Ilari Seppälä (born 27 March 1993) is a Finnish professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player who plays as a

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the Basketball positions, five positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position and is usually the shortest player ...

for Hungarian club

Kecskeméti TE Kecskeméti Testedző Egyesület, commonly known as Kecskeméti TE or simply Kecskemét, is a sports club based in Kecskemét, Hungary. It is most famous for its Association football, football section which competes in the Nemzeti Bajnokság II ...

, and the

Finland national basketball team The Finland men's national basketball team (, ) represents Finland in international basketball competition. The national team is governed by Basketball Finland. Finland has played in 17 EuroBasket tournaments, with their best finish coming in ...

Professional career

Born in

Lapua Lapua (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Finland, town and municipalities of Finland, municipality in Finland's South Ostrobothnia regions of Finland, region. It is located next to the Lapua River. The town has a population of () and cov ...

, Seppälä played in youth teams of local

Korikobrat Kobrat is a Finnish professional basketball team from Lapua. The team plays in Korisliiga, the highest tier of Finnish basketball. History The club was founded in 1989 as 'Lapuan Koripojat', shortly 'LaKoPo', but was renamed 'Korikobrat' in 2000 ...

, and started his professional career with

Kouvot Kouvot is a Finnish professional basketball team based in Kouvola. Founded in 1964, the team plays in the Korisliiga and has won the national championship four times: in 1995, 1999, 2004, and 2016. The team plays at the Mansikka-ahon urheiluhalli ...

Korisliiga The Korisliiga is the top-tier professional basketball league in Finland, comprising the top 12 teams of the country. In its current format, each team plays all other teams two times in the regular season, once at home and once away, for a total o ...

in 2009. After a stint with

Bisons Loimaa LoKoKo Bisons Loimaa is a Finland, Finnish professional basketball club that is based in Loimaa. History The club was established in 1964 as Loimaan Korikonkarit. The team was renamed Bisons after it was promoted to the Korisliiga in 2011. The ...

, where they also competed in

VTB United League The VTB United League () is an international professional men's club basketball league that was founded in 2009. It is made up of mostly Russian clubs, along with one each from Belarus and Kazakhstan. Since 2013, it is the first tier of Russian ...

, Seppälä returned to Kouvot in 2016 and won the Finnish championship there. Next season he joined

Kataja Kataja is an islet south of Haparanda in Norrbotten. It is the easternmost point of Sweden and it is part of the Haparanda archipelago. The islet has an area of . It is about long and wide. The name "Kataja" is Finnish for juniper. The island ...

and repeated as Finnish champion. He also played with Kataja in

Basketball Champions League The Basketball Champions League (BCL), also commonly known as the FIBA Champions League, is an annual professional basketball competition for European sports club, clubs, organised by FIBA. It is the European professional club basketball system ...

and

FIBA Europe Cup The FIBA Europe Cup (FEC) is an annual professional club basketball competition organised by FIBA for eligible European clubs. It is FIBA Europe's second level competition. Clubs mainly qualify based on their performance in national leagues an ...

. In 2019, he joined Aix Maurienne in French

LNB Pro B The LNB Pro B, commonly known as Pro B, is the second-tier level men's professional basketball league in France. It is the second division of the Ligue Nationale de Basket (LNB), which has organized the league since the year 1987. The regular se ...

, and averaged nearly 15 points per game in his second year with the team. During the 2021–22 season, Seppälä played for

Argeș Pitești Arges or Argeș may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Romania * Argeș County, a county in Muntenia, with its capital at Pitești * Argeș Region, an administrative division from 1950 to 1952 * Argeș River, which flows through the Southern ...

in Romanian Liga Națională, averaging 10.3 points and 4.8 assists per game. In 2022, he returned to France and joined

Saint-Chamond St Chamond may refer to: * Saint Chamond otherwise Annemund, bishop of Lyon * Saint-Chamond, Loire, a French town named after him * Saint-Chamond (manufacturer), informal name for the ''Compagnie des forges et aciéries de la marine et d'Homéco ...

in Pro B, where he spent two seasons. On 24 October 2024, Seppälä signed for

in Hungarian

Nemzeti Bajnokság I/A The Nemzeti Bajnokság I/A (, commonly abbreviated NB I/A) is Hungarian basketball league system, the highest level Sports league, league of club men's basketball in Hungary. Format The league comprises 14 teams. A NB I/A season is split into a l ...

, averaging 17.6 points and 4.7 assists per game.

National team career

A former youth international, Seppälä has played for the Finland national team regularly since 2017. He was named in the Finland squad for the

EuroBasket 2022 The EuroBasket 2022 was the 41st edition of the EuroBasket championship organized by FIBA Europe. It was the first since it was agreed it would take place every four years, with a similar system of qualification as for the FIBA Basketball World C ...

and the

2023 FIBA World Cup The 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup was the 19th tournament of the FIBA Basketball World Cup for men's national basketball teams, held from 25 August to 10 September 2023. The tournament was the second to feature 32 teams and was hosted by multipl ...

tournaments.

Personal life

His older brother Arttu is a cartoon drawer and former professional footballer, who also won the 11th edition of ''Diili'', the Finnish version of

The Apprentice An apprentice is someone who is in training for a trade, profession. The Apprentice or Apprentice may also refer to: Television * ''The Apprentice'' (American TV series), the original reality television series * ''The Apprentice'' (franchise), ...

reality television competition.TUNNELMIA OMASP STADIONILTA , Ilari Seppälä
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Career statistics

FIBA Champions League

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National team

References

External links

Basketball Finland profileProBallers profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seppälä, Ilari 1993 births Living people Finnish men's basketball players Point guards Shooting guards Kouvot players Bisons Loimaa players Kataja BC players Saint-Chamond Basket players Aix Maurienne Savoie Basket players Finnish expatriate basketball people in France Finnish expatriate basketball people in Romania Finnish basketball players 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup players FC Argeș Pitești players Kobrat players Kecskeméti TE (basketball) players Finnish expatriate basketball people in Hungary 21st-century Finnish sportsmen