Jari Vanhala (born 29 August 1965) is a Finnish former

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 ...

who played at both professional and international levels as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

Club career

Born in Helsinki, Vanhala spent the majority of his playing career in Finland, playing with

Grankulla IFK Grankulla Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna, IFK, or GrIFK as the name is commonly abbreviated, is a Finland, Finnish sports club from the city of Kauniainen. The club was formed in 1925 and the main activities covered are football (soccer), footba ...

FF Jaro FF Jaro is a Finnish football club, based in the bilingual town of Jakobstad. It currently plays in ''Ykkönen''. Home matches are played at the Jakobstads Centralplan. Current squad ''Updated 7 March, 2022.'' Managem ...

, HJK, FinnPa, and Inter Turku. However, he also made one substitute appearance in the Football League for

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. Th ...

during the 1996–97 season, playing for 18 minutes.

International career

Between 1992 and 1997, Vanhala earned 23 caps for the Finnish national side, scoring two goals, including appearing in five FIFA World Cup qualifying matches.

References

1965 births Living people Finnish men's footballers Finland men's international footballers Grankulla IFK players FF Jaro players Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi players Bradford City A.F.C. players FinnPa players FC Inter Turku players Kakkonen players Ykkönen players Veikkausliiga players English Football League players Men's association football forwards Finnish expatriate men's footballers Finnish expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in England Footballers from Helsinki {{Finland-footy-forward-stub