HIFK and Mixu Paatelainen have reached an agreement on the head coach.
17.4. 19:52 • Updated April 17th. 20:42
According to HIFK’s press release, Paatelainen will arrive in Finland next week and will be the team’s head coach for the first time in Veikkausliiga next Friday’s Haka match. On Monday, HIFK is still in charge of the draw against Lahti Pedro Henriques.
– There are things in football that cannot be bought with money, but must be earned. These include fans and traditions. HIFK has both of these. I grew up within HIFK and now I can be a part of this club. That’s an honor for me. I will do my best, use my experience and vision that together we will achieve something great, Paatelainen says In the HIFK bulletin (you switch to another service).
Mixun Checkmate-father as well Heikki-he have both represented HIFK in their careers in the championship series at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s.
Mixu Paatelainen, 55, coached the Finnish men’s national football team in 2011–2015. After the national team, Paatelainen has coached Dundee United in Scotland, Ubon UMT United in Thailand and the national teams in Latvia and Hong Kong.
Paatelainen has worked as an expert in the International Football Association’s Fifa and the European Football Association’s Uefa, for example in last summer’s Men’s European Championships and in the Champions League.
HIFK had to look for a new head coach right at the beginning of the season when the Portuguese Bernardo Tavares left his post on family grounds after the first league match.
A week later, however, it emerged that Tavares had been hired as head coach of the Indonesian PSM Makassar.