Finland’s women’s national volleyball team opens its European Championship qualifier against Switzerland on Sunday in Turku. shows the matches live on TV2 and Areena, the broadcast starts at 14:45.
Few professional athletes strive to create an international career outside the fields alongside sports. Professional volleyball player Jessica Kosonen belongs to exceptional cases.
Kosonen will play next season in the French premier league for Mulhouse, but at the same time he is studying administrative sciences at the University of Tampere, aiming for his master’s papers.
– I’m studying public law and I’ve focused more on international law. My minor is international politics, 27-year-old Kosonen says.
As a result of his studies, the Finnish volleyball player got a rare summer job at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland.
– This summer I was in Geneva for three months at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, working in the human rights team at the Finnish representation in Geneva, and there I visited the UN a lot. I was at the Human Rights Council in various briefings, sessions and events, deputizing for civil servants.
Kosonen networked in Geneva and was able to do the international work he dreamed of outside of sports.
– Sport is also an international job, but it was an incredibly great opportunity and a great summer, says Kosonen, who has received good feedback about his work and hopes to get back to similar jobs someday.
Blood was drawn to volleyball through other sports
Kosonen comes from a Finnish-Canadian sports family. Her parents are former major league volleyball players. All his siblings also play sports. The most famous of them is the two-time high jump Finnish champion Daniel Kosonen.
It’s no wonder that Jessica has also been addicted to sports since she was little.
– From a very young age, we have been encouraged to exercise a lot and I have played quite a few sports, he says.
In addition to volleyball, the sports have been athletics, horse riding, gymnastics, basketball, football and many others.
– I always wanted to try all sports.
Volleyball came into the picture more only when he was 9–10 years old, even though Kosonen had played a lot with his parents, who had a volleyball background, as a child. At one time, his father also acted as his coach.
– Athletics was involved for a long time, but then I ended up in volleyball. Maybe it was the team sport aspect.
The family talks a lot about sports and also watches a lot.
– My little brother and I watch basketball and the English Premier League. Now that the Olympics were on, we had the TV on all the time.
27-year-old 174-centimeter general player
Breeders’ association: Ylöjärvi Rihti
Clubs in Finland: Woman Volley Rovaniemi, Orivesen Ponnistus, Kuusamon Pallo-Karhut, LP-Viesti Salo
Clubs abroad: Volley Lugano (SUI), TED Ankara Kolejiler (TUR), Terville-Florange OC (FRA), ASPTT Mulhouse (FRA)
Playing abroad has made me grow mentally
Kosonen’s career path has also been international on the volleyball courts. The general player jumped from his homeland to play in Switzerland, Turkey and now France.
– It has grown a lot mentally. Especially in the years in Turkey and France, he has seen that level, the size and physicality of the players, exactly the skills he wants to strive for, the Finnish national team player estimates.
Last season in Terville, France was a great success.
– I got a lot of responsibility and I got to play all the time. Through that, it signed a contract with one of the big clubs in France.
Mulhouse, which plays in the French premier league, was eliminated in the playoffs last season in the semifinals, but has played in the finals in previous years. The switch to a stronger French club is yet another step forward in Kosonen’s career.
The word professional athlete sounds great, but the everyday life of a professional athlete is simply rough work day after day.
– I wake up in the morning, eat breakfast, go to training. Then I go home from training and eat lunch. I don’t nap at all. I study, watch a series or clean. Something to get your thoughts elsewhere. Then I eat a snack and go to my evening workouts. Then there are physios, maintenance and others on top. After that, it’s pretty much dinner and bed, Kosonen’s time.
The same thing happens the next day and the day after that, except there are games on weekends.
Internationality as an asset
Kosonen’s mother is Canadian and his father is Finnish. He is bilingual and has both Finnish and Canadian passports.
– We lived in Canada for a good year and a half, before I was of school age. However, we have all attended primary and secondary schools in Finland.
– We spent the summers in Canada and the winters in Finland before the sport started to become more serious.
Perhaps the internationalism has caught on since childhood, but Kosonen, who likes to travel, in addition to Finnish and English, speaks good Italian, reasonably Swedish and French, and understands some volleyball Turkish.
She may yet carve out an international career for herself outside the volleyball courts, but before that she wants to test how high she can go in the sport.
– I would like to be able to play at as high a level as I can and see my own limits. My height has always limited me a bit, but I don’t see it as a limiting factor, thinks the 174-centimeter general player.
– I want to play as long as it’s fun, as long as I feel that I’m improving. As long as it’s worth the sacrifices of a professional athlete.