Tommi Aro: Journeyman

From July 2014

Helsinki toddler Tommi Aro learned to run before he could walk, family story has it. Twenty-eight years later Aro is one of Finland’s best floorball players looking forward to making the WFC in Gothenburg in December.

”My mother tells me it was running first for me so I suppose you could tell that is when I became an athlete”, Tommi Aro says  in the middle of this year’s football World Cup. The summer he was born, Mexico and Bulgaria were getting ready for 1986 edition’s kick-off that was then exactly a week away.
”In a family of three older brothers who were all into sports, it was quite obvious I would follow their way”.

In Northern Helsinki, 10 kilometres from the city center, team sports were there to just jump in and become a player.
”I started playing ice hockey for IFK Helsinki when I was six, then came football with local MPS and later even bandy for Botnia”, Tommi Aro remembers.
Should you not know, bandy is the game with skates, a wooden floorball stick -looking device, football pitch-size ice, a ball smaller than in floorball and a goal sized to leave the goalies with little hope.
”Only later have I realized how costly it must have been for my parents to finance all those hobbies. Now I know to be thankful for the chance.”
With training sessions multiplying with age groups but time not, it was ice hockey that survived longest for the Helsinki youth. Finnish floorball has lost talents like Jori Lehterä and Teuvo Teräväinen to ice hockey but ice sports lost this one to floorball.
”Can’t really tell whether I had made it in hockey, at least I did not suck at it as I was playing regularly in the second line”, Tommi Aro laughs.

All Finns play small field floorball at school but eighth grade brought it to 14-year old Tommi Aro serious.
”I was playing a school tournament when I caught local juniors’ floorball coach Pekka Mukkala’s eye and obviously he thought I might have had talent for the sport.” Mukkala who coincidentally also happens to be the former president of Finnish Floorball Federation and IFF, asked Tommi Aro to join his team Stadin Staga.
”In the first game with them, I scored five goals and soon it was time for some quick decisions. I quit hockey and became a floorball player.”

Eventually, Tommi Aro left Stadin Staga for M-Team to then join mighty IFK Helsinki that had won the Finnish men’s floorball title and European Cup in 2000.
”I was lucky enough to get to join their men’s team as a 17-year junior and could not have had a better start in Salibandyliiga, either. Defender Sami Kaarnamaa’s sudden ankle injury opened a slot in the second line and I was called in. I scored my first goal in the season’s opening game against no one less than SSV and succeeding straight away got the coaches to trust me further.”

Tommi Aro wore the stylish red HIFK jersey for three seasons. Every one of them started with high hopes and lots of ambition but somehow, success never materialized for the team.
”In those three years, we did not make the play offs once even when we had some great players like Kari Koskelainen, Markus Olkkonen, Riku Kekkonen, Jarkko Lappalainen and Ville Hautajoki.”
With Iiro Parviainen taking over as head coach, the organization was already coming apart. With HIFK getting ready for the 2007 - 2008 season, things took a sudden turn for Tommi Aro.
”In August, I got a call from Tapanilan Erä. Former HIFK coach Joonas Naava let me know they were interested.”
So was Tommi Aro.  In August, the period for free transfers in Finland was already out but somehow Erä got Aro’s former club to agree on the move.
”I immediately liked Erä’s style of play. They were a team going places and with lots of young players like me.”
The previous year’s bronze medalists did not let their new guy down. Tommi Aro’s first year with Erä brought a bronze medal, his first in men’s floorball. The next two seasons, Erä made the finals in Finland losing both times against SSV. The latter season, especially, was dramatic. In Salibandyliiga finals, Erä pushed SSV to fifth final game penalty shootout and in EuroFloorball Cup final in Fredrikshavn into overtime but lost both times.
Enough drama?
Not quite. Next August in Helsinki, Erä and Swedish Storvreta tied points and goal diifference in the EFC qualification and lot was drawn to see which one would make the final tournament.
Right. It was not Erä this time either.

Tommi Aro went on to be one of the key players for Tapanilan Erä but with some of the steam out and older players retiring, the team suffered more meager years. They won the Finnish Cup in 2012 and regularly made the Salibandyliiga play offs but were eliminated before the semi-finals.
For Tommi Aro, it was time for a journeyman’s year out to become an even more perfect floorball defender.
It was time for Switzerland and Alligator Malans.
”I had already been contacted the year before but having graduated my education it was the perfect moment to make the move.”
Typically, clubs contact players they regard interesting and fellow Finns already in Switzerland often create the contacts. Players like Esa Jussila and Olli Oilinki with years of Swiss experience are also a valuable asset for Finnish newcomers in need of advice about how everything works.
”Another way is for the player to call potential clubs himself. Some players see this as somehow embarrassing but I don’t actually see how”, Tommi Aro wonders.
”Obviously, single players with less ties to Finland have it easier to move abroad. Myself, I had actually just got married and my wife stayed back in Finland. It was OK, though. Already when we met six years earlier, I had told her I would like to play abroad some day and that was it settled.”

Six goals, seven assists and elimination in the semi-finals by Tigers were the numerical facts of Tommi Aro’s Swiss adventure with Alligator.
But there was so much more.
”I shared a flat with Lauri Kapanen and we were also employed by the same company packing elevator spare parts on an assembly line. Working merely three days a week left a good deal of time for extra floorball practise and made life feel a lot like being a professional player.”
With his 28 years of age, Tommi Aro was still able to learn new things.
”Especially, as a defender I learned to support attack more. Back in Finland, I had got used to playing safe after winning the ball, holding on to the ball or passing backwards. Our Alligator coach Akseli Ahtiainen always pressed us to faster plays which also taught me a lot.”
Aro admits the standard of Swiss Nationalliga A exceeded his expectations.
”I had anticipated there would be more running and less tactical plays but I was wrong. I think Finland’s national team is ahead of the Swiss tactically but the best NLA clubs would definitely have no problems doing well in Salibandyliiga.”
Aro felt no extra pressure to decide games even though he was one of the foreign players.
”It is probably easier for a defenceman and Alligator is also very used to having foreigners. I suppose in some smaller club speculation might arise should a foreign forward merely score two goals in five games or something.”
The communication between Tommi Aro, Lauri Kapanen, coach ”Aksu” and the Alligator players happened in English. Privately, the Finns were of course also able to analyze plays in their own language.
In everyday life, though, Tommi Aro had to learn.
”At work, I had a colleague from Portugal who spoke no English and I spoke no Swiss German but in a few months we were able to joke and talk about our families mixing the languages a bit. I learned to do the daily shopping and stuff in Swiss German and we lived in a small place where everyone was really nice.”
Swiss everyday did not bring a Finn any major surprises.
”The Swiss seem more work-oriented and work longer days. Maybe that’s why practises and games there usually start as late as 8 pm.”

In Finland, some people think players who really like to face a challenge and play the best seek themselves to Swedish Svenska Superligan as those who want to take it easier settle fot Swiss clubs. A question about it brings sharpness to Tommi Aro’s voice.
”I’ m not going to deny Sweden’s got the best league but I definitely did not become less of a player playing in Switzerland. Actuyally, I also had an offer from Sweden where I could have concentrated completely in floorball. But at the same time, I have understood in Sweden teams play more static floorball pulling back to middle line waiting for the opponent’s mistakes. I like fast and mobile floorball myself.”

Back in Finland, Tommi Aro is preparing to fight for the Finnish title for Tapanilan Erä and also for a place in the Finnish national team in WFC in Gothenburg in December.
”Erä has in interesting cocktail of young talent and us experienced players. The training is organized into smallest detail and the players’ physical training ihas been designed by Mika Saari who is a big name in Finland also coaching several Olympic athletes. I think we have a chance to go all the way in the league.”
Becoming a national team player has lifted Tommi Aro to yet another level and he is grateful for the opportunity.
”Getting to play the best in the world and seeing how players like Mika Kohonen handle their everyday preparation and training it is not possible to not develop yourself. Two years ago, I was only chosen to one of the reserves back home but this time I feel I have a chance to make the team. In Zürich, Sweden swept the floor with us but we have learned from that and made some necessary adjustments. The EuroFloorball Tour tournament in April was of course just a tournament but a clear win over Sweden reminds us everything is possible should we meet again in December, Tommi Aro says implying there are other major players besides Finland and Sweden, too.