Litmanen - Kympin matkassa

Join us on a journey through the decades, from Lahti's junior years to captaining the Finnish national team and becoming an international superstar.

Jari Litmanen is Finland's best football player of all time. The book reviews the rise of the talent who grew up in Lahti to captain the Finnish A national team and become an international superstar in the 1990s.

Litmanen's greatest playing years coincided with the greatness of Amsterdam's Ajax. The Dutch club won the Champions League in 1995 and was in the final the following year as well. The Finnish number ten player was a pillar of Ajax's success.

The book focuses on Litmanen's achievements, but also tells about difficult periods in his career. Litmanen had little playing time in Barcelona and Liverpool. In the Finnish A national team, Litmanen played 137 matches under nine head coaches in the years 1989-2010. The book also explains why Finland did not make it to the World Cup or European Championships at that time.

One of the authors of the book, Juha Kanerva, is an experienced sports writer who has been preparing the 100th anniversary book of the Finnish Football Association, Rakas futbola, and the historical work of the A-national team, Kivinen kisamatka. In addition, he has written Teemu Puk's biography. Kanerva and Vesa Tikander's Birth of Sports was awarded the Sports Book of the Year 2012. The other author, Petri Lahti, is an award-winning sports journalist and head of Ilta-Sanomie's sports department. He followed the national team from a close distance throughout Litmanen's career. Lahti has written the biography of speed skater Mika Poutala for a few hundredths.