FANZINE English 1/2015
★ VAHID
HAMBO
★ DIOGO
DA COSTA
★ KAAN
KAIRINEN
Ultraboyz-fanzine 1/2015 You’re reading the first Ultraboyzfanzine of 2015. We aim to publish more of these during 2014 when we get enough ideas for stories to report.
Ultraboyz-fanzine 1/2015 Editor:
Ultraboyz/Jarmo, Rise
Cover photos: Mari Hietala marihietala@hotmail.com Photos:
Ultraboyz/Rise, except for pages 4 & 12 & 18 Jarmo, s. 22 iippa
Graphics & layout: Ultraboyz/iippa www.kristiinaerkko.fi
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Writer: Jarmo
NEW THINGS FOR THIS SEASON AND BEYOND We got to hear about a co-operation agreement between Inter and ÅIFK last December. This agreement applies to youth teams as well as first teams. This was a complete surprise and for once we got a positive surprise! The party from Inter involved in signing this agreement was Mr. Joakim Håkans and this was an excellent development. It’s great that Joakim has stepped forward as a representative for Inter and dare I speculate out load that a new leaf is turning in the sharp end of our club? It may well be that I’m very much jumping the gun here but there you go. When we are those people for whom Inter is very much more than just a random football club and we have plighted to support our club till death do us part so the future of Inter is naturally of great interest for us.
Our own young players have a possibility to play with ÅIFK’s first team in the second division with this agreement and this will develop our young players and give ÅIFK hungry players into their ranks. ÅIFK’s most talented youth gets a chance to play for the Finnish junior championship in Inter’s A and B youth teams and this is a great opportunity for them to hone their skills as a player. If this agreement is applied with the both parties’ interests in mind and with true co-operation then there are all the makings of good things to happen for both clubs long into he future. Focus has to be in securing the development of young players and thus everyone under this agreement will get the maximal gain from it.
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VAHID HAMBO FORWARD sampdoria
hjk
U-19 national team
primavera
Writer: Jarmo
How did you find your way into Sampdoria´s organization? When I was 17 years old I was playing with the U-19 in a nordic tournament in Iceland and I played well and scored against Denmark and England. After I got back home my parents told me that Sampdoria had contacted them telling that they were interested in me and they invited me to visit them. I was home for a week and then I went over there for a test for the first time. They wanted me back for another test so I went there in December of that same year. Sampdoria offered me a contract which would have started in January but I decided to finish my first year in high 4
school and after that I went there the following summer. The youth national team was a good showcase and when you scored against fairly big football countries that got the scouts’ attention. How was that time and how long didi you stay there? I had a 3 year contract but I stayed there for only 2 years. I learned a lot during that time and it was both a successful and a unsuccessful trip. Unsuccessful in that sense that I returned to Finland. Successful in that sense that I was happy there. I would have liked to stay there and developed my skills even more but I injured my knee and I returned to Finland.
Not many people in Finland understand the fierce rivalry there is in the big clubs even in the youth teams because everyone aims for a professional career in the first team. That’s true, I was playing with HJK’s B youth team at the time when I left for Sampdoria and the standard was totally different there. The players were all professionals and I downright laughed at them first that how can you take all things so seriously. There were not many laughs during training or otherwise. You were able to just about anything to the coach in HJK but you weren’t allowed to call the coach by name in Sampdoria, he was Mr. Coach. Every player had a contract but not all of them got paid. When you add the fact that some guy comes from abroad and he gets paid real money some players resented me and I had a difficult time in the beginning. Some wondered that why do they bring players here from abroad when we have an abundance of Italian players here. We don’t get used to this kind of rivalry in Finnish youth teams. Was it difficult to adapt to Italy and the Italian culture? It was very difficult at the beginning when I didn’t know how to speak Italian, I spoke english. I took me almost a year before I could speak Italian. Some other foreign players learned Italian in four months and the club’s directors were even a little mad at me when I didn’t learn the language quickly enough. Another player had to translate the coaches words to me in the beginning at training so I could understand what he wanted. The second year was much easier and I
got into the opening eleven and I scored goals, too. How did you develop there, which traits of yours got even better? When I left Finland I was a very different player from what I became in Italy. I played a lot as a winger and striker and always when I got the ball to my foot I turned and started running with the ball. They don’t play like that in Sampdoria, a forward has to always be able to get the ball, no matter what the pass is, protect the ball and play it forward. I tried to play the same as always in the beginning: I got the ball, turned but then I lost it. I had to change my style. I succeed in it in the end and things started rolling well. You have to play like the coach wants you to play if you want to play at all. I just want to run with the ball, that’s how I am. What was your role in Primavera and did you get to play a lot? The first year was really difficult, I knew nothing about anything; it was a totally different world. The other players were one or two years older than me and a couple of guys played for the national squad as well so there were some very good players. My first year was a learning curve but the second year was better, I got to play a lot. Everybody expected goals from me and my own style of playing was that I take the ball, turn and run with it. Simple but difficult. The situation in Primavera is that when you are playing your final year before moving out of the youth ranks, finding a place to play anywhere at all is really very difficult. It’s very difficult to get to even Serie C. During my last year there we had 5
about 30 players. 5 of them plays in Serie C and the others don’t play at all anymore. This speaks volumes on the toughness of the rivalry, spots in any club’s first team are few and far between. Some so called football experts in Finland regard Serie C as a pub league which anybody can despise freely. That’s right but the truth is that for example my team mate in Primavera has a brother who plays in Serie C and he gets paid 18000 € per month. How many people in Finland has that kind of salary?
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Next to nobody. People just don’t understand here in Finland how immense pressure there is on a player in big footballing countries. These pressures either crush a player one way or another or some chosen few withstand the pressure and succeed in their career. Everything is so crude and harsh where emotions are meaningless. There are so many available players that the clubs can just pick and choose. That’s true, for example the Primavera of Juventus buys at least 10 new foreign
players every year and if none of them proves to be good enough within one year, then off you go. I don’t think that there are any home grown players in the first team of Juventus at the moment Were there big differences in training when compared to Finnish training? Yes, over there the coach has zero interest in what you think. Your job is to train and listen to what the coach has to say and that’s all. The coach has zero interest in anything outside of football that a player might have in his life. You come to training always whether you’re fit or not. If a player has a fever then he either calls for the club’s doctor to come and see him or he goes to the training center. You can never just stay at home, regardless of the reason. You come to training on time always, no matter what. What did that time do to your confidence? When I wwent there my confidence was very high. After arriving there we had time to train once or twice and we left for China for a preseason tournament. There were some good teams like the national teams of China and North Korea, Villarreal and some others, too. We had 5 games and I came in as a substitute in 4 of them. I scored in every game and our final game was the game for the bronze. Our opening striker had card trouble and I was in the starting eleven. I scored a hat trick and we won the bronze game 3 - 2. I scored 6 or 7 goals totally in that tournament and I got a lot of pats in the back and I was a good guy and all that. For some reason 2 weeks later when our
season started I was sitting on the bench. The coach just preferred the other striker and my confidence begun to get lower because I didn’t get to play. I thought that this year was done. The following year I scored in the season opener and my confidence soared again. I played a couple of good games and then I injured my knee and my season was done. My confidence begun to sink again. I returned to Finland in the summer and went to play with Ilves so that I could play, that was the most important thing for me. It started well and I scored some goals. That did wonders to my confidence and I thought that I was ready to play in the League. I came to Inter, everything has been going well, I’ve succeeded in scoring goals and my confidence is on the rise again. Is there a lot of politics within a Primavera team about who gets to play and who is being developed for the first team and who are just filling the empty spots? Yes, there was that, the ones who played for the national team were a step above all the rest. They had international status and contracts to match and they got to train with the first team more the the rest. We had this one player in our team whose father was a former first team player for Sampdoria and he had won championships in his time. This son of his was our captain and always in the starting eleven and he got his debut in Serie A in the final game of the season. He wasn’t a bad player but it was clear that he was pushed towards the first team. If he had had a different surname he wouldn’t gotten so far.
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Have you been following whether one of your team mates has made it into Sampdoria’s first team? Yes, I have, I still have a couple of friends there. They have made it into the lineup but sat on the bench the whole time. They are training with the first team this tear but Sampdoria will probably rent or loan them for a lower tier club.
doria didn’t think that I was ready for Serie A so I decided to release my contract. I didn’t want to go to any lower tier club where you’re forgotten easily if you don’t score a hat trick in every game or shine otherwise. I had the advantage over italian players that I could always return to Finland to seek a new rise in my career.
Did Primavera have any tarining together with the first team of games against them or the reserve team? Primavera is the first team’s reserve. Serie A-clubs have this custom that the first team plays against Primavera 2 - 3 times a month. The first team trains their tactics against Primavera and that benefits the both teams and ultimately the club itself. Series A clubs play a lot of preseason games against Serie D clubs. The games end something like 10 - 0 but the Serie A club gets to hone their tactics. They play against other Serie A clubs only when the season starts unlike we here who play friendlies against other League clubs. We play against, say, MIFK 5 times a year and that doesn’t make any sense at all.
Do you remember any highlights from your time at Sampdoria or the city of Genova or italian life style in general? I love Italy, I could move there right away. The people are friendly and talkative; if you take a taxi you’ll speak with the driver the whole time with any number of topics. No matter where you are in Italy you can always find people to talk with. The weather over there is great, there is never snow in Genova. You can hear people talking about the next game day everywhere in Italy and who’s going to beat who and why. Sampdoria’s stadium is right in the heart of the city and they organize bus transports from the stadium on game days. The whole city is practically closed during the game. Nobody moves about in the city, everybody watches the game one way or the other.
How did your decision to release your contract with Sampdoria come to? Sampdoria would have liked to keep me there for the full 3 years but they would have kept me in Primavera. They can have 2 over aged players in the team. I thought anyway that I’ve been here for 2 years and is there any sense in playing one year against players who are 2 years younger than me. I wanted to play in the first team so I could develop my skills even more. I didn’t want to go on loan to anywhere in Serie B or Serie C. Samp8
That reminds me the World Cup in Brazil last summer. I was staying in Rio during the Cup and one day when I was going to a laundry to pick up my clothes a about 70 years old woman arrived at the door the ssame time as me. I opened the door for her and let her go first, of course. She started chatting with the about 60 year old owner of the laundry and what did they talk about; football and the national team. I was elated to watch the old
girls chatting away. I remember my first Serie A game that I went to watch at Sampdoria’s stadium. It was Sampdoria - Napoli and when the referee whistled one incident the wrong way everybody, women included, jumped up and started yelling at the referee. I thought that this will never happen in Finland. Do you miss anything from there? The weather and the people but things are managed very badly over there. I had heard about that in advance and now I have personal experience on that. When you make an appointment to a doctor at 10.30 and you are there at the right time, the doctor will see you at 11.15 and nobody thinks nothing of it.
Did you always think to return to Finland if your career in Sampdoria isn’t going anywhere? I was in Freiburg’s test for a week in Germany in the summer. The footballing facilities over there are magnificent. I was pretty close to a contract there but they said that they don’t need a new striker just now. They promised to keep an eye out for me when I play in Finland. I was in England in the fall as well testing for both Crystal Palace and Brentford but they didn’t expect anything from me, I just showed my face there, basically. Their season start was 2 weeks away and their teams were set. It was nice to see those places, too. The quality of football wasn’t exactly top notch but I got to see what they are doing over there.
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How did you find your way to Inter? Teemu Turunen in my manager and he recommended Inter for me. He is a former player for Inter. Have you made yourself at home in Inter’s organisation? Yes, the club has welcomed me with open arms, I’ve had no problems. It’s always nice to go to training when you know in advance that the spirits will be high and banter will be good. What’s your role in the team? Job and Jami tell me what they want me to do on the pitch and then I do my own things, too. They got me here as a striker so that’s what they get. They told me that Inter is looking for another striker as well but I don’t care. Let him come, I’ll be the opening striker anyway. Great attitude, that warms the black and blue heart! Do you feel that you have found a connection with some other player yet? I don’t know really if I have connected with anyone specifically. It’s easy to play with Mika, he has a good foot. The previous strikers such as Furuholm’s and Sirbiladze’s success is probably partly Mika’s doing. He knows how to pass through balls and find you in a scoring opportunity. He has already had a couple of decisive passes in every game. How does Veikkausliiga’s tempo feel like when compared to Sampdoria’s Primavera’s tempo? Primavera’s tempo was pretty high but the brain wasn’t always there. The tempo is high here, too, but not the whole 90 10
minutes. I’m not at my fittest as of yet, anyway. What personal goals do you have for the upcoming season? To get to play as much as possible right from the get go and score goals. If I score 10 goals in the season, I’ll be happy. Have you made yourself home in Turku? Yes, although I have lived almost my whole life in Helsinki. It’s important for me that I live in a city. Rovaniemi might not be big enough for me. Turku is by no means a big city but everything necessary is here and I believe this to be a very nice city in the summer. Which player has been your role model? The first one was probably Ronaldinho and there hasn’t been anyone since. What is your best achievement thus far in your career? Probably going to Italy. If someone is wondering should I go or not, when the offer comes just go. Never mind about what stage your school is. You can go to school later as well, don’t use that as an excuse and stay at home. Opportunities like that won’t come twice and the younger you go the better. Who is the funniest player in the team? Solmu. Who is the best player in the world at the moment? I would say Zlatan or Messi. What about of all time? Ronaldinho.
What is your favorite dish and drink? I like pasta pomodoro very much and rice with curry chicken is good. My favorite drink is Coke. What is the best movie you have seen? That’s a very difficult question, there are so many good ones. I like Avenger and XMen, sort of scifi/fantasy genre. All comedies will do, too. What is your favorite music? That changes all the time, I like peaceful music; James Blunt, Enrique Iglesias and that sort more relaxing music than anything else.
Having been so long in Italy you probably can tell some good recipes from the Italian cuisine? I hardly ever cooked when I was there, the team ate always in a restaurant. What would you like to say to people with a black and blue heart? Invite others too to watch our games so we get as many spectators as possible. That way the atmosphere in the stadium will be better.
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DIOGO DA COSTA MIDFIELDER porto alegre
stabæk
internacional
ronaldinho
Writer: Jarmo
You’re from Porto Alegre in the south of Brazil. How did you get started in football? My first club was Internacional in Porto Alegre and it’s a big club in Brazil. I stayed there for 10 years. Their youth team was school-based.
Internacional watching me play and they invited me to play football for Internacional so I had a choice to make. I had been playing futsal and football for 2 years for Internacional at the time and now I had to choose between futsal and football.
How old were you when you joined your first club? I started with futsal when I was 8 years old and switched to football when I was 13 years old. I had to make up my mind about what to do for my career, should I try to get an international career playing futsal or football. When I was playing futsal there were some people from
Were there other clubs you could have chosen from or did the club choose you? Internacional invited me to play for them when I was 13 years old so I said yes to them, of course. Internacional is a big club and if they want you to play for them that’s what you do. There is another club in Porto Alegre as well, Grêmio, but they didn’t contact me
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so I went to Internacional. If there had been two possibilities for me, Internacional or Grêmio, I would have chosen Internacional any way because I liked Internacional more than Grêmio. Is it difficult to get into a big club in Porto Alegre? I think there was a change some 5 - 7 years ago, the whole scene is different from when I was 18 years old. It was difficult for me because at that time it was difficult for a young player to get to play regularly. It changed with Neymar; Neymar was playing a lot for the first team when he was 17 years old and that changed a lot of peoples’ minds about young players. A young player can play professionally for the first team but at the same time you have to be in control about how and how much you use your young players. How old were you when you signed your first contract with a professional club and got paid for playing football? I was 16 years old when I signed a professional contract with Internacional. It was a great time because I played with very good players who are still playing like Luiz Adriano and Taison, both for Shaktar now, Alexandre Pato for Milan now and Sidnei for Benfica. Great players in great clubs. I learned a lot from them and it was great fun to play with them. It was an amazing football school for me for sure. I was taught not only what to do on the pitch but what to do and how to live as a professional football player when you’re not playing. One thing they teach you right away is that when you are playing for a big club
like Internacional, you have to give your everything in training every single time. That’s the difference when you’re playing for a big club, a big club wants to be the champion every year so if you want to be a champion you have to train like a champion. Do you think it’s the same way elsewhere in Brazil as well? I think it’s difficult to play in Brazil now since there is so much money involved and so many companies who want to sponsor the players so it’s very easy to get distracted from the game. That creates a lot of pressure as well since now they have to keep the sponsors happy, not just the club and fans. Was that a dream come true for you when you signed your first professional contract? Yes, it really was. We celebrated my contract with my family, we had a barbecue and everybody was so happy for me. I spent 3 years with Internacional and I learned a lot during that time. Which player was your role model? Ronaldinho, of course and Ronaldo and Romario. You want to be like those great players when you are a kid. Today I like many players but for my position and my style of playing I like to watch Toni Kroos, Andres Iniesta and Alessandro Pirlo. I watch how they pass the ball and how they position themselves on the pitch and how they see the pitch. How did you decide to play outside of Brazil as a professional? Well, I think that pretty much every Bra13
zilian player wants to play in Europe at some point in their careers. When I left Internacional I went to Paraná and because I played well there my agent was contacted by some good clubs who were interested in me. I thought that this was a good move for my career and so I went to play for Stabæk in Norway. They were playing in UEFA competition that year and that was the deciding thing for me. So I moved to Norway and I like the Scandinavian life and football very much. I like the people and culture here, people respect each other and that’s very important for me. Although the weather is different that’s OK for me, no problem. I’m here to play football, not to enjoy or hate the weather. Was playing in Europe your first choice over playing somewhere in South America? Yes, it was. I never thought about playing somewhere else than in Brazil or Europe. I like Argentinian football a lot though, I like the way Boca Juniors and River Plate play football. Did you have a country in mind when you decided to play somewhere in Europe? Of course I had a thought in my mind that I would play in Spain or Italy. When I was playing for Paraná and the Stabæk people came to talk with me I decided to go there. I have to explain that although I do plan for the future, I’m a person who lives in the here and now. I take every day as they come. Of course you want to play for Real Madrid or Barcelona but you have to live your life right now right here. My life is 14
here, my home is here and I defend these black and blue colors now, I don’t have any other thoughts in my mind. It’s just as my dad told me; you’re here now, you have to do your absolute best since if you don’t play well here, where would you go after your contract? Who would want to give you a new contract? Has it been difficult to adapt to playing in Europe? At first it was difficult for me because the style of playing is different here. Here you have to play with two touches, open spaces are taken out quickly and you have to think constantly how to play. Football is a thinking man’s game, you have to know how to react to what the other team is doing, how do you press them to lose the ball and what do you do with the ball to create scoring opportunities and goals. It’s easier for me nowadays since I have been playing in Europe for a while now and I know how to play european style football. What has been your best achievement as a player? I have had many good moments in my career thus far but winning the 2006 U21 Championship of Brazil with Internacional was amazing. Playing in UEFA with Stabæk was great and signing a contract with Inter was a big moment for me since I hurt my knee in 2012 and I wanted to find a club where I could play after that injury. Do you have any other memorable moments from friendlies or other games? That time when I played in a friendly match in Venezuela in 2008 together
with Messi and Ronaldinho and other great players like Julio Baptista was amazing also. I was in the changing room when I heard someone call my name behind my back. I thought who knows my name here? I turned around and it was Ronaldinho smiling like only Ronaldinho can smile. He gave me hug and said ”Diogo, we’re teammates today.” That made me feel so good. During the game Ronaldinho passed the ball to me in the 16-yard box. I passed the ball back to him to where he had moved and he scored a goal with a first touch shot. That was great; I passed the ball to Ronaldinho and he scored. Was it an easy decision to sign a longer contract with Inter after your short contract in the end of last season? Yes, it was an easy decision for me because that meant that I could get a new start in my career. I was able to bring my wife here as well so that was a great thing. What were the main reasons for you to sign a contract with Inter? I identified myself with the club and the city. When Inter offered me a 1+1 contract I found it to be interesting for my career. My focus for this year is to grow together with my mates; Inter has the potential to be one of the main clubs in Finland. Did you have offers from other clubs as well? My agent told me that some clubs were interested in me but I don’t know which clubs or how many clubs were there. I told him that I liked it here and I would like to stay here so that was that. We 15
didn’t talk about this with my agent any longer. Has it been easy to fit into the team and to Inter’s style of playing? It has been easy since I played for Stabæk and they played with a similar style. There are some tactical things that I have to learn but nothing much. How does Turku compare to Porto Alegre? Turku is very different from Porto Alegre. There are about 2 million people in Porto Alegre so Turku is a much smaller place but both are situated right next to the sea so that’s something in common between them. The climate is very different here, of course. Do you have any personal goals for the upcoming season? I try to do my best every day and I want to play my best every day. If we get 3 points from a game, that’s good enough for me. If I don’t score, that’s fine if we still get the 3 points. To me, the team is more important than me. You need confidence to win games and scoring goals gives you that but giving that last, decisive pass is more important for me than scoring goals. My task is to create scoring opportunities for my teammates and if I succeed in that, we will win games. Who do you find to be the most funny player in our team? I think that Mankku is very funny and a bit crazy but he’s the goalkeeper so he has to be a little crazy so that’s normal for a goalkeeper.
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Who do you think is the best player in the world today? To me, it’s Mika, my teammate. What about the best player of all time? Ronaldinho Gaucho and Ronaldo Fenómeno. Messi is up there, too, but Ronaldinho was amazing for Barcelona and Ronaldo as well. What is your favorite dish and drink? I like my mother’s mashed potatoes with mayonnaise. She tells me that the recipe is a secret so I don’t know how she makes it. Beef with rice is good, too. I like Coke like anyone else, water and coffee. What is the best movie you have seen? Oh, there are so many but the one for me is the Gladiator. Pretty much everyone in Brazil has an opinion about O Selecão and who is or who should be the head coach. What is your opinion about O Selecão and the head coach? I like Dunga very much, he was a great captain for the for O Selecão in the 1994 World Cup. I like Murici Ramalho, the coach of São Paulo very much as well and Pep Guardiola would be very interesting to see as a head coach someday. What would you like to say to people with a black and blue heart? Try to think positively about your team every day, even when we might lose. When you think positively about us that creates an atmosphere in the stands which we can feel on the pitch and that carries us over bad spells. Try to support
us through difficult times as well as the good times. Think of us like your family, support us like we’re your family. We’ll
do everything we possibly can this season and try to win the championship for all of us.
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KAAN KAIRINEN MIDFIELDER youthnational team
turku
inter
talent
Writer: Jarmo
You have been brought up by Inter’s youth program and academy and you have solidified your place in the youth national teams as well. How did all this get started, how did you start playing football? My mother took me to Runosmäki’s Little League training when I was 3 years old. It all started when my older brother was playing in the Little League and I wanted to try it, too. Do you do other sports apart from football? I had track and field as a second sport some 3 - 4 years ago. It was more like a hobby, I didn’t take it seriously. 18
I tried quite many disciplines and didn’t concentrate my efforts just on, say, sprinting or long jump. I was so young then that it was just like a track and field school where you tried just about all disciplines. Nowadays I don’t have the time to do anything else because of football. Did you have a hero who has inspired you in your career thus far? I have always liked Iniesta and Xavi. I like their style of playing a lot. You have broken into Inter’s first team’s starting eleven. What has that done to your confidence?
It has boosted my confidence a lot. I have been given responsibility and I have been playing a lot. I’ve done pretty well and the coaches have been happy with my work. Is it a fair assessment that you are now realizing your dream? Yes, you can say that although my goal is to play abroad. That has always been my dream. You have been in week long test sessions abroad a few times already, what are your experiences from them? They have been good experiences, I have seen the level of football in different countries with Aston Villa, Tottenham and FC Nordsjælland and I have been able to compare my skills to them. The level hasn’t been too high anywhere or too skillful players around me and I have done well in those test sessions. Do you feel that the feedback you got from those test sessions has had measurable value to your development as a player? Yes, if they have said for example that I should improve my sprinting speed then I have taken that into account when I have been training here in Finland. Has the training methods in those test sessions abroad been much different compared with Inter’s training methods? There are small differences especially in the youth program. They pay attention to all things more and they train individuals much more than here in Finland. When I was testing in Denmark they had 6 coaches in the pitch during training. They were able to coach individu-
als much better. Here we might have 30 players on the pitch with just 1 coach. The new Veikkausliiga season is approaching fast, do you already know whether you’re playing for the first team, ÅIFK or the youth team? I think I will play for the first team, that’s what I think anyway. I have already played in the starting eleven in the Liigacup games and the coaches have been happy with my work. Have you adapted well to the first team’s training and into the team as a whole? Yes, I have adapted to tall hat pretty quickly. What is your role in the first team? I’m a box to box player. You have been very busy player. You’re only 16 years old and you have already played for many different levels; your own age youth team, one step older youth team, your own age national team, one step older national team and the first team of Inter in Veikkausliiga. Which one of these has been the toughest challenge at that particular time to play? I would say that it was about a year and a half ago when I was still playing for the -98s they put me to play in the B youth team with players who were 2 years older and physically stronger than me. It was tough to cope for the first 6 months but then I got used to it and got my game rolling again. How do you see your career in 3 to 5 year’s time? I hope I’ll be abroad. At least I would like 19
to see that I would be playing abroad in three year’s time. If you could just choose which country to play professionally in, what would it be? That would be England, somehow I like the football there. It’s just somehow fun to watch and it would be nice to play there, too. Spain would be a good place in that sense that they play smart football. When you watch it sometimes the way they play is boring. And what would be the club you would choose in that country? That would be Chelsea for some reason I don’t even know myself. I just like Chelsea from all the english clubs. Are you going to educate yourself to some other profession just in case and
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for the future? I put all my effort into football at the moment. I haven’t put really any thought into any plan B as of now. Is there any particular foreign football championship you follow closely? That would be the Premiership in England. Is there any particular club you follow closely? That’s Chelsea again. What personal goals do you have for the upcoming season? To have as much responsibility in the pitch as possible and to keep my spot in the U18 national team and to get to play there. Those are my goals for the upcoming season.
I’ll have other goals for the next season after this one. Which player has been or still is your role model? It’s still Iniesta, especially when he’s playing well. He has been a bit weak lately, he’s not in the same level as he’s been earlier. What is the best achievement in your career thus far? It’s difficult to say what’s my best achievement but the day when I debuted for the national team was a special day for me. That’s something I’ll never forget.
What is the best movie you have ever seen? A movie called Law Abiding Citizen. That’s really good and the best. What is your favorite music? I like just about any kind of music apart from classical music, heavy metal and jazz. Modern music that we young people like to listen, that’s it. What would you like to say to those people with a black and blue heart? I wish that as many people as possible would come to see us play and to support us.
Who do you think is the funniest player in the first team? I would say that one of them would have to be Mankku. I think Demba has a very funny personality in his own way. Pänä is a funny guy, too. He, too has some good stories. Mankku sits close to me in the dressing room, there’s only Jukka between him and me.You get to hear all kinds of funny stories from Mankku where I sit. Who do you think is the best player in the world at this moment? I think that’s Lionel Messi. What about the best player of all time? I didn’t watch football much when I was younger, I can’t remember anyone else than Messi. It’s Messi. What is your favorite dish and drink? My favorite dish is tortillas, I think that they are good and my favorite drink has always been Cola.
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Writer: Jarmo
SUMMARY OF FRIENDLIES AND LIIGACUP GAMES The friendlies and Liigacup games were all over the place both result-wise and playing-wise as well as quite a rollercoaster ride of emotions. The squad has changed somewhat from last season but the key players are still the same so what gives? Our defensive line was very vulnerable and in the absence of central defenders and a right back. While Juuso was suffering from ectoplasm or was it mycoplasma, we tested new central defenders and Suomen Cup 1.11.2014, HJK-Inter 5-3 rp. 0-0
22
some of our own players but it didn’t work really apart from some glimpses of goodness. Solum was stunting as a right back and while his speed was good as always, a forward doesn’t become a defender overnight. The sacrificing of Solmu as a defender diminished obviously our striking power. When our opening midfielders were sidelined from the game that showed painfully clearly, the gap between our starters and subs is quite big although
there were some glimpses of good things to come. We need more firepower in the striker department as well since scoring just can’t be on one man’s shoulders. The Atlantis-friendly was so easy win for us so you just couldn’t draw any conclusions at all. The HIFK home game was even Steven and a draw would have been a good result. Our squad played right until the final whistle and their efforts were rewarded with a winning goal just minutes from the end. Great game from the whole team! Visiting the island went down pretty much the same way and Lehtovaara made several game savers which helped the guys to score the winning goal for us. Excellent work! The black&white assholes-friendly (riiiiight!) was a different story, unfortunately. Our guys didn’t move and they lost
pretty much every one vs one-situation and so we lost, deservedly. When you play like you’re just going through the motions you seldom win and that’s what happened this time. The HIFK away game was a total crash and burn from our squad. Nobody got a clean sheet from this game which ended like a tennis match. Even if HIFK scored from every half-opportunity they had in the game, this was a really weak performance from our squad. The first real cup tie after the group stage was played at Pirkkahalli where we met Ilves. The first half was clearly ours but we could only score once even if we had chances to put this game to bed in the first half. We made one crucial defensive mistake just outside of our box and Ilves scored. On to penalty shoot out where Ilves was eventually the better team so that was the end of our Liigacup this year.
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Writer: Risto Nummela
HISTORY OF THE FIRST TEAM We begun to reminisce one Suomen Cup tie FC Honka - Inter at Espoo a few years back. I reckoned that Inter won the game after penalties 18 - 17 or something like that. It stuck to my memory that we were there, too and with a big crew and we got back home the next morning, which was the Midsummer’s Eve at around 5.00 AM. Some guys thought that the game ended with a different score. Everybody remembered that there were a number of penalties and it seemed first to go one way, then the other and back again. What really happened was that Honka was about to win twice in the shootout but they just couldn’t do it. Since we couldn’t agree upon the result I promised to find out what really happened and who scored and who didn’t.
Piece of cake, I thought. Just go to Inter’s home page and find out with just a couple of clicks. They had all the games from 2007 but not this particular game. The next step was to search the web with the all-knowing Google. It did find a prematch bulletin for the 2007 Honka - Inter cup tie. It said in that bulletin that the clubs met the previous year in the Cup as well and Inter won after penalties 11 - 10. I hit Google again and found this piece of news: the game ended after penalties 10 - 11, 1 - 1 (0 - 1) goal scorers Otaru and Ilo. Next I went to Inter’s office. They were bound to have exact data about all games played by the first team, right? Sure, they had newspaper clippings more or less organized in binders and such and they had the FA’s year books. On to talk with Inter’s kit man for many years Arto ”Nasu” Wallenius. Nasu has been documenting in many ways the first team’s exploits for many years. Season programs, newspaper clippings etc. and notebooks which were supposed to contain information on every game and goal scorer ever. Since I was on a roll already in this data collecting I got this great idea that I would start putting together a 20-year hisNasu Wallenius, Ultraboyzin kunniajäsen nro 1.
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tory of the club. I got plenty of information easily about league games from Veikkausliiga’s home page. That data was easy but time consuming to copy-paste into a single file. Results on friendlies and Liigacup games starting from 2007 was on Inter’s web site. Earlier years proved to be more challenging. I was able to get part of the data from newspaper clippings and Nasu’s notebooks. There are plenty of game results but only few line-ups and such addi-
tional information. There are some game results for Suomen Cup on Wikipedia and Suomen Cup’s website. The most difficult part is to find any information on the lower tier games (first, second and third division) and especially friendlies during those years. I rely almost solely on my own newspaper clippings archive on these games.
If you have game results, statistics or whatever information on Inter’s early years games, line-ups etc. they would be more than welcome to find their way to this e-mail address: info@ultraboyz.net. I’m trying to compile Inter’s history by 2018 when Inter celebrates the first 25 years.
And by the way, here are the lucky ones (+) and the unlucky ones (-) from that penalty shootout in the Cup tie mentioned earlier. Inter on the left and Honka on the right. Ari Nyman + Diego Corpache + Martin Mutumba - Timo Furuholm - Valtter Laaksonen + Mika Ojala + Jermu Gustafsson + Magnus Bahne - Jukka Sinisalo + Prince Otoo + Ari Nyman + Diego Corpache - Mika Ojala + Valtter Laaksonen +
Roni Porokara + Hermanni Vuorinen + Mika Helin + Lasse Lind Jami Puustinen Joel Perovuo + Tuomas Peltonen + Ville Jalasto Lasse Lagerblom + Hannu Patronen + Roni Porokara + Hermanni Vuorinen Mika Helin + Lasse Lind 25
Inter’s first team’s (1993) statistics from the first season.
Kotiottelut FC Inter - IFFK
Vierasottelut 2-0
IFFK - FC Inter
2-1
FC Inter - IlVe
0-2
IlVe - FC Inter
0-2
FC Inter - JIK
0-0
JIK - FC Inter
4-2
FC Inter - KaaRe
3-3
KaaRe - FC Inter
2-1
FC Inter - LitU
0-1
LitU - FC Inter
1-0
FC Inter - MIFK
0-3
MIFK - FC Inter
5-1
FC Inter - PiPS
1-0
PiPS - FC Inter
1-4
FC Inter - RaiPS
6-0
RaiPS - FC Inter
3-6
FC Inter - Roima
4-0
Roima - FC Inter
2-1
FC Inter - Teräs
2-1
Teräs - FC Inter
1-2
FC Inter - ÅIFK
0-4
ÅIFK - FC Inter
2-1
III-div. lohko 3
Kaikki ottelut
Kotona
O
V
T
H
M
P
O
V
T
1
MIFK
22
16
5
1
75-14
53
11
8
2
2
JIK
22
13
8
1
58-28
47
11
6
4
3
ÅIFK
22
10
7
5
46-17
37
11
5
5
4
IFFK
22
10
3
9
48-44
33
11
6
2
5
KaaRe
22
9
4
9
33-43
31
11
4
2
6
FC Inter
22
9
2
11
39-37
29
11
5
2
7
RaiPS
22
7
6
9
34-49
27
11
4
1
8
Teräs
22
6
8
8
34-34
26
11
1
5
9
PiPS
22
5
9
8
27-32
24
11
4
3
10
LiTU
22
5
7
10
36-43
22
11
3
3
11
Roima
22
5
3
14
27-80
18
11
3
1
12
IlVe
22
4
4
14
36-72
16
11
1
3
26
Vieraissa H
M
P
O
V
T
H
M
P
1
46-9
26
11
8
3
0
29-5
27
1
28-16
22
11
7
4
0
30-12
25
1
21-6
20
11
5
2
4
25-11
17
3
26-14
20
11
4
1
6
22-30
13
5
16-20
14
11
5
2
4
17-23
17
4
18-14
17
11
4
0
7
21-23
12
6
19-26
13
11
3
5
3
15-23
14
5
11-19
8
11
5
3
3
23-15
18
4
18-18
15
11
1
6
4
9-14
9
5
16-17
12
11
2
4
5
20-26
10
7
16-37
10
11
2
2
7
11-43
8
7
21-41
6
11
3
1
7
15-31
10
27
Writer: Jarmo
WHAT IS ULTRABOYZ? Ultraboyz supporter’s club was founded in 1999 to gather all supporters of FC Inter together under the same flag. We work towards enhancing the support base of a topflight football club in Turku and strive for making FC Inter more recognizable in Finland as well as gather people who are passionate about football and FC Inter together to support our club home and away in Finland and abroad. Ultraboyz keeps in touch with the Finnish FA and other top flight football clubs in Finland and their supporter’s clubs. Ultraboyz acts as a host for supporters who travel here to support their club in international cup matches. We gather for other cultural happenings outside playing season several times per year in Turku and the surrounding area. All right, enough stiff upper lip already. Let’s relax a bit and put this in a much simpler way: Ultraboyz is a group of people who share love and passion for football and especially for FC Inter. We have people from all walks of life end everyone is welcome regardless of age, gender, marital status, religion, nationality, skin colour, profession, looks and body shape. All that matters is a black and blue heart, that´s all you’ll ever need.
Info about membership fee, how much and why? Every member pays a membership fee at the beginning of each calendar year. The fee is 20 € for people who are 15 years old or older and 5 € for people who are younger than 15 years old at the beginning of the calendar year. You get to travel cheaper to away games than those people who are not members. The logic behind a membership fee is that we put together a small buffer fund, which we use to cover for the rental fee of a bus for travelling to away games. Sometimes the busfare we collect from people travelling to an away game doesn’t add up enough to cover the rental fee of the bus we use and then our buffer fund of ours comes into play. We use our buffer fund for paying for our website, costs related to supporting activities such as material for banners etc. The point is that everyone pitches in with a little membership fee to ease things moving forward. A member of Ultraboyz gets access to our webforum´s Members Only-section, where the best and most tantalizing stories and rumours are.
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Info about travelling to away games, how do I get on the bus? We inform well in advance the price of a next away game in our webforum and once the price is put out in the open it doesn’t change so you’ll know exactly how much you have to pay for the bus fare and the game ticket. It’s one price for the bus fare and the game ticket, there’s no additional cost. Ultraboyz members get their away game package typically 5€ cheaper than nonmembers. To recap, everybody gets to travel to an away game with us regardless of Ultraboyz membership. All you have to do is to dig a little deeper into your pocket than us, that’s all. More information: vierasmatkat@ultraboyz.net slo@ultraboyz.net
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FORZA INTER!!!