Next, most of the big players of the domestic coaching staff have been selected to become the head coach of the men’s national football team. The hottest names in the headlines are those who piloted KuPS to the double championship Jani Honkavaara and Pikkhuuhkajat led to the European Championships Mika Lehkosuo.
Credible names, but recruiting both has its own challenges.
Many consider Honkavaara, who is on the rise, as the number one choice for the next Huuhkaja coach, but he has exports elsewhere. Honkavaara has been interviewed in Djurgården, Sweden. The Allsvenskan club has announced that the name of the new head coach will be known before the turn of the year.
In the case of Lehkosuo, the problem would be scheduling, because Huuhkajie’s World Cup qualifiers will probably start in March, when Lehkosuo is still preparing the under-21 national team for the summer European Championships.
Is it possible for Lehkosuo to play a double role, or what kind of solution could be reached with him? It is not considered likely that Lehkosuo would leave Pikkuhuuhkajat on the eve of the European Championships.
As the third name in the speculations, the former HJK player, who made a strong mark in the club, has been circulating Toni Koskelawhich is currently on the open market. Koskelala, who appeared as Urheilu’s expert, is currently not coaching anywhere.
Honkavaara, Lehkosuo and Koskela are the most likely domestic candidates, but Palloliitto is also throwing its snare into international waters.
What could be offered from abroad?
The president of the football association Ari Lahten according to the position of the head coach of the Finnish A national team has been wanted. However, Lahti admits that due to economic realities, washing the name of an international star is utopian.
Cheers to the coach since 2016 Markku Kanerva based on last year’s tax information, a salary of around 200,000 euros was paid. The remuneration of the successor of Kanerva will probably be in the same category.
The tenets of the head coaches of the top European national teams are counted in the millions, and if you look at the salaries of the head coaches of the countries that played in the European Championships last summer, Kanerva is at the bottom of the group. Also in Norway and Sweden, the head coaches have been paid clearly more.
– The salary offered by the ball association is a big problem. For example, in the Norwegian premier league, coaches earn well over 300,000 euros, and even more in the bigger leagues. This limits the number of candidates significantly, says a football agent Sami Salonen.
Salonen, who works at the SEG Football agency, believes that if Palloliitto ends up with a foreign option, he will probably come from the Nordic countries. Salonen sees that there could be two types of options available from abroad to become Finland’s head coach.
Either a young and up-and-coming coaching talent, or a significantly more experienced name who wants to move from daily coaching to a more relaxed pace.
Football agent Daniel Minovgidis believes that with the Pallloliitto’s budget it is possible to attract competent coaches from abroad, who think Huuhkajat is an interesting project.
– I believe that with this salary it is possible to get very high-level coaches, especially those who are currently without a club. Of course, this amount cannot get a coach out of his current contract, but it is certainly possible to attract coaches who do not work in the top 5 leagues, says Minovgidis.
Minovgidis works at the agency SPG, which represents, among others, Toni Koskela.
Football association contacts?
Palloliitto raked the market already in the summer before ending up with Kanerva’s contract extension. So some kind of candidate list already exists.
Although Palloliitto has emphasized its own recruitment expertise, Minovgidis believes that the information about the open position has not reached all potential candidates.
– Recruiting a national team coach is very different from club teams, where agents or coaches know the decision-makers and can directly communicate with them. The biggest question is who is the right person to contact at Pallloliito? To whom should the application be sent? I’m sure many very good coaches don’t know about this possibility.
The football influencer, who remains anonymous, uploads an even more blunt assessment of the Finnish Football Association’s recruitment skills and the sports director who has been working since last year Aki Hyryläinen relations abroad.
– Yes, it makes me laugh when it is said that Aki Hyryläinen has such good contacts to do this kind of mapping. What has Hyrylainen done? He has been a headhunter in Finland and the assistant coach of HJK’s D teams. Now that he has been in the work of the Finnish Football Association for some time, where in the hell did such comprehensive contacts suddenly fall from the sky that he knows and is known? No god.
The football players interviewed by Urheilu are unanimous that the Football Association should invest in a Finnish coach.
– We Finns are special. Kanerva has succeeded very well in creating a sense of togetherness. The players stood by him even after losses. Community spirit is one of our great strengths as Finns, and I think a Finnish coach can convey it best. A foreign coach wouldn’t necessarily succeed, says Minovgidis.
Is it all just an illusion?
Urheilu is also hinted at the option that the Finnish Football Federation would not actually be more interested in looking for a coach from abroad. Commenting anonymously, the football influencer is strongly of the opinion that Jani Honkavaara is the first choice of the association and above all of the chairman Ari Lahte.
– Isn’t this all an eyesore, and it is Honkavaara who will be chosen, unless he moves to Djurgården.
KuPS owner Lahti’s close relationship with Honkavaara is known to everyone. Honkavaara coached Lahti-owned KuPS to become champions of both the Veikkausliiga and the Finnish Cup last season.
Djurgården has announced that the club will make a decision on its new head coach before the new year. For its part, the Football Association has said that it will make its own decision by mid-January.