It’s fall 2022. Mehmet Hetemaj leaves the Seinäjoki football stadium shocked. In the background is an emotional conversation with the team’s head coach by Joaquin Gomez with.
Gomez announced that SJK no longer has a use for Hetemaj, who represented the team for eight years and served as captain for the last four years.
When leaving the stadium, Hetemaj’s head is hit hard, especially by the fact that SJK’s announcement came only after the end of the season, and no celebrations of any kind were organized for the fans. No farewell match, no chance to thank fans and loved ones, not even flowers.
Why wasn’t this told earlier?
Hetemaj had already decided earlier that his career is at the end and that SJK is the final stop of his career. The spouse, who works as an entrepreneur in Seinäjoki, and the family’s two children have a great time on the expanses, and leaving alone for another season was not exciting.
Football career was over. A new era in life was about to begin.
The thought caused Hetemaj anxiety and uncertainty, even fear. All his life he had been above all a football player.
It was taken away from him. Being rejected by his team, Hetemaj’s mind was overcome by a feeling of inadequacy. From now on, football would no longer define him.
Now it was time to go back to school.
Professional athletes have a lot of time
At the end of his football career, uncertainty was caused above all by the fact that Hetemaj had neither education nor qualifications for other jobs.
After all, the papers of a high school student from Mäkelänrinte sports high school were found in the back pocket. That had been the parents’ only requirement for Mehmet and his brother For perparim. There was no question of going abroad before enrolling in high school.
– I remember exactly the moment when I put on my student cap. That’s when I thought this was it. Now I can put all my focus on football and go chase my dreams.
For the next eight years, the HJK graduate ran after the ball and his dreams on European fields. First in Greece, then in Italy.
In 2015, he signed a contract with SJK and settled in Seinäjoki. Alongside his personal football goals, two ideas had appeared, which grew into a significant part of his current identity.
One was a desire to mentor his young teammates, such as Mika Nurmela had once mentored him at HJK. The second was the realization that it would be good to have some kind of plan for life after a sports career.
The realization hit me on a game trip on the SJK bus. Hetemaj was browsing social media on his phone when he noticed his teammate reading for an exam.
– Then I realized how much free time we professional athletes have. Studying is not out of the question, on the contrary. Instead of checking Facebook updates, I can use that time to much better advantage.
Hetemaj was 27 years old. Sports career started to be more behind than ahead. Something had to be thought about.
– But even from that moment it took quite a long time before I really got to grips with it. I was maybe a little slow in that sense. If I could go back in time, I would definitely do many things differently.
The frost is severe in Seinäjoki and there is plenty of snow. Despite the wintry conditions, Hetemaj makes most of his journeys within the city by bicycle. The family car is used by the wife during the day.
Now below is a go game borrowed from a friend, because my own bike got stuck in the thieves’ wounds. Even on a borrowed bike, the journey goes smoothly when Hetemaj pedals towards his current workplace, M-Talo in Seinäjoki.
It is a hospital school where Hetemaj works as a counselor for middle school students. Pupils mainly fall under the scope of psychiatric treatment. They have challenges with learning and self-esteem.
Hetemaj, who was already happy to help and support his younger players during his playing career, wanted to continue doing the same thing even after his sports career.
– I myself had a slightly wrong attitude towards schooling. Now I want to help young people by telling them about different learning techniques and that everyone learns differently.
– In this sense, it is fortunate that I have had to struggle with these myself. I can say from my own experience that everything is possible, and the difficulties are not caused by being less smart than others, but by not having found the right way to learn.
This is a topic Hetemaj talks about with great enthusiasm.
After finishing his football career, Hetemaj started his Tradenom studies at Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences. At the beginning of his studies, however, he had to teach himself how to study.
When he was younger, Hetemaj had always gone to school from where the fence was lowest. Cramming study material into one’s own head was never his strongest area of expertise.
– As a teenager, I experienced school more as a burden than a benefit. It’s something I regret later.
Now the attitude was different and the first year at the university of applied sciences went at a rocket-like pace, mostly with commendable grades. The key to success in studying has been finding a suitable learning technique.
Hetemaj noticed, for example, that information can be absorbed more effectively through audio books than through traditional reading. However, he mentions repeating the topic he studied in his own words to another person as the most important technique.
In Hetemaj’s case, this other is often his wife.
– I don’t think the things I talk to him about interest him at all. But telling them about them really helps me learn a lot.
Studying is not encouraged in sports
Hetemaj hopes that sports clubs would do things differently. In football, the attitude towards players who go to school is not always on a healthy basis, and there is little encouragement to study.
In his career, Hetemaj has witnessed situations where studying is belittled, and there is actually pressure to avoid it.
– I have often encountered confrontation. As if studying is out of the question. That this player of ours recovers well enough if he studies at the same time? Is it focus and concentration in what is essential, i.e. on the football field, or is it on the school bench?
Hetemaj has something important to say to Finnish sports clubs and young athletes.
– In Finland, we have a society that encourages and enables education. It should not be taken away from the yellow. Especially young people should not get the feeling that you are not fully involved in this if you also invest in going to school.
– Education is support and security. I think it’s really important that clubs understand the importance of this.
A strict receipt from the principal to SJK
Before his work at the hospital school, Hetemaj had done placements in other schools. When the manager of M-Talo Tuukka Raitis heard that the local football great has switched to the school sector, he decided to get in touch and offer work.
The Psychotherapist, who has been Hetemaj’s boss for about a year, unreservedly warms up Hetemaj.
– Mehu is above all a good person. A person who means well and strives for good, with a heart. It can be seen in the way he treats the students at our school.
According to Raitti, the M-Talo students’ attitude towards Hetemaj’ is also in good shape. With young people who are sensitive and struggling with mental challenges, pretending is not the way to go.
– Mehu is an honest person, and the students sensed it. They have anything but easy and good experiences in life. They have learned to read adults quite well, who is fooling around and who isn’t.
Raitis says that he is surprised at the way SJK treated Hetemaj at the end of the season. And even if there was no game role available, another kind of useful use could be found for his features.
– As a personal opinion, I have to point out that I seriously wondered how the previous employer could afford to give up such a great guy. I don’t know much about the sports business, but I think I know something about community and building one, and employees like that are valuable.
Hetemaj, who has represented SJK for almost a decade, is the only one who can be called an icon on the Seinäjoki football map, according to Tuukka Raittii’s view.
– And if you think about what he’s studying, it’s quite a combo in the sports business.
Hetemaj, who has been involved in many, has gathered quite a bit of know-how despite his limited education. You don’t learn everything in school.
In his current job, Hetemaj says that he has also learned a lot from the students. In competitive sports, he got used to different long-term and short-term goals, which were approached in a controlled and determined manner.
The same is true outside of sports, but sometimes there are bumps in the road. It is simply acceptable.
– I have learned from young people that life is not always what you expect.