Aki Pasinpoika Riihilahti (born 9 September 1976, in Helsinki) is a retired Finnish footballer. He is known as a hard working, defensive midfielder. He is now working as the CEO of HJK Helsinki. He was voted by leading European clubs to be the vice-chairman of European Club Association (ECA) and has also important positions both at UEFA (club competition committee) and FIFA (stakeholders committee).

Club career

Riihilahti started his career at HJK where he made his Veikkausliiga debut in 1995. He has won the Finnish championship four times (1997, 2009, 2010 and 2011), the Finnish Cup three times with HJK, and the Finnish League Cup three times, and played a vital part when the first and so far only time a Finnish Club team qualified for the UEFA Champions League in the 1998–99 season. After his first spell in HJK, Riihilahti moved to Norway's Vålerenga I.F. for the

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

season. After two seasons in Norway, he joined England's Crystal Palace in 2001, eventually becoming a fans' favourite at the club. In Palace's 2004–05 Premier League season he showed he has what it takes to play in one of Europe's top leagues. Riihilahti was so loved by the Crystal Palace faithful that a Finnish flag with the legend 'AKI 15' across the centre was hung behind one of the Selhurst Park goals for the entire Premier League season. However, his next season, back in the Championship, following Palace's relegation, was not so successful because injuries limited his chances. Despite not playing for most of his last season with Palace, Riihilahti has a place in the club Hall of Fame as he held the club record for gaining the most caps for his country whilst at Palace. After his contract with Palace expired in the summer of 2006, Riihilahti was picked up by 1. FC Kaiserslautern on a one-year deal. In June 2007, Riihilahti signed a two and a half-year deal with

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club Djurgårdens IF and on 31 July 2009 returned to Finland to sign with HJK in which he has made a crucial contribution in the club's record 5 consecutive championships 2009–2013. On 29 October 2011, Riihilahti celebrated his 100th league match for HJK by scoring once, in the last match of the season, in a 5–2 home win against Haka, and retired after the club won a convincing double that season. Riihilahti was appointed and did a good turnaround job for HJK's home stadium as the CEO of Bolt Arena. In December 2013 he was appointed as the CEO of HJK.

International career

Riihilahti made his debut for the Finnish national team on 5 February 1998 against Cyprus. He was a regular for Finland for most of the 2000s, and earned 69 caps scoring 11 goals. He is part of the Finnish Golden generation in football, but mainly due to his work as football director at International level he has become one of the most well-known Finnish football person.

Personal life

Riihilahti has also become something of a cult figure because of columns he writes for newspapers, such as '' The Times'' and the Finnish ''

Iltalehti ''Iltalehti'' (literally "Evening newspaper") is a tabloid newspaper published in Helsinki, Finland. History and profile ''Iltalehti'' was established in 1980 as afternoon edition of newspaper ''Uusi Suomi''. Alma Media is the owner of ''Iltal ...

''. He has also been involved in many good charity projects like ’' Icehearts'' and ’'

Peace United Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...

''. Apart from his careers in sports and media he has been involved in many high profile political and business committees. Riihilahti divorced 2019 and is a father of two children.

Honours

HJK Helsinki

* Veikkausliiga:

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

* Finnish Cup: 1996, 1998,

* Finnish League Cup: 1996, 1997, 1998

Crystal Palace

* English First Division play-offs: 2004

External links

*
Aki Riihilahti
a
Veikkausliiga.com
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Riihilahti, Aki 1976 births Living people Footballers from Helsinki Finnish footballers Finland international footballers Association football midfielders Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi players Vålerenga Fotball players Crystal Palace F.C. players 1. FC Kaiserslautern players Djurgårdens IF Fotboll players Veikkausliiga players Eliteserien players Premier League players English Football League players 2. Bundesliga players Allsvenskan players Expatriate footballers in England Finnish expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in Germany Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Sweden Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Expatriate footballers in Norway Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Norway Finnish expatriate footballers