Mikko Paatelainen (born 27 November 1980) is a Finnish former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a striker. His father is retired footballer and manager

Matti Paatelainen Matti Paatelainen (born 17 June 1944) is a Finnish former international footballer who played as a striker. Career Paatelainen earned 47 caps for Finland, scoring eleven goals, between 1970 and 1977. He played club football at Urho, HPS, HIF ...

Career

Paatelainen began his career with

FC Haka FC Haka is a Finnish football club based in the industry town of Valkeakoski. It is currently competing in Finland's premier division of football, Veikkausliiga. It is one of the most successful clubs in Finland, with nine Finnish championship ...

, moving on to

AC Allianssi AC Vantaan Allianssi (or AC Allianssi) was a Finnish football club, based in the town of Vantaa. History Allianssi were a club in decline, following an 8–0 defeat at fellow Finnish club FC Haka. The match was believed to have been fixed by a ...

and

FC KooTeePee FC KooTeePee was a Finnish football club. History Originally FC KooTeePee was founded as a reserve team of Kotkan Työväen Palloilijat (founded 1927). In the year 2000, it became an independent club. At that time Kotkan Työväen Palloilija ...

before joining

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

side

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), ...

in July 2004. After 10 months at

Pittodrie Pittodrie Stadium, commonly referred to as Pittodrie, is an all-seater stadium in Aberdeen, Scotland. Used primarily for football, it has been the home ground of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) club Aberdeen F.C. since they wer ...

, he returned to

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bo ...

without making any first team appearances for the Dons, joining

Veikkausliiga Veikkausliiga (; sv, Tipsligan) is the premier division of Finnish football, the highest tier of the Finnish football league structure, comprising the top 12 clubs of the country. Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agency Veikka ...

side

FF Jaro FF Jaro is a Finnish football club, based in the bilingual town of Jakobstad. It currently plays in '' Ykkönen''. Home matches are played at the Jakobstads Centralplan. Current squad ''Updated 7 March, 2022.'' Mana ...

. In August 2005 he scored 5 goals in one game for Jaro, against his former club FC KooTeePee. In January 2006, Paatelainen joined Scottish side

Cowdenbeath Cowdenbeath (; sco, Coudenbeith) is a town and burgh in west Fife, Scotland. It is north-east of Dunfermline and north of the capital, Edinburgh. The town grew up around the extensive coalfields of the area and became a police burgh in 18 ...

on loan, teaming up with his brothers Mixu (then manager) and Markus. He scored 7 goals in 9 games for Cowdenbeath who would be promoted as champions of the

Scottish Third Division The Scottish Football League Third Division was the fourth tier of the Scottish football league system between 1994 and 2013. History The Scottish football league system had operated with three divisions in the Scottish Football League (SFL) f ...

at the end of the season. He then returned to FF Jaro in preparation for the new summer season in March 2006. In December 2006 Mikko joined

TPS TPS or Tps may refer to: In arts and entertainment *Télévision Par Satellite, a French satellite television company *Third-person shooter, a game genre * Torsonic Polarity Syndrome, in ''South Park'' animation * Trailer Park Sex, a band from ...

, a team that was then coached by his older brother Mixu. Mikko has been an outstanding goalscorer and player throughout his career also being FC TPS Turku's top scorer 2006–07. In 2010 he joined

IFK Mariehamn IFK Mariehamn is an Ålandic football club based in Mariehamn, the capital of the Åland Islands. It plays in the Finnish Premier Division (''Veikkausliiga''). The club is managed by Daniel Norrmén, and it plays its home matches at Wikl� ...

, after three seasons with TPS.

External links

* 1980 births Living people People from Valkeakoski Aberdeen F.C. players AC Allianssi players Cowdenbeath F.C. players FC Haka players FC KooTeePee players Turun Palloseura footballers FF Jaro players Finnish expatriate footballers Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Finnish footballers Veikkausliiga players Scottish Football League players Expatriate footballers in Scotland Association football forwards Sportspeople from Pirkanmaa {{Finland-footy-forward-stub