Jari Olavi Niinimäki (1 December 1957 – 10 June 2023) was a Finnish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

er who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

. He made three appearances for Finland national team.

Club career

Niinimäki played most of his career at his hometown club

FC Ilves Tampereen Ilves (; Finnish for "Lynx"; ), commonly known as Ilves, is a Finnish professional football club based in Tampere. They currently play in the Veikkausliiga, the highest level of professional football in Finland. History The histo ...

. The exceptions were only the first two seasons he played as senior, when he played with third-tier Finnish side

TPV Tampere Tampereen Pallo-Veikot (TPV) is a Finnish football club, based in Tampere. The club plays in the Kakkonen, the fourth highest level of football in Finland. It is the second largest football club in the Pirkanmaa region in terms of active members ...

, and, later in 1986, when he played abroad in Sweden with AIK in the

1986 Allsvenskan Statistics of Allsvenskan in season 1986. Overview The league was contested by 12 teams, with Malmö FF winning the league and the Swedish championship after the play-offs. League table Results Allsvenskan play-offs The 1986 Allsvenskan p ...

.JARI NIINIMÄKI - HAN SPETSADE AIK:s ANFALL I HÖSTSPURTEN 1986
at AIK official website, Retrieved 12 December 2016 Niinimäki spent short time in Yugoslavia with Serbian club

FK Partizan Fudbalski klub Partizan ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Партизан, ; ), often referred to in English as Partizan Belgrade, is a Serbian professional Football club (association football), football club based in Belgrade. It forms ...

. He failed to make a debut in an official game, but made one appearance and scored two goals in a friendly match.

International career

Niinimäki made nine appearances for Finland national team in 1986.

Personal life and death

His son, Jesse Niinimäki, became a professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

player. Niinimäki died on 10 June 2023, at the age of 65.

Honours

Ilves *

Veikkausliiga Veikkausliiga () is a professional association football league in Finland and the highest level of the Finnish football league system. The league comprises the top 12 clubs of the country. Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agenc ...

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

Finnish Cup The Finnish Cup (; ) is Finland's main national cup competition in football. This yearly competition is open for all member clubs of the FA of Finland and has been played since 1955. The winner qualifies for the UEFA Europa Conference League ...

: 1979

References

External links

* 1957 births 2023 deaths Finnish men's footballers Footballers from Tampere Men's association football forwards Finland men's international footballers Veikkausliiga players Mestaruussarja players Allsvenskan players Tampereen Pallo-Veikot players Ilves (football) players AIK Fotboll players Finnish expatriate men's footballers Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Expatriate men's footballers in Sweden 20th-century Finnish sportsmen {{Finland-footy-forward-stub