The national floorball team’s head coach Esa Jussila was Finland’s best Fantasy Premier League player and 38th in the world.
Esa Jussila is Finland’s best football expert – at least this season in the world’s most popular fantasy football game.
Jussila was the 38th in the Fantasy Premier League (FPL), where almost 11 million users sought success this season. FPL is the official fantasy game of the English Premier League.
About 42,000 Finns participated in the game. The Ylikyläläise team “coached” by Jussila won the Finnish league.
– It was a great thing. At some point during the season I noticed that this is going quite well. Then there was a doubt that at some point it might not go downhill. However, execution remained steady, Jussila says.
How did the head coach of the Finnish men’s floorball team leave more than ten million football fans behind?
– A lot of luck, but also some skill.
In the summer, Jussila challenges the Finns in Ylen Futistietäjä, where the results of the European Championships are predicted. She is a beginner in that, but Jussila has experience with similar outcome predictions.
– I can say that I am really bored. I have been working with numbers all my life and working career. I rely on probabilities and I am therefore a really bad guesser. I’m going to do my best.
Jussila prepares for Futistietäjä by following the preparatory games of the European Championship teams and evaluating the teams’ formations when they are confirmed. One additional means can be unpredictability.
– Something big and surprising always happens in value competitions.
FPL is a numbers game
Jussila, a floorball expert, says she is a die-hard football fan. The excitement started in 1983 when he received a Manchester United shirt.
– Back then, jerseys weren’t available everywhere. I became a ManU supporter and at home with my family we watched the English Premier League on TV. Since then, football, and especially the Premier League, has been followed.
– I feel that I understand something about football. Then this kind of fantasy understanding is quite different from the exact knowledge of the sport.
Jussila played FPL in the early 2000s. After about five seasons, the game fell by the wayside, but he returned to it a few years later. Now he has played for about ten seasons.
According to his own words, Jussila also plays FPL rather boringly. He watches statistics and numbers and plays it safe. With that tactic, he has remained at the top of the league of his own group of friends for years.
– This season, with a few players, the timing was right. It makes a big difference in the big picture. Towards the end of the season, everyone has more or less the same players in their teams. At that point, it’s hard to get that distinction anymore, Jussila estimates.
He says that he chose Chelsea as his team at an early stage by Cole Palmerof Newcastle by Anthony Gordon and Aston Villa by Ollie Watkins.
– At a very early stage, I also took two Arsenal defenders, who played a lot of clean sheets and scored goals.
In FPL, a player gets points for goals, assists, clean sheets and playing time, among other things. For example, yellow and red cards and own goals can be a minus.
– Boringly, the single most important player was from Manchester City Erling Haaland.
Haaland won the Premier League goal exchange with 27 hits. Palmer was second with 22 goals.
The main league of domestic floorball, the F-league, currently does not have its own fantasy game. Jussila is not allowed to bet on floor bandy. However, he believes that he should build his own fantasy team.
– Yes, Premier League players are allowed to play Fantasy Premier League. It would seem strange that the head coach of the national team would not be allowed to play the F-League fantasy game. Of course I would find out beforehand.
The European football championships will be shown on channels from June 14 to July 14.