Jani Honkavaara (born 2 February 1976) is a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

football manager and retired

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player, who is the manager of

KuPS Kuopion Palloseura (or KuPS) is a Finnish football club, based in the ninth most populated city of Finland, Kuopio. KuPS plays in Finland's Premier League, Veikkausliiga. KuPS has won the Finnish championship six times, the Finnish Cup 4 times ...

Career

Honkavaara began his football career in

TP-Seinäjoki TP-Seinäjoki is a football club based in Seinäjoki, Finland. It was established in 1955 as Törnävän Pallo-55 (TP-55). The name was changed in 1994.Veikkausliiga Veikkausliiga (; sv, Tipsligan) is the premier division of Finnish football, the highest tier of the Finnish football league structure, comprising the top 12 clubs of the country. Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agency Veikkau ...

. Later in his career he was mainly known for playing for

East Helsinki East Helsinki ( fi, Itä-Helsinki, sv, Östra Helsingfors) is an area in Helsinki, Finland, usually thought to comprise the city's eastern and south-eastern major districts (, ), including the districts of Vartiokylä, Myllypuro, Mellunkylä, ...

based club

FC Viikingit FC Viikingit is a Finnish football club based in Vuosaari, East Helsinki, and currently playing in the ''Kakkonen'', the third tier of Finnish football. They play their home matches at Vuosaaren urheilukenttä, also called Heteniitty. The club ...

Vuosaari Vuosaari ( sv, Nordsjö) is a neighbourhood in the City of Helsinki, Finland. It is located by the sea in East Helsinki and with its area of is geographically the largest district in the city. It also has two Helsinki Metro stations, Rastila a ...

Managerial career

After retiring as a football player, Honkavaara was first appointed to the role of reserve team head coach in FC Viikingit. In 2007, he was appointed to coaching team and held position of coach in the club till 2009. In autumn 2009 he was selected as head coach of HIFK where he led the club towards promotion to Finnish first division

Ykkönen ''Ykkönen'' (Finnish for 'Number One'; sv, Ettan) is the second highest level of the Finnish football league system (after the Veikkausliiga), although it is the highest league managed by the Football Association of Finland. The teams also play ...

after season 2010. He resigned from the role of manager of HIFK after season 2011. After the successful spell at HIFK, he went to coach another Helsinki based club

IF Gnistan IF Gnistan (''The Spark'' in English) is a Finnish football club from the city of Helsinki, founded in 1924. The club is currently playing in the Ykkönen, the second tier of the Finnish league system. IF Gnistan play their home matches at Must ...

. Despite rather successful season, he then resigned from the club after season 2012, citing to family reasons. Soon after he was appointed as the new head coach of HIFK which had faced relegation back to Finnish second division,

Kakkonen Kakkonen or II divisioona is the third level in the league system of Finnish football and comprises 36 Finnish football teams. The II divisioona was introduced in 1973 and in the mid-1990s became known as the Kakkonen (Finnish for 'Number Two' ...

, after the ending season, led by Honkavaara's successor in the managerial role, Juha Moilanen. Right after next and very successful season 2013, he led HIFK back to Ykkönen. After the 2014 season, HIFK was promoted to Veikkausliiga, making it to the top tier of Finnish football for the first time in over 40 years. At the end of November 2016 it was announced, that Honkavaara would be the new manager of

, starting from 1 January 2017. In the 2019 Veikkausliiga season, Honkavaara led KuPS to its first Finnish championship in 43 years. In October 2019 Honkavaara was announced as the new manager of his hometown side SJK.

Achievements

KuPS *

Veikkausliiga Veikkausliiga (; sv, Tipsligan) is the premier division of Finnish football, the highest tier of the Finnish football league structure, comprising the top 12 clubs of the country. Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agency Veikkau ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, Champions SJK * Veikkausliiga:

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

, 3rd place

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Honkavaara, Jani Living people 1976 births Finnish football managers HIFK Fotboll managers Veikkausliiga players JIPPO players FC Viikingit players FC Kontu players Men's association football midfielders Finnish men's footballers TP-Seinäjoki players Kuopion Palloseura managers Sportspeople from Seinäjoki