JS Hercules is an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

club established in Oulu, Finland, in 1998. The team started at the lowest level of the Finnish league system and was playing in the Third Division until promoted to Finnish Second Division, Kakkonen, for the first time for season 2016.

History

When Hercules played the first matches in 1998, some of the players had never played in a football club previously. Some had a little background in their local youth teams and nothing else. The team's core was a group of students mostly from the Faculty of Technology at the

University of Oulu The University of Oulu ( fi, Oulun yliopisto) is one of the largest universities in Finland, located in the city of Oulu. It was founded on July 8, 1958. The university has around 13,000 students and 2,900 staff. 21 International Master's P ...

. This first generation is almost gone, but a couple are still playing for the reserve team, Herkku-Papat, or manage the team business in the background. Younger ranks are now taking care of the first team efforts on the field.

Current season

On season 2018 Hercules had three teams in different leagues. The first team plays in Kakkonen, group C. The reserve team, JS Hercules/2, plays in the Third Division in northern Finland; the third team, Herkku-Papat, in the Fifth Division in the Oulu area.

Current squad 2018

Outside the pitch

JS Hercules has combined football and business in creating a yearly seminar, FootCoop, which brings together teams and businesses from Northern Fennoscandia with exceptional speakers. The 2012 seminar featured Brian Deane,

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Martti Kuusela Martti Kuusela (born 9 October 1945 in Rovaniemi) is a Finnish football manager and former midfielder. Kuusela enjoyed a moderately successful career as a player in Finland. As a coach, he won the Finnish championship in 1981 and 1990 with ...

, Tom Markham, Jarmo Kekäläinen, Aki Riihilahti and Miguel Huhta, and others. At the same time they organized "Sister City Football Tournament" which included teams from Oulu's sister cities and other neighboring places like

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, AC Oulu,

RoPS Rops may refer to: People * Daniel-Rops (1901–1965), French writer and historian * Félicien Rops (1833–1898), Belgian artist Places * Rops (peak), a mountain in Kosovo Sports * Rovaniemen Palloseura (RoPS), a Finnish football club T ...

and Bodens BK.{{cite web, url=http://www.topspot.fi/?p=2082 , title=FootCoop 2012 was a success! , accessdate=12 March 2012, publisher=Topspot

References

Football clubs in Finland Association football clubs established in 1998 1998 establishments in Finland Sport in Oulu JS Hercules