Litmanen is Finland's most capped player and leading goal scorer. Jari Litmanen turns 50 today. From the beginning of the 1994–95 season to the middle of the 1995–96 season, Ajax went undefeated in both the Eredivisie (a run of 52 games) and the Champions League (19 games). David Endt, who was the Ajax team manager in the 1990s, described his first impression of Litmanen to the Finnish broadcasting corporation YLE in 2010:[6]. Very soon he became one of the best known faces of Italian soccer history. I set more store by a player's character than by his on-field qualities, and particularly whether he is willing to give everything to the cause. For the Indian and Nepali dish, see, Liverpool F.C. [12] Litmanen, however, moved to German Bundesliga strugglers Hansa Rostock in January 2005, but he was unable to prevent them being relegated, which ended his stint at the club. Jari Litmanen “Jari Litmanen scored one of the best goals of his career in March 1998 when his Ajax side faced FC Twente. It was also his last game of the season and would prove to be the last of his professional career. Although they avoid too much publicity, they are sometimes seen together in public. Jari Litmanen Penalty - Missed HT. Jari Litmanen kwam in 1992 over van het Finse MYPA naar Ajax waar hij onder andere in 1995 de Champions League won. They went on to win the match 2–1. Spain won a World Cup, Chile and Germany stopped Lionel Messi from hitting Maradona-esque heights, Iceland beat England, and France broke Croatia’s hearts. On 23 October 2010, he scored his 50th Veikkausliiga goal, but this happened in a 3–2 defeat against TPS and didn't stop the club from being relegated to Ykkönen. On 17 November 2010, Litmanen became the oldest player ever to score for Finland – and also the oldest player overall to score a goal in the qualifying stages for the UEFA European Championship – when he netted a penalty in an 8–0 win over San Marino, which proved to be his last international match. In the spring of 2004, the club released him from his contract. Between 1994 and 1996, Ajax boasted of rostering players like Edwin van der Sar, Edgar Davids, Clarence Seedorf, Patrick Kluivert, Frank de Boer and his brother Ronald de Boer, Jari Litmanen, the list is endless. Jari Litmanen. He had a lack of opportunities in the team but I really liked the reaction of the Ajax players towards Jari when I sold him!'.   Loss, "Litti" redirects here. Halftime 47. [23] The King – Jari Litmanen is a 2012 documentary film about Litmanen's career. In 1995–96, he was the Champions League top scorer with nine goals, including the equaliser in the final against Juventus, which Ajax lost on penalties. In 1999, Litmanen was reunited with Louis van Gaal at Barcelona, one of several former Ajax players recruited by Van Gaal in his time as manager. Ajax rival Club Brugge for Tottenham defender Toby Alderweireld, Transfer News: Tottenham star Toby Alderweireld wanted by AFC Ajax. His later career was marred by injuries, and he was unable to repeat the success of his Ajax years either at Barcelona or Liverpool, often finding himself on the bench, despite some impressive performances for the latter. I have supported them since I was a child and there has been talk about me joining them before. 23 trophies = Olexandr Shovkovskiy and Gerard Piqué – Shovkovskiy's honours: Dynamo Kyiv: 13 leagues, 10 Ukrainian Cups. "For me, he was the player," the scout later told Finnish television. A number of European clubs, including Barcelona, Leeds United and PSV,[5] had shown an interest in him, but in the end it was Ajax that bought him. On 29 October 2011, Litmanen celebrated his 200th league match by giving three assists in HJK's 5–2 home win over Haka. European Footballer of the Year (Ballon d'Or), 3rd place: All-time top scorer for the Finland national team: 32 goals, All-time top scorer in Europe for Ajax: 26 goals, This page was last edited on 5 April 2021, at 12:53. He commented that if he plays such a cup final every 19 years, he won't be playing many more in his career. Platini scored goals; Veron, as his fellow No10 Jari Litmanen remarked, does not. Before his move to Ajax, Litmanen had failed to earn a contract with the Romanian club Dinamo București. Writing about Litmanen in 2009, Paul Simpson, former FourFourTwo editor, went as far as to assert that "his career has not been worthy of his talent".[4]. – 100 players who shook the Kop, making few appearances and looking more frail each time, Finnish Sports' Journalists Player of the Year, Finnish Football Association Player of the Year, European Footballer of the Year (Ballon d'Or), Greatest Finnish Footballer of the last 50 Years, "Your Verdict: 100 greatest ever footballers", "Jari's game: How did Litmanen fade away? [21] He played his last professional game in 2011. Perhaps the greatest Finnish footballer of all-time, Jari Litmanen is among the players who have played for Liverpool and Barcelona. On 8 August 2008, it was announced that Litmanen would join his former club Lahti of the Finnish Premier Division for the remainder of the 2008 season. Following a very sucessful 7-year spell at Ajax during which he won the Champions League, Litmanen signed for Barcelona in 1999. 1 Liverpool career 2 Honours 2.1 Individual 3 Stats 4 External links Anelka signed for Liverpool on loan from Paris Saint-Germain on 22 December 2001 until the end of the 2001-02 season. With over 50 major domestic trophies and four European Cups, Ajax is the seventh most successful football club of the 20th century. Litmanen has the honour of being one of just three players presented in a special video featurette at the Ajax Museum. Jari Litmanen has confirmed in his autobiography that his professional career is over. Litmanen's return to Finland, where he joined Lahti, was much hyped and was hailed as "the return of the king". To mark his 50th … During 1992–93, his first season at Ajax, he played mostly in the reserves. Each player had their role, and they were expected to sacrifice themselves for the team. Platini, furthermore, could take free-kicks. He was the first-choice captain of the Finland national team between 1996 and 2008 in an international career that ran from 1989 to 2010. After leaving Ajax, he one and a half relatively quiet seasons with Barcelona, then joined Liverpool in January 2001. 'I let Jari go because I have always believed he had great potential which could benefit other teams. Finnish Veikkausliiga Player of the Year: 1990. Litmanen scored his first European goal for Lahti in a 2–0 win against Gorica in the second qualifying round of the Europa League, with the final aggregate score being 2–1. You have to adapt to a new culture when you move to a different club, and not every player is able to do that. Litmanen is widely considered to be Finland's greatest football player of all time. The Eredivisie or the Dutch National League has been mostly dominated by AFC Ajax or PSV Eindhoven, with the former winning 34 trophies in the history of the Eredivisie. The following season, he was used sparingly by Houllier but did score goals against Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Aston Villa and Fulham in the Premier League and against Dynamo Kyiv, Roma and Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League. After an unsuccessful season, Van Gaal was replaced by Lorenzo Serra Ferrer, and Litmanen was frozen out of the team, losing the number 10 shirt to Rivaldo, although he remained at the club until January 2001, when he moved to Liverpool on a free transfer. Ajax’s number 10 had a unique role, offering the first line of defence by pressing the back line and midfield. In 1995, he also won the Intercontinental Cup against Grêmio and came third in the voting for the Ballon d'Or (European Footballer of the Year), having finished eighth the previous year. … He wanted to know everything about football, he was interested in every part of the game, and this gave him the nickname, within the team, we called him the 'Professor', because you could ask anything about football, and he would know the answer. "We have signed a world-class player. Litmanen earned his 100th cap on 25 January 2006 against South Korea, one of only four Finns to have reached such a milestone, the others being Ari Hjelm, Sami Hyypiä and Jonatan Johansson. [25], .mw-parser-output .legend{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .legend-color{display:inline-block;min-width:1.25em;height:1.25em;line-height:1.25;margin:1px 0;text-align:center;border:1px solid black;background-color:transparent;color:black}.mw-parser-output .legend-text{}  Win He weighs in on the all-conquering Ajax team he played in. When he played for Finland against South Korea on 19 January 2010, Litmanen became the only player ever to represent a national team in four different decades.[19]. During the second half of extra time, he scored a spectacular half volley to make it 1–0 to HJK in the 108th minute. I'm curious to know what you, reddit users think of Jari Litmanen? Litmanen spent seven years in Amsterdam, winning four Dutch championships and three KNVB Cups, and scored a total of 129 goals, 91 of them in the league. The Dutchman won 10 trophies during his career including five league titles and won the Premier League Golden Boot in 2002/03. "Time will tell what kind of results Liverpool will get in the coming years, but we all already know Suarez is a great player." On 18 September 2010, he scored a bicycle kick goal against Oulu in a 2–1 away victory. [18] He usually started as a substitute and played for 10–30 minutes. And I looked at his face and I looked at his eyes, and I recognised something in those eyes. Van Gaal liked what he saw, and knowing that Bergkamp was about to leave for Internazionale, he announced that Litmanen would be Bergkamp's successor, something that people in Litmanen's native Finland found difficult to believe. "You become a legend if you win things and you are in big teams. He played in this role on 24 September 2011 in the Finnish Cup final against KuPS, coming on in the 80th minute when the score was 0–0. [13], In January 2008, Litmanen received a ten-day trial invitation from Fulham under former Finland manager Roy Hodgson,[14] and was signed on 31 January 2008 together with fellow countryman Toni Kallio. He played an important role in helping Lahti to finish third in the league and qualify for Europe for the first time in the club's history. During his club career, Litmanen represented Reipas, HJK, MyPa and Lahti in Finland, and Ajax, Barcelona, Liverpool, Hansa Rostock and Malmö FF abroad. They made the final the following season too, missing out on penalties this time to Juventus. He is not a man who will raise his voice, or bang with his fist on the table and say, 'We do it this way'. As of that day, Litmanen had played 18 matches for HJK that season, and they had won every single match in which he had been on the field. 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