Kaarlo Verneri Rantanen (born 14 December 1988) is a Finnish former professional

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 ...

who played as a forward.

Career

Rantanen progressed through the youth systems of

Ilves Ilves (; Finnish for "Lynx") is a Finnish professional ice hockey team based in Tampere. They play in the Liiga at the Tampere Deck Arena. The colors of Ilves, green, yellow, and black, were taken from what was then the coat of arms of the cit ...

, Orimattilan Pedot and Reipas before joining

Lahti Lahti (; sv, Lahtis) is a city and municipality in Finland. It is the capital of the region of Päijänne Tavastia (Päijät-Häme) and its growing region is one of the main economic hubs of Finland. Lahti is situated on a bay at the southern e ...

in early 2007. Rantanen made his debut in the

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 Veikka ...

on 11 May 2007 in the match against

HJK Helsinki Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi (), commonly known as HJK Helsinki, or simply as HJK, is a professional football club based in Helsinki, Finland. The club competes in the Finnish Veikkausliiga. Founded in 1907, the club has spent most of its history i ...

. He since left for Slovakia, where Rantanen signed with Topvar Topoľčany. After an unsuccessful stint, he returned to his home club

. For the 2011 season, Rantanen signed with Estonian club Nõmme Kalju. He shortly returned to Ilves for the 2015 season, before retiring from football due to recurring injuries.

References

External links

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Kaarlo Rantanen
at Guardian Football (archived) {{DEFAULTSORT:Rantanen, Kaarlo 1988 births Living people Footballers from Tampere Finnish footballers Finland youth international footballers FC Lahti players FC Ilves players FC Kuusysi players FC Hämeenlinna players MFK Topvar Topoľčany players Nõmme Kalju FC players Veikkausliiga players Ykkönen players Kakkonen players Meistriliiga players Finnish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Slovakia Expatriate footballers in Estonia Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Slovakia Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Estonia Association football forwards