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Hannu Tihinen

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Hannu Tihinen
Personal information
Date of birth (1976-07-01) 1 July 1976 (age 48)
Place of birth Keminmaa, Finland
Height 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)
Position(s) Centre-back
Youth career
1991–1992 KePS
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1993–1996 KePS 77 (12)
1997–1999 HJK Helsinki 65 (8)
2000–2002 Viking 71 (8)
2001 → West Ham United (loan) 8 (0)
2002–2006 Anderlecht 101 (12)
2006–2010 Zürich 115 (9)
Total 438 (51)
International career
1999–2010 Finland 76 (5)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Hannu Tihinen (born 1 July 1976) is a Finnish former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. Since January 2014, he worked as a technical director at the Football Association of Finland. In October 2022, Tihinen was appointed as an expert adviser of FIFA in Global Football Development Division High-Performance -unit.

He has played for clubs in Finland, Norway, England, Belgium and Switzerland. Tihinen achieved five championships in three countries in a career that ended in 2010, a cup title in two countries and captained almost all of his club teams.

Club career

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Born in Keminmaa, Lapland, Tihinen started his career with KePS in second-tier Ykkönen in 1993. After the 1996 season, the club was relegated to Kakkonen, and Tihinen joined Veikkausliiga club HJK for the 1997 season. He won both the Finnish championship and Finnish Cup once with HJK, and also earned UEFA Champions League experience with the club in the 1998–99 season.

Tihinen then joined Norwegian club Viking in November 1999. He scored a decisive own goal in the final of the Norwegian Cup in 2000 but won the Cup championship the following year and headed the goal into the right goal. Tihinen spent two and a half seasons with Viking, while also having a brief loan spell at West Ham United in the English Premiership. Whilst at West Ham, he played in their 1–0 victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford in the 2000–01 FA Cup, and was named the man of the match.[1] After his loan deal ended, West Ham was willing to acquire Tihinen on a permanent contract for around £2 million, but Viking became greedy and tried to raise the transfer fee to the point where the deal collapsed eventually, and Tihinen returned to Norway.[2]

In 2002 Tihinen joined Belgian club Anderlecht for a €1.3 million transfer fee. He played in Belgium for four years, winning two Belgian championships. Tihinen scored the 1-0 winning goal against Lyon in the Champions League match in November 2003.

After Tihinen's contract with Anderlecht expired in the summer of 2006, he was snapped up by FC Zürich on a three-year deal. He was captain of the 2006–07 Swiss Championship and the 2008–09 Swiss Championship winning team. On 30 September 2009, Tihinen scored the winning goal for Zürich after ten minutes against A.C. Milan in the Group C game of the 2009–10 UEFA Champions League.

On 7 May 2010, Tihinen announced that he would retire after the 2009–10 season, mainly because of his head injuries. His last game was an away draw (3–3) against Neuchâtel Xamax on 16 May 2010.[3][4]

International career

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Tihinen made his debut for the Finland national team on 5 June 1999 against Turkey. He scored five goals in the national team matches and formed Finland's regular central defensive pairing with Sami Hyypiä for most of the 2000s. Tihinen captained the national team in a match known as the eagle-owl match against Belgium in June 2007. In the match, an eagle-owl flew onto the field and the game was stopped for a while. The nickname Eagle-owls of the Finland national team originated from this event.

Helmet

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Tihinen playing for Zurich in a match against Luzern in 2007

Tihinen injured his head many times during his career. Because of that he wore a helmet during his last seasons. He was also very good with his head, which he used to score most of his goals.

Post-playing career

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After retiring, Tihinen joined FC Zürich as a deputy sports director.[3][4]

On 13 April 2012, he announced his candidacy to run for the new president of the Football Association of Finland, as the post was left open after Sauli Niinistö was elected as President of Finland.[5] In the years 2012–2014, Tihinen was the chairman of the Finnish Football Players´ Association.

After his career, Tihinen has studied international leadership and management at the UEFA Academy and at the Aalto University in Helsinki and since 2014, he has been the technical director of the Football Association of Finland. In October 2022, Tihinen was appointed as an expert adviser of FIFA in Global Football Development Division High-Performance -unit.[6][2]

Career statistics

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Club

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As of 8 March 2024[7][8][9]
Club Season League Cup[a] Continental Other Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
KePS 1993 Ykkönen — —
1994 Ykkönen — —
1995 Ykkönen — —
1996 Ykkönen — —
Total 77 12 — — 77 12
HJK 1997 Veikkausliiga 25 2 0 0 2[b] 0 0 0 27 2
1998 Veikkausliiga 13 2 0 0 8[c] 0 0 0 21 2
1999 Veikkausliiga 27 4 0 0 3[d] 0 0 0 30 4
Total 65 8 0 0 13 0 0 0 78 8
Viking 2000 Tippeligaen 25 3 2 0 — — 27 3
2001 Tippeligaen 26 1 2 1 6[d] 1 — 34 3
2002 Tippeligaen 8 1 — — — 8 1
Total 59 5 4 1 6 1 0 0 69 7
West Ham United (loan) 2000–01 Premier League 8 0 2 0 — 0 0 10 0
Anderlecht 2002–03 Belgian First Division A 24 3 1 0 8[d] 0 — 33 3
2003–04 Belgian First Division A 29 2 6 2 10[c] 1 — 45 5
2004–05 Belgian First Division A 19 4 1 0 4[c] 1 1[e] 0 25 5
2005–06 Belgian First Division A 29 3 1 0 10[c] 1 — 40 4
Total 101 12 9 2 32 3 1 0 143 17
Zürich 2006–07 Swiss Super League 32 4 5 0 2[c] 0 — 39 4
2007–08 Swiss Super League 27 2 4 2 7[f] 1 — 38 5
2008–09 Swiss Super League 29 2 4 0 4[d] 0 — 37 2
2009–10 Swiss Super League 27 1 2 0 10[c] 1 — 39 2
Total 115 9 15 2 23 2 0 0 153 13
Career total 445 46 30 5 74 6 1 0 530 57
Notes
  1. ^ Includes Suomen Cup, Norwegian Cup, FA Cup, Belgian Cup and Swiss Cup
  2. ^ Includes UEFA Cup Winners' Cup
  3. ^ a b c d e f Includes UEFA Champions League
  4. ^ a b c d Includes UEFA Cup
  5. ^ Includes Belgian Super Cup
  6. ^ Includes two appearances in UEFA Champions League and five appearances and one goal in UEFA Cup

International

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Scores and results list Finland’s goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Tihinen goal.
List of international goals scored by Hannu Tihinen[10]
No. Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1 5 June 1999 Helsinki, Finland  Turkey 2–4 UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying
2 15 August 2001 Helsinki, Finland  Belgium 4–1 Friendly
3 12 October 2002 Helsinki, Finland  Azerbaijan 3–0 UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying
4 7 September 2005 Tampere, Finland  Macedonia 5–1 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
5 5 September 2009 Lankaran, Azerbaijan  Azerbaijan 2–1 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification

Honours

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HJK

Viking

Anderlecht

Zürich

References

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  1. ^ "Di Canio sinks Man Utd". BBC. 28 January 2001. Retrieved 14 August 2009.
  2. ^ a b Ke­min­maan kas­vat­ti Hannu Tihinen nousi West Hamin avaus­ko­koon­pa­noon Va­lio­lii­gas­sa – Sitten hänen nor­ja­lai­nen seu­ran­sa alkoi ah­neh­tia, Kaleva, 13 October 2024
  3. ^ a b "Hannu Tihinen lopettaa peliuransa - siirtyy johtoportaaseen" (in Finnish). Iltasanomat. 7 May 2010. Archived from the original on 10 May 2010. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
  4. ^ a b "Hannu Tihinen beendet seine Spielerkarriere" (in German). FC Zürich. 7 May 2010. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
  5. ^ Tihinen runs for FA presidency (in Finnish)
  6. ^ Palloliiton urheilutoimenjohtaja Hannu Tihinen siirtyy FIFAn asiantuntijaksi – Urheilutoimenjohtajan tehtävä aukeaa avoimeen hakuun, Football Association of Finland, 11 October 2022
  7. ^ Hannu Tihinen, worldfootball
  8. ^ Hannu Tihinen, Finnish FA
  9. ^ Hannu Tihinen, playmakerstats.com
  10. ^ Hannu Tihinen international matches at Finnish FA Archived 25 August 2005 at the Wayback Machine (in Finnish)
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