Janne Johannes Saarinen (born 28 February 1977, in

Espoo Espoo (, ; sv, Esbo) is a city and municipality in the region of Uusimaa in the Republic of Finland. It is located on the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, bordering the cities of Helsinki, Vantaa, Kirkkonummi, Vihti and Nurmijärvi ...

) is a retired Finnish

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

Career

Saarinen started his career as a promising

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As #Cent ...

at HJK Helsinki, making his Veikkausliiga debut in 1993. In 1997, he moved to Swedish giants IFK Göteborg, but never made a breakthrough – partly because of injuries. After two years he returned to HJK, where he was converted to a

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

by the then coach Jyrki Heliskoski. He impressed in his new position, earning a move to Norwegian giants Rosenborg in 2001. In 2003, Saarinen moved to

1860 Munich , commonly known as TSV 1860 München (; lettered as ) or 1860 Munich, is a sports club based in Munich. The club's football team currently plays in the 3. Liga, the third tier of German football. 1860 Munich was one of the founding members of ...

of the German

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

, but he was not successful there, and moved to Danish giants

FC København Football Club Copenhagen ( da, Football Club København, ), commonly known as FC København, FC Copenhagen, Copenhagen or simply FCK, is a professional Danish football club in Copenhagen, Denmark. FCK was founded in 1992 as a superstructure on ...

in 2004. Saarinen returned to Finland with home-town club FC Honka for the 2006 season, stating he wanted to play in a more attacking role once more. In 2008 Saarinen joined Häcken from Sweden, where he played for two years. On 11 September 2009, Saarinen went back to HJK Helsinki.

International career

Saarinen made his debut for the Finnish national team on 16 August 2000 against

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. He was Finland's first choice left back for most of the first half of the 2000s.

Statistics

Honours

HJK Helsinki * Finnish Cup: 1993,

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

* Veikkausliiga:

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 ...

Rosenborg * Tippeligaen:

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

FC Copenhagen *

Danish Super Cup The Danish Super Cup was played for by the Danish League champions and the Danish Cup Winners. Winners *1994 : Brøndby IF 4-0 Silkeborg IF *1995 : F.C. Copenhagen 2-1 Aalborg BK *1996 : Brøndby IF 4-0 Aarhus Gymnastik Forenin ...

: 2004 *

Royal League The Royal League was an annual Scandinavian football tournament held three times between teams from the three Scandinavian monarchies (Denmark, Sweden, and Norway), starting after the end of the regular domestic seasons of Norway and Sweden. Denm ...

: 2004–05 *

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga ( da, Superligaen, ) is the current Danish football championship tournament, and administered by the Danish Football Association. It is the highest football league in Denmark and is currently contested by 12 teams each yea ...

: 2005–06

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Saarinen, Janne 1977 births Living people Footballers from Espoo Finnish men's footballers Finnish expatriate men's footballers Men's association football fullbacks Men's association football midfielders Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi players IFK Göteborg players Rosenborg BK players TSV 1860 Munich players F.C. Copenhagen players FC Honka players BK Häcken players Finland men's international footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Norway Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Norway Expatriate men's footballers in Sweden Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Veikkausliiga players Eliteserien players Bundesliga players Allsvenskan players Danish Superliga players