Jari Litmanen

At 53 years old, Jari Litmanen has this physical status:

Jari Olavi Litmanen (pronunciation, 1971) is a Finnish former footballer.

In an international career that spanned 1989 to 2010, he was the first-choice captain of the Finland national team between 1996 and 2008. Litmanen is widely regarded as Finland's best football player of all time.

In the UEFA Jubilee Awards in November 2003, he was named as the best Finnish player of the past 50 years by the Football Association of Finland.

In 2004, he came in 42nd in the 100 Greatest Finns voting.

Litmanen is regarded as the 'Greatest Ever Footballer' by the Association of Football Statisticians (The AFS) compendium, and the 53rd best footballer ever (after Pierre Littbarski and his own surname), and he is also known as "Kuningas" ("the King" in Finland. Litmanen played for Reipas, HJK, MyPa, and Lahti in Finland, as well as Ajax, Barcelona, Liverpool, Hansa Rostock, and Malmö FF abroad during his club career.

He was named one of the best attacking midfielders in the country when he was playing for Ajax in the mid-1990s, winning the Champions League in 1995, his highest year of his career. Despite some promising results for the former, his later career was marred by injuries, and he was unable to replicate his Ajax's glory, whether at Barcelona or Liverpool.

Paul Simpson, the former FourFourTwo editor, went so far as to say that his work has not been worthy of his talents while writing about Litmanen in 2009.

Personal life

Litmanen was born into a footballer's family. Olavi Litmanen, his father, was also a Finn and a Reipas player. His mother competed for Reipas at the women's highest level.

Litmanen became a father in November 2005 after his Estonian girlfriend Ly Jürgenson gave birth to a boy named Caro. Bruno, the couple's second son, was born in September 2007. Although they avoid excessive media exposure, they are still popular in public.

Litmanen was the first Finnish team sport athlete to be honoured with a statue in Kisapuisto (Lahti), where he began his career in the 1970s. Jari Litmanen's King is a 2012 documentary film about Litmanen's career.

Litmanen reported to Unibet that his coronavirus test was positive, and he had been recovering for four weeks. "I've obviously never been in such bad shape," he said at the time.

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Club career

Litmanen made his first-team debut for Reipas, Finland's then-top division Mestaruussarja, at the age of 16. In 1991, he joined HJK, Finland's top team, after four seasons with Reipas. He returned to MyPa, where he was coached by Harri Kampman, who later introduced him to his agent, Heikki Marttinen, a year later. Litmanen did not win any medals in the Finnish league, but he did win the Finnish Cup with MyPa in July 1992, beating FF Jaro 2–0 in the final at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium. His success in the cup final, which included a goal, persuaded a scout of Ajax that the club should sign him. The scout later told Finnish television, "He was the player for me." His transfer took place in the same summer, but he did not complete the Finnish football season with MyPa.

Litmanen had failed to secure a deal with Dinamo București before he was transferred to Ajax. A number of European clubs, including Barcelona, Leeds United, and PSV, had shown an interest in him, but it was Ajax that bought him.

In 2010, David Endt, the Ajax team's manager, reminisced about his first sight of Litmanen to the Finnish broadcasting company YLE in 2010.

He spent the majority of his time in Ajax (1992–93). Louis van Gaal, the Ajax's boss, was obviously not overly impressed with him, but the team's physiotherapist suggested using him as a stand-in for Dennis Bergkamp, who was hospitalized at the time. Van Gaal loved what he saw, and knowing that Bergkamp was going to leave Internazionale, he declared Litmanen would be Bergkamp's successor, something that many in Litmanen's native Finland found difficult to believe. This turned out to be true, but he inherited the famous number 10 shirt, which is often offered to playmakers. He went on to score 26 goals in the 1993–94 season, becoming the league's top scorer and leading Ajax to the championship. In 1993, he was named Footballer of the Year in the Netherlands.

Litmanen was one of Van Gaal's key players and reached the UEFA Champions League final twice in a row. Ajax went undefeated in both the Emotion (a run of 52 games) and the Champions League (19 games) from the start of the 1994–95 season to the 1995–96 season. Litmanen became the first Finnish player to win the European Cup/Champions League when Ajax defeated Milan in the 1995 Champions League final. He was the Champions League top scorer from 1995 to 1996, including the equalizer in the final against Juventus, which Ajax lost on penalties. He won the Intercontinental Cup against Grêmio in 1995 and finished third in the competition for the Ballon d'Or (European Footballer of the Year), having finished eighth in the previous year.

Litmanen spent seven years in Amsterdam, winning four Dutch titles and three KNVB Cups, and three in the Netherlands, totaling 129 goals, 91 of which were in the league. He has scored in 54 games in Europe, with 26 goals in 54 games (including two goals in the 2002–03 season). Litmanen has the distinction of being one of only three participants in a special video featurete at the Ajax Museum. Marco van Basten and Johan Cruyff are the other two. "Dennis Bergkamp was fantastic for Ajax, but Jari had the best No.10 we've ever seen," Frank Rijkaard, Litmanen's teammate in the 1993-1994 and 1994–95 seasons. Some fans referred to him as "Merlin" during his time in Ajax because of the magic he brought to the field.

But his proneness to injury made Litmanen's later seasons in Ajax an excuse, causing him to miss many games (in his six seasons as a regular first-team player, he missed seven out of 24 European matches, only five others). His health issues were expected to aggravate as time went, undermining his future.

Litmanen was reunited with Louis van Gaal at Barcelona in 1999, one of many former Ajax players recruited by Van Gaal in his time as boss. Litmanen's time with the club was largely plagued by injuries. In an article in The Observer in April 2000, he likened him to Pope John Paul II in that he was "making fewer appearances and looking more frail each time."

Litmanen also failed to adjust to his new environment, and he was one of the few players to be cut by Van Gaal last winter. At Barcelona, Van Gaal expressed his dissatisfaction with Litmanen:

Van Gaal was fired by Lorenzo Serra Ferrer, and Litmanen was frozen out of the team, losing the number 10 shirt to Rivaldo, although he stayed at the club until 2001, when he joined Liverpool on a free transfer.

"We've signed a world-class player." He comes with a strong reputation, and I think he's one of the most exciting signings we have made," Liverpool manager Gérard Houllier said after the transfer was completed. "It's always been my goal to play for Liverpool," Litmanen said about the switch. Since I was a child, I have been supporting them, and there has been talk of me joining them." He wanted to wear the number seven shirt as worn by his boyhood hero Kenny Dalglish, but Vladimr tampered with it. He settled for the number 37 after shirt numbers 17 and 27 were still in use.

Litmanen got off to a good start at Liverpool but fell his wrist against England at Anfield in late March 2001 and missed the remainder of the season. Despite being a member of the Liverpool team that lifted the treble of the League Cup, FA Cup, and UEFA Cup in 2001, he missed all three finals due to injury. He was limited by Houllier during the season, but he scored goals against Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Aston Villa, and Fulham in the Premier League and against Dynamo Kyiv, Roma, and Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League.

"Litmanen had difficulties with his ankle problems, and he was unable to play for ninety minutes week in and week out," LFCHistory.net's profile states. Litmanen himself was dissatisfied with his lack of playing time at Liverpool:

Litmanen was released free from two clubs after the 2001–02 season, scoring a total of 9 goals in 43 official games during his one and a half seasons with the club.

Litmanen returned to Ajax and was given a hero's welcome as the audience began to sing his name. He was one of the main players in the 2002–03 Champions League, but injuries dogged him, and much of the following season was spent on the sidelines. In the spring of 2004, the club cut him from his job.

Litmanen's return to Finland, where he worked with Lahti, was highly anticipated and was dubbed "the return of the king." Litmanen, however, joined Hansa Rostock in January 2005, but the club was unable to save them from being relegated, despite the fact that he was not able to prevent them from being relegated.

Litmanen joined Malmö FF in July 2005 in the hopes of assisting them in qualifying for the Champions League. This effort, on the other hand, was fruitless, and Litmanen himself was hospitalized throughout the autumn, with just a few exceptions. He decided to continue his work with Malmö in 2006 but was also dealing with a string of injuries for the majority of the year. However, the matches he did play showed that he was still a superb player when healthy. Malmö decided to prolong his contract into the 2007 season after an ankle injury in June 2007.

Litmanen received a ten-day trial invitation from Fulham under former Finland boss Roy Hodgson, and he and fellow countryman Toni Kallio were announced on January 31, 2008. Litmanen had to return to his homeland Finland to rest just weeks after signing with Fulham.

Litmanen made his Fulham debut in a reserve-team match against Tottenham on March 31, 2008, but he was released in May of the same year without playing a single game for the first team.

Litmanen will continue his playing for Lahti of the Finnish Premier Division for the remainder of the 2008 season, which was announced on August 8, 2008. Despite the fact that he only played 34 minutes in his first game, he scored twice and gave the passes for two other goals. For the first time in Lahti's history, he was instrumental in assisting them in finishing third in the league and qualifying for Europe. On April 16, 2009, he signed a new one-year deal with Lahti. In a 2–0 victory over Gorica in the second qualifying round of the Europa League, Litmanen scored his first European goal for Lahti, with the final aggregate score being 2–1. This was his 30th goal in 83 European matches. He scored a bicycle kick goal against Oulu on September 18, 2010, a 2–1 away win.

He scored his 50th Veikkausliiga goal on October 23, 2010, but this was in a 3–2 loss to TPS that didn't prevent the club from being relegated to Ykkönen.

Litmanen signed a one-year deal with the reigning Finnish champions HJK on April 20, making him one of the few footballers to play in four decades (1980s–2010s). He began as a replacement and played for ten to thirty minutes. Litmanen's HJK coach Antti Muurinen likened it to a "precision munition" for the HJK. He appeared in the Finnish Cup final against KuPS on September 24, 2011, when the score was 0–0 in the 80th minute. In the 108th minute, he scored a spectacular half volley to HJK, making it 1–0 to HJK. They went on to win the match 2–1. This was Litmanen's first Finnish Cup final after winning it with MyPa in 1992. He said that if he plays such a cup final every 19 years, he will not be playing much more in his career. HJK won the Double on October 2, 2011, securing their third consecutive Finnish championship. Litmanen had played 18 games for HJK this season, and the team had won every single match in which he had been on the field. This run came to an end on October 14, 2011, when HJK Jyväskylä drew 0–0.

Litmanen won the 5–2 home win over Haka on October 29th in his 200th league match by giving three assists. It was also his last game of the season, and it would be his last game of his professional career.

International career

Litmanen is Finland's most captained player and was Finland's top goalscorer until October 2021, when Teemu Pukki beat Kazakhstan by two goals in a World Cup qualifier. He was on tour for 21 years from 1989 to 2010.

Litmanen scored his first goal against Trinidad and Tobago on October 22, 1989, as he made his Finland debut against Trinidad and Tobago. Litmanen served as Finland's captain from 1996 to 2008 and was arguably the team's top player for more than a decade, helping the team win a few unexpected victories over higher-ranked opposition.

Litmanen earned his 100th cap against South Korea on January 25, 2006, one of only four Finns to reach such a high level, the others being Ari Hjelm, Sami Hypiä, and Jonatan Johansson.

Litmanen made his debut for Finland against South Korea on January 19, 2010, becoming one of a handful of male players to represent a national team in four distinct decades, a feat that Andorra's Ildefons Lima achieved in June 2021.

Litmanen scored a goal for Finland on November 17th, becoming the first player to score a goal in the qualifying stages of the UEFA European Championship, as the youngest player to score a goal in a 8–0 victory over San Marino, his last international match.

Later career

Urheiluruuutu of the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE's sports news show invited two of Litmanen's former colleagues to discuss the possibility of him working for Ajax if he wishes to end his playing career. Danny Blind, the former captain of Ajax, wrote the following: Danny Blind said the following:

Michel Kreek of the Ajax Academy was similarly optimistic about the possibility:

During Euro 1992, Euro 2012, World Cup 2014, and Euro 2016, he served as a television pundit for YLE, and during the latter, he also wrote opinion and analysis for the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat.

Jari Litmanen has announced that his professional career is over. In 2011, he played his last professional game.

Career statistics

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