Karjalainen:Star with a Swiss twist

Mia Karjalainen is one of Finland’s top three defenders. It was the two seasons in Swiss league that honed her from a good player to a cornerstone of the Finnish national team.

Before the WFC in Tampere, Mia Karjalainen was asked about her greatest floorball moments that far and the answer was clear: ”The two Swiss Championship titles. We had an incredible feeling in the team and winning felt especially good after starting as underdogs both times”.

Mia Karjalainen left Finland in 2013 as a good player and returned in 2015  as an excellent one. ”After having played in the Finnish league for seven years, it was an opportunity for me to learn a lot about the game and myself. I got a lot of good hints about playing, learned new things about floorball and also the famous Swiss work ethics that shows in the rink, too”. Floorball itself turned out to be different from its Finnish version. ”You could say the Swiss play was not as technical or tactical but had a lot of speed which actually suited my way of playing perfectly. Just like in Finland, the level between top teams and lesser teams was visible but our team had lots of skill and our practices always held high class,” Mia Karjalainen remembers.

_{Karjalainen (in the middle) is a tough opponent. (Photo Erwin Keller)}

Bananas instead of chocolate
Chur turned out to be an idyllic place to live in. ”It turned out to be a small cute place with the mountains always in sight. Everything was close and also our community of players was very tight. I got a lot of friends whom I now miss but luckily it is easy to visit Switzerland and have friends from there drop by in Finland.”

Mia Karjalainen faced a cultural shocks, especially concerning food. ”To a Finn, the diet felt Middle European with lots of cheese and chocolate”, she laughs. ”The team staff would give chocolate bars to players before games which is something you certainly would not see happen in Finland. But there were bananas, too, at least for us Finns.”

_{Team NST 2015/2016 (Photo NST Naiset)}

Ambitoius NST as the best option
The return of one of Finland’s best defenders was news back home and her and choosing to sign for NST Lappeenranta came as s surprise. Tiia Ukkonen returning to her former club NST could be expected but after a career in the Helsinki area like Karjalainen's, not many players move to a town 220 km from the capital right by the Russian border. ”I gave it a lot of thought but after all, the decision was easy. My old club Tikkurilan Tiikerit had not their women's team anymore and I knew NST was building a strong team with lots of players I already knew well. As my life situation at the moment also allowed it, why not try Lappeenranta?”

Mia Karjalainen is finishing her social studies at the department of social research at the University of Helsinki with graduation in sight within about a year. Her life includes lots of pending between Helsinki and Lappeenranta. ”Typically, I spend the first part of the week in Helsinki with the latter part in Lappeenranta for practices and games. It means a lot of time on the road but that does not feel that bad.”

The last few Finnish seasons have been decided between Classic and SB-Pro but NST being beefed up with players like Karjalainen, Tiia Ukkonen and Jonna Mäkelä brought them in the title race. With the closing stages of the regular season, these teams seem to be the top three of the table. 

”I think we have each recorder wins and losses against each other,” Mia Karjalainen says and points out that there are other good teams, too. ”I would not count out someone else, too, having their say about the title.”In January, NST faced Classic join the Finnish Cup final but lost 1-3 only being able to score their opener with 20 seconds to go in the game.

_{Mia Karjalainen after the WFC 2015 final. (Photo IFF/Topi Naskali)}

Bitter but anyway great memories
The WFC tournament in Tampere in December was another unforgettable moment of Mia Karjalainen’s season. The Finns ended their tournament with a bitter penalty shootout loss against Sweden but got to experience quite a week.

”The result in the rink still feels bad and silver still has not turned into gold but the happening was great”, Karjalainen says. ”Getting to play a WFC at home with thousands of fans on the stands supporting us was something I will not forget. there was also more media attention than ever and the feeling at the arena was something incredible.”

Head coach Marko Paju and his staff lead Finland this close to a medal and Mia Karjalainen knows the next national team head coach, too, well. NST’s coach Lasse Kurronen has just been appointed to carry on with Paju’s work. ”He is a good coach with lots of determination and loads of good ideas,” Mia Karjalainen reveals. ”He does not take himself too seriously but sees to that the things the team does are done with class. I have a good feeling about the national team continuing to develop in good hands.”

The real floorball family
Most elite floorball players come from families with love for sports and Mia Karjalainen is no exception. But not all players are second-generation top players as she is. Her mother Aila Törmälä played 192 games in the Finnish league from 1991 to 2001, scoring 81 goals and 65 assists. ”Also, my aunt played in the Finnish league and my father is involved, too, though not as a player”. Mia Karjalainen’s father Matti runs the company that lays the flooring in the arenas for the games and probably spends more time on the field than most players. ”In the family, there was definitely support available for floorball and I think i first entered the arenas to watch my mother play,” Karjalainen thinks.

There was a bit of horseback riding on the side but floorball always was the only organized sport for Mia Karjalainen. At the age of seven in 1995, she insisted on joining a floorball team. The only team around was for 12-year olds but Mia and her sister were allowed to join. Coming from Kerava, a town by the railroad 30 km from Helsinki, she played for the local KKV until the local floorball arena was demolished. The girls had to move south along the railroad to Vantaa to play for Korson Kaiku.

Mia Karjalainen played her first women’s leagues season in 2005-2006 for SSV Helsinki, scoring three goals but after that it was time for Tikkurilan Tiikerit in Vantaa that was to become her team for the next seven years. Tiikerit won no title or medals in those years but year after year, Mia Karjalainen became better and better. ”I had a great time there with good coaches and good players around me and staying in the same club from the age of 18 to 25 was a good base to develop my play”.

_{Mia Karjalainen has just good memories from playing abroad. (Photo Wilfried Hinz)}

One gold still missing
The promising player was noticed by the national team coaches, too. She won WFC silver with Finland’s U19 in Germany on 2006, and the next season she also took her first steps in the women’s national team. There was a long way to go, though, as she played her first women’s WFC in 2011 in St. Gallen. ”From there, I have been one of the regulars and it has been nice to get a bigger role with more age and experience. I feel I have been able to develop every year.” 

In Tampere in December Mia Karjalainen was one of Finland’s key players but no one knows whether she will be there for Finland next time. Not even herself. ”I really do not know yet, it depends on so many things,” she ponders. ”You could say there are still goals to be met as we did not win the WFC title and that troubles me. I think I will play as long as playing feels interesting and fun but I am not yet ready to make any commitments about the years to come.”

Her contract with NST also runs out after this season and what happens after that remains to be seen. The same thing applies to eventual another go in another country. ”With my studies and all, my situation would not allow playing outside the country right now but for anyone able to go I can strongly recommend it,” she smiles.