At the end of the 1980s in Czechoslovakia, a man who not many people have heard of was involved in hockey, writes Jussi Paasi.
Jussi Paasi
Ysviis nevöfoget.
The Lions’ 1995 World Cup gold is always remembered during the prestigious ice hockey championships. And for a reason.
The spring of 1992, when Finnish ice hockey history was made, gets a smaller, even negligible attention in the memoirs. That’s when Leijonat won its first World Cup medal.
Four years earlier, Finland had sensationally grabbed Olympic silver, but for the first time the Lions returned from the World Championships with medals around their necks in Prague.
That era should be gutted even more. The end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 90s were a time of great upheaval in hockey. From that I learned a lesson from being boiled in all possible disc broths From Juha Junnowhen we met in the center of the World Championship city.
The meeting with Junno was already the second here in Prague.
Junno wanted to tell a story Kimmo from Aura, about a man not known to many. Even if it’s worth feeling. I myself now heard about Aura for the first time.
I listened to Junno’s flowing speech in utter disbelief.
Aura worked as a hockey agent at a time when there were hardly any hockey agents in Finland. In the late 80s, Aura bought and sold Czechoslovak players. In Finnish, he released the players to go abroad to play puck.
A book about Aura, Orjakauppias (published by Mistake Media) will be published on May 20.
An incredible number of players flooded into Finland as a result of Aura’s transaction. Otakar Janecky, Petr Briza, Jiri Kucera, Darius Rusnak… the list could be continued for a couple of songs. And all tough international level players.
The 90s without Czech stars?
I found myself thinking about how hugely important the players brought by Aura were to the development of Finnish ice hockey as a whole. The Czech talents raised the level of the SM league, they immediately became the stars of their teams.
Imagine the Jokers of the 90s without Janecky. Or KalPa without Rusnak. No, you can’t even think of that!
At that time, Finland’s main league, together with Sweden’s Elitserien, was the strongest Ice Hockey League right after the NHL. Would it have been that without the actions of the Finnish “slave trader” of hockey? My strong guess is: no.
If Aura had not done the pioneering work of bringing players from behind the iron curtain to Finland, would the SM league have become such a high-quality series? A series where the level of demand was extremely tough even for the players who won its historic first World Cup gold.
In addition, Czechoslovak players also flowed to the lower league levels. Ask about it, for example, in Iisalmi or Kalajoki.
The Ice Hockey World Cup will be played in Prague this spring. Juha Junno promised that Kimmo Aura might arrive next week. It would be more than great, because it was in this city that Aura made many of the player deals that brought the aforementioned tops to Finland.
My hopes are that at some point I will meet that lazy Finnish “slave trader” here. There are certainly plenty of stories.