Mika "Hirvi" Kottila (born 22 September 1974) 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 le ...

. He played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

and spent the vast majority of his career playing in

Nordic countries The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; literal translation, lit. 'the North') are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe and the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It includes the sovereign states of Denmar ...

Club career

Kottila was born in

Vantaa Vantaa (; sv, Vanda, ) is a city and Municipalities of Finland, municipality in Finland. It is part of the inner core of the Greater Helsinki, Finnish Capital Region along with Helsinki, Espoo, and Kauniainen. With a population of (), Vantaa i ...

, Finland. He joined RoPS in 1992. He had a spell on loan at

Hereford United Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'The ...

during the 1996–97 season. He made 13 league appearances, scoring 1 goal. He then joined HJK Helsinki for the second of three spells, having previously played for the club during the 1994 season. He made 157 appearances and scored 56 goals for the club during his three spells. The top moment of his career came when he scored two goals in

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

1998. He moved to Norway to play for SK Brann where he was in the 1999 season, and then Sweden to play for Trelleborgs FF. A third spell at HJK followed between 2002 and 2004. He also featured in the 2004

playing against the likes of Linfield and

Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club ( he, מועדון כדורגל מכבי תל אביב; ''Moadon Kaduregel Maccabi Tel Aviv'') is an Israeli football club from Tel Aviv and part of the Maccabi Tel Aviv Sport Club. Founded in 1906 in Jaffa as ...

in the qualifying rounds. Between 2005 and 2006 he played for FC Lahti in the Finnish Premier Division.

International career

He was capped 31 times for

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, scoring 6 goals between 1998 and 2004.

References

1974 births Living people Association football forwards Finnish footballers Finland international footballers Veikkausliiga players FinnPa players Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi players Rovaniemen Palloseura players Hereford United F.C. players SK Brann players FC Lahti players Allsvenskan players Eliteserien players Finnish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Norway Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Norway Expatriate footballers in England Trelleborgs FF players Finnish expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in Sweden Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Sportspeople from Vantaa {{Finland-footy-forward-stub