowed to continue and create longer-term plans for the national team. The main goal now is to build a team that has the opportunity to advance to the European Championships in 2024.

After the information session, Kanerva commented to Urheilu that the follow-up agreement process was easy.

– The state of mind was common. Both the Football Association and I wanted to continue. Things went fast. It has been an honor for me to pilot a national team. Big dreams and goals lie ahead. I starved from last summer’s European Championships. We are now beginning to think about measures so that this miracle can be renewed.

Kanerva said that some kind of questions have come from the club team side.

– Of course, as a coach you have to plan your own future. There was no offer so interesting that I would seriously consider an alternative to national team coaching.

Kanerva became the head coach of the national team in December 2016, when the Swede Hans Backe got fired.

Kanerva had worked as an assistant coach in the coaching team of the Finnish national team since 2010.

2015 Kanerva temporarily served as head coach when Mixu Paatelainen had received the shoe. For the first time, Kanerva temporarily took care of the head coach’s wash in 2011 when Stuart Baxter got to leave.

In 2016, Huuhkajat had played 11 games, including practice games and World Cup qualifiers, resulting in 9 losses and 2 draws.

After Backen’s kicks, the sad period of the Owls began to turn.

Owls ended the qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup by losing only one of their five matches.

In the new League of Nations, which began in autumn 2018, Finland won its own block in the C-division. It meant a rise to the league’s B level.

The 2019 European Championship qualifiers are a memorable part of Finnish sports history. The dams broke down on November 15, 2019 at Töölö Stadium in Helsinki, when Finland defeated Liechtenstein 3–0 and secured their place in the last European Championship qualifier.

The European Championships were postponed by a year due to the corona pandemic. Finally, in the summer of 2021, the Finnish men’s national team was seen for the first time on the championship. In the European Championships, Finland won Denmark in a 1–0 match, which is remembered for its dramatic moments Christian Eriksenin due to cardiac arrest, and lost to Russia as well as Belgium.

In last year’s World Cup qualifiers, Finland was third behind France and Ukraine, so the first World Cup was still a dream.

Now Finland will meet in Spain at the end of March and will face Iceland and Slovenia in practice matches in Murcia.

During the summer and autumn, the next group stage of the League of Nations will be played. Finland plays in the same Division B division with Montenegro, Romania and Bosnia-Herzegovina, which has become well known in recent years.

The matches of the owls in the League of Nations can be watched on ‘s channels. In this story you will see the blocks of the League of Nations and the Finnish program.

Finland will not be seen in the World Cup to be played at the end of this year. The next European Championships will be played in 2024 in Germany. Qualifications for them will begin in March 2023. The European Championship qualifiers will be drawn on October 9, 2022.

– The big mission is to take the Finnish national team forward. The goal is to repeat the “dream of generations” and go to the 2024 German European Championships, Kanerva summed up at the end of the press conference.

Kanerva, who has played at HJK, FinnPa and Elfsborg, is a civilian classroom teacher.

Kanerva started his coaching career as an assistant coach at HJK in 2001-02. He then piloted the Vikings for a season before moving on to the bread of the Football Association.

Kanerva, who soon worked for the Football Association for 20 years, first coached the U21 youth in 2004-09. Under Kanerva’s leadership, the Finnish men’s U21 team made it to the age group for the first time in its history, the Swedish European Championships in 2009. Since then, Kanerva has been part of the A national team for more than 10 years.

At the sports gala, Kanerva has been chosen Coach of the Year four times.