11.
2016
Kivilehto: Manager far away from home
Signing a sports manager for one of the most prestigious clubs of the world’s leading floorball country from their fiercest enemy nation – that sounds like an outrageous idea. Still, that’s exactly what FC Helsingborg did. Finnish Juha Kivilehto is employed not only as one of their key players but also holds the crucial office position.
Juha Kivilehto is a candidiate for yet another WFC. In his case a sixth one in a row.
”Looks like I did something right during my previous time here”, Juha Kivilehto says earnestly. ”Actually, it was the club that came up with the idea. After the 2014 WFC in Gothenburg they made enquiries about my interest to rejoin the club. Fine, I said, and told them I could become their manager after I retire some day. Merely a month later, they called and suggested I could work as their sportchef besides playing as their manager at the time, Kent Göransson, was planning to leave. It did not take me long to decide this is an opportunity I do not want to miss. I want to work at floorball after my playing days will be over and this was an excellent role to start with.”
Juha Kivilehto works at the office of Helsingborg.
Employing player-managers is always challenging, and having a player-sportchef should not be much easier. ”I have been received well even it is not easy to be your teammates’ sportchef. Luckily, our players are smart enough to know what role I am in when I play or when I work at the office. In this double role I also have the opportunity to carry on playing whole-heartedly. I still want to develop and win as a player.”
Finnish legend
Juha Kivilehto’s double role and the fact that he was chosen by a Swedish top club do come as grand surprises but his rising to the board level does not. For quite a while, he has been known as a smart floorball person with good connections, an education in commercial matters and the determined look of a future sports executive. It is not hard to imagine him in future positions beyond club level and even beyond the mere sport of floorball.
With his two World Championship titles in 2008 and 2010, six Finnish Salibandyliiga titles and a bucketload of other medals, Juha Kivllehto has already carved his name in the stone plaques of Finnish floorball. There have not been many of his type, defensemen with soft hands, strong physique and a floorball computer in his head assisted by the beams of a pair of ever-scanning eyes.
The cousin-competition
Like so many star players around the floorball world, Juha Kivilehto, too, started his career chasing the ball outside with the neighborhood kids. ”My family was always pretty athletic, especially my cousins with whom I spent my childhood summers. In the summertime, it was all about football and athletics and in the winter we played ice hockey outdoors on an iced lake. There was always some kind of a match going on and facing my cousins and my older brother was a toughening experience as I was the smallest of us all. The same went on at school where my classmates, too, were into sports and we lived right next to Myyrmäki sports park in Vantaa."
Juha Kivilehto’s first organized sport was football and indeed he played quite seriously until the age of 27 when he first moved to Helsingborg to play floorball. ”Actually, my floorball contract negotiations sometimes threatened to deadlock as I wanted the opportunity to carry on with football for VJS Vantaa but finally we always agreed.“ Besides football and floorball, Kivilehto also had a bit of a career as a handball and a ice-hockey player. But it is not a surprise that his greatest idol was a footballer. ”Eric Cantona, absolutely. An artist who always played with passion.”
Fotogalerie
Stolen from football
Juha Kivilehto took on floorball when VFT Vantaa organized a floorball school for juniors and it soon developed into an actual team. Kivilehto is not the only legend to emerge from that time as names like Hannu Korhonen, Timo Toivonen, Mika Heinonen (future VFT player and Oilers coach) and coaching legend Kai Ahlstedt (sacked as Finland’s women’s national team coach mid-2001 WFC in Riga) were also involved. ”For quite a while, floorball and football were there side by side until one day VFT Salibandyliiga team coach Kai Ahlstedt walked into the football pitch asking whether I was interested in joining the men’s team. The next day, I found myself practicing with them and floorball had become my number one.”
The feisty and tough VFT team had a lot of legendary players who also became role models for young Juha Kivilehto. ”Players like Pasi Vänttinen and Petri Huttunen were my floorball idols and I tried to learn from them. It has been an honor to get to play with them. I have also had two coaches above everyone else: Kai Ahlstedt and Mika Ahonen who now happens to coach me again. They were never easy persons and I have had to work hard to gain their confidence but I believe I have succeeded and they both have influenced me greatly as a player and as a person.”
Lucky to do both
A long and successful career has taught Juha Kivilehto many lessons about winning and losing. ”I have always been lucky to get good teams to want to sign me and every victory and title has been an unforgettable moment. One is above all others, though, and that was the WFC title in Helsinki in 2010. There’s just no describing the feeling after that final. Also, winning the Finnish title for SPV was a special moment. After a few lesser seasons I was able to prove myself I was still able to play in an important role in the best team. For the worst moments: not being able to play at the level I have expected from myself has been even worse than losing final games.”
Planning a life in sports after retiring as player has started little by little for Juha Kivilehto. ”Sports has always been a great part of my life it has been my dream to work at it. I have had many years as a floorball professional but time has also become to be able to combine them. Right now I’m really lucky to be able to both play and work with sports management. My studies, though, were never particularly designed for sports management but more like just getting my degree. But I’m happy and proud I graduated.”
The role models
As a top player, Juha Kivilehto has had the opportunity to work for many legendary floorball managers and learn from them. ”I have met my share of managers and team leaders, better and worse. As the best of them there have been names like Kurt Westerlund: A tough but fair manager who always kept his promises and in SSV’s numerous championship parties delivered even more. SPV’s Tommy Koponen showed how much you can reach with commitment and determination. VFT’s controversial manager Tom Sandell who always demanded everything from his players, he was tough and had an immense passion to win. Here in Helsingborg we have chairman Krister Azelius, an exceptional executive whom I get to work for. He is a determined leader with the un-Swedish ability to speak up his mind and a competitive mindset with great hatred against losing.“
Finish forward Mika Kohonen is hired to be a leader after Jani Kukkola has left.
No doubts regarding Kohonen
For years, FC Helsingborg has employed their share of Finnish stars and with Juha Kivilehto as sportchef, they have reached a record number. With Jani Kukkola,Mika Moilanen and Asser Jääskeläinen returning to Finland, FCH signed Mika Kohonen and Petri Hakonen from Finland and Jami Manninen who comes from Switzerland. And all of it is topped with head coach Mika Ahonen who already has won everything there is in Finland. With a good start into the season Helsingborg shook off some of the doubt there might have been about their chances in the world’s best floorball league. Coach Mika Ahonen works hard learning the language, helped in the beginning by Mika Kohonen and Juha Kivilehto who translate his orders into Swedish.
Especially the signing of 39-year old Mika Kohonen raised a few eyebrows and some experts tipping him to be the major disappointment of the season. Yet, the legend has started well, scoring points in all games at the beginning of the season. ”We signed him to be both a top player and a leader”, sportchef Kivilehto says without a moment of hesitation. ”Making him the captain of the team is a sign of respect for him. He is one of the greatest leading players in the floorball world and just the kind of player we have been looking for.”
