Hannu Tihinen

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Hannu Tihinen
Personal information
Date of birth (1976-07-01) 1 July 1976 (age 47)
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

centre-back. Since January 2014, he worked as a sports 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.[1]

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

Born in

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

Premiership. Whilst at West Ham he played in their 1–0 victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford in the 2000–01 FA Cup.[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

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

Neuchâtel Xamax on 16 May 2010.[3][4]

International career

Tihinen made his debut for the Finnish 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 Finnish national team originated from this event.

Helmet

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

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.

Career statistics

Club

As of 8 March 2024[6][7][8]
Club Season League Cup[a] Continental Other Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
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 348 34 30 5 74 6 1 0 453 45
Notes
  1. 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

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[9]
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

HJK

Viking

  • Norwegian Cup
    : 2001

Anderlecht

  • 2005–06

Zürich

  • 2009
  • The best defender in the Swiss Axpo Super League 2009

References

  1. ^ Palloliiton urheilutoimenjohtaja Hannu Tihinen siirtyy FIFAn asiantuntijaksi – Urheilutoimenjohtajan tehtävä aukeaa avoimeen hakuun, Football Association of Finland, 11 October 2022
  2. ^ "Di Canio sinks Man Utd". BBC. 28 January 2001. Retrieved 14 August 2009.
  3. ^
    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. ^ Hannu Tihinen, worldfootball
  7. ^ Hannu Tihinen, Finnish FA
  8. ^ Hannu Tihinen, playmakerstats.com
  9. ^ Hannu Tihinen international matches at Finnish FA Archived 25 August 2005 at the Wayback Machine (in Finnish)

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hannu_Tihinen&oldid=1212535421"