Marko Saloranta served as Helmareite’s temporary head coach already in 2016–2017. He has piloted the under-17 girls’ national team with moderate success.
Helmarit will play in the future Marko Saloranta under. The temporary head coach’s contract covers the last stages of the World Cup qualifiers, i.e. at least the September matches against Ireland (September 1) and Sweden (September 6). Finland still has a chance for further qualification.
Saloranta is making up for five years of working as a national team pilot Anna Signeulin. The Swedish Football Association announced the matter on Tuesday morning.
As expected, Helmarit lost all three matches at the European Championships in July. The team’s play had not developed as hoped for a long time. President of the Football Association Ari Lahti told that the game shows played a big role in Signeuli’s departure, but also the criticism of the Swedish coach’s actions.
Sports expert Maija Saari was only surprised by the timing of Signeul’s departure.
– I believe that Signeul would have passed these two games with honor. If the decision was not to continue with him (after the turn of the year), this was in a certain way the right decision, says Saari.
Saari would have liked a longer-term perspective from Signeul. Thoughts and actions would have been needed from the Swede in order for Helmarit to be able to respond to the rapid development of women’s football in the future.
“Player-oriented and personable”
Saloranta has been familiar to Saari for a long time. Saari won three Finnish championships in FC Honga (2006, 2007, 2008) under Saloranta. At the same time, the coach helped the player abroad.
According to Saari, Saloranta brought Honkaa player individual coaching, which “didn’t really exist yet” during Saari’s playing career.
– Saloranta is a player-oriented and personable person who is calm and passionate as a coach. He wants to take good care of the team. Through that, he also gets a lot out of the team, when he finds his own roles for the players, Saari describes.
– I respect him a lot, and it has been great to watch how he has achieved great results in the youth national team. His coaching style, caring and long-term development, has been excellent, at least for the youth side.
According to the expert, Saloranta is now the best option for Helmarei, because he knows many Finnish players from before.
President of the Football Association Ari Lahti indicates that Saloranta’s performances in the World Cup qualifiers are closely monitored. He does not rule out the possibility that the temporary head coach could become a permanent solution for Helmari. The selection of the next permanent general manager is being prepared by the association’s director of sports Hannu Tihisen under.
Saloranta worked by Andrée Jeglertz after as interim head coach before Signeul. At that time, Saloranta washed from September 2016 to August 2017, until Signeul was released from Scotland.
Same features as Markku Kanerva
His background has the same traits as the Huuhkajat pilot Markku in Kanerva. Kanerva worked as the coach of the under-21 national team, but on several occasions was the Huuhkajie’s temporary head coach.
For a long time, Saloranta has piloted the under-17 girls’ national team with reasonable success. Under Saloranta, the team has played twice in the European Championship and once in the World Championship.
According to Saari, the top countries in women have developed at such a pace that Finland has a tough challenge to keep up.
He estimates that Saloranta is looking for more playing football as a head coach than the defensively successful Signeul. Major changes are unlikely to be seen before September, as there is so little time for the qualifiers.
According to Saari, the Football Association should look to the future, as many of the regular players of Helmarei will probably end their careers in the next few years.
– There is a reason to apply for a head coach who strives to build the future in the long term.
The group winner advances directly to next year’s World Championships. The group winner gets to the next round.