Team created by a collaborative effort of Interista93 and 27DONI72





COACH: Markku KANERVA






The best ever Finnish players 23-man squad


GOALKEEPERS:

● Jussi JÄÄSKELÄINEN
● Lukáš HRÁDECKÝ


DEFENDERS:

● Max VIINIOKSA
● Arto TOLSA
● Erkka PETÄJÄ
● Sami HYYPIÄ
● Hannu TIHINEN
● Petri PASANEN
● Niklas MOISANDER


MIDFIELDERS:

● Stig-Göran MYNTTI
● Kari UKKONEN
● Jari LITMANEN
● Joonas KOLKKA
● Aki RIIHILAHTI
● Roman ERЁMENKO
● Tim SPARV


FORWARDS:

● Aulis RYTKÖNEN
● Juhani PELTONEN
● Tommy LINDHOLM
● Ari HJELM
● Jonatan JOHANSSON
● Mikael FORSSELL
● Teemu PUKKI

__________________________________________________


RESERVES:


GOALKEEPERS:

● Lars NÄSMAN
● Olli HUTTUNEN
● Antti NIEMI


DEFENDERS:

● Frans KARJAGIN
● Esko RANTA
● Aki LAHTINEN
● Esa PEKONEN
● Toni KUIVASTO
● Markus HEIKKINEN
● Jukka RAITALA
● Paulus ARAJUURI
● Joona TOIVIO
● Jere URONEN


MIDFIELDERS:

● Eino SOINIO
● Miikka TOIVOLA
● Marko MYYRY
● Mika NURMELA
● Teemu TAINIO
● Mika VÄYRYNEN
● Alexei ERЁMENKO
● Kasper HÄMÄLÄINEN
● Përparim HETEMAJ
● Robin LOD


FORWARDS:

● Verner EKLÖF
● Gunnar ÅSTRÖM
● Aulis KOPONEN
● Kalevi LEHTOVIRTA
● Jorma VAIHELA
● Kai PAHLMAN
● Mika LIPPONEN
● Mixu PAATELAINEN
● Antti SUMIALA
● Joel POHJANPALO

I think Kizaru made the stats of some players like Lindholm, Riihiliati, Peltonen, Tolse, Turunen, Tihinen

I Think Teemu Pukki can be included in the reserves!

I'd say even in the first team if Finland manages to reach the qualification to Euro 2020. He's being really important!

Teemu Pukki definitely deserves a place in the team now ^^

Maybe Hrádecky too since he’s been one of the best and most successful Finnish players in recent times.

Links for VIINIOSKA and MYNTTI are wrong.

I know some people will not like what I'm going to say, but here's my opinion: this team needs a huge rework. A bunch of these players may be icons for Finnish fans, but they were amateurs footballers playing in one of the weakest leagues in Europe. Those players from the 50s weren't able to win a single game with Finland at the WC qualifiers. Finland's competitive record is very bad for both the WC and Euro qualifiers until the late 80s. The best result they achieved was a 9th place in 1952 OG (held in Finland). Players like Pukki, Hrádecký, Moisander, Tainio, Roman Eremenko And Forssell did much more for the NT and are/were arguably better players who proved themselves internationally.

A draft for this team has been already made. It will be updated in the future. At least most of the players you mentioned should be included.

I agree, but one minor correction. These players aren't even icons for Finnish fans. Finland doesn't have a strong football culture, so the 50s players are completely unknown even in footballing circles, with the exception of Rytkönen. Him, Pahlman, Peltonen and Tolsa are the only pre-80s ones with any sort of relevance. It sounds boring, but the all-stars 11 is basically the 00s golden generation + Rytkönen and Tolsa.

A lot of all-time teams suffer from the same problem, where people refuse to take into account the level of quality in different eras. There are a lot of teams that should only include players from the last 30 or so years.

And let's throw decades (in some cases even a century) of football history to the toilet only because certain players are unknown to most people who are probably too lazy to even bother searching up for info about them. And since you say that a lot of teams "should" only include more recent players, what teams are you referring to? Could you give a few examples?

It has nothing to do with laziness or throwing things away. A part of football history is to understand changes in strength level of teams. Finland is a perfect example.

For the examples you requested, any team from Africa and Asia. Others that should have a strong emphasis on more recent generations include teams like Turkey and Mexico.

Who guarantees you 100% that current players are better than old players? None of us can be sure if they are or not. We're talking about All Star teams, not "the best players in the last 30 years". I'm sure you can find crap rankings made by random journalists for that. You have to understand that we put emphasis on other factors other than "skills". History, results, appearances and goals, the role in "exporting" the football from their country in a bigger continent like Europe (yeah, numerous African and Asian players did that in the past) are in my opinion key factors. Since you mention Turkey, the team had its best year in 2002 when they reached the World Cup semifinal (I know that World Cup was crap but that's still their best result and let's be honest, Turkey had good players anyway). If you want teams with current players automatically added only because they're recent (this choice would be, in my opinion, an end in itself) there's a quite known blog on Wordpress with teams that have a bunch of very debatable selections.

Suggestions:

Thanks for the suggestions, although it'd be better if you explained your choices. As I already mentioned in a previous post, a draft for this team has already been done. I guess there will be an update in the future. Of course HRÁDECKÝ has to be in the first team. The team also needs two proper left backs, possibly Aki LAHTINEN and Esko RANTA. I wouldn't keep Max VIINIOKSA who played in the 1930s where a right back was basically still a centre back and Niklas MOISANDER who didn't have in my opinion a remarkable NT career. Kari UKKONEN can also be out as I think he was mainly a DMF and you selected one defender too many. Eino SOINIO has to be in the first squad as he was possibly the most prominent Finnish player in the first half of the XX century. Also, I see Jonas KOLKKA more as a midfielder rather than forward and RYTKÖNEN can be moved to the forwards so there's space for SOINIO. Tim SPARV is also a must (84 caps and captain in Finland only international tournament so far should be enough to earn him a spot). Teemu TAINIO and Mika VÄYRYNEN can be in the reserves at most. The same goes for Aatos LEHTONEN.