Mika Ääritalo (born 25 July 1985) is a Finnish retired international

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 striker.

Career

Club career

After beginning his senior career in 2002 with hometown club TPS Turku,

English Premiership The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

side Aston Villa beat a host of clubs from across

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

to the signing of Ääritalo in January 2003. After failing to make a first-team appearance for Aston Villa, Ääritalo returned to his first club, TPS Turku, in February 2005. In June 2008, Portuguese BWINLIGA club C.D. Nacional were interested in signing Ääritalo, but the deal fell through due to cost and the fact that Ääritalo did not want to move to Portugal. In January 2014, he joined the German

3. Liga The 3. Liga is a professional association football league and the third division in Germany. In the German football league system, it is positioned between the 2. Bundesliga and the fourth-tier Regionalliga. The modern 3. Liga was formed for th ...

side

Holstein Kiel Kieler Sportvereinigung Holstein von 1900 e.V., simply as KSV Holstein or Kieler SV Holstein, commonly known as Holstein Kiel (), is a German association football and sports club based in the city of Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein. From the 1900s thro ...

on a six-month loan. He has since played for

Turun Palloseura Turun Palloseura, commonly known as TPS, is a professional football club based in Turku, Finland. During the 2022 season, the men's first team of the club competes in Ykkönen, the second highest tier of men's football, and the women's repre ...

FC Lahti FC Lahti is a Finnish football club based in the city of Lahti. It currently plays in the Finnish Premier League ('' Veikkausliiga'') after placing first in the Finnish First Division ('' Ykkönen'') during season 2011. The homeground of FC ...

and

Kuopion Palloseura 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 ...

International career

Ääritalo made his international debut in 2010. He scored his first international goal on 22 January 2012, in a friendly against

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

Career statistics

International goals

International

References

External links

* * 1985 births Living people Finnish footballers Finnish expatriate footballers Finland international footballers Aston Villa F.C. players Turun Palloseura footballers FC Lahti players Kuopion Palloseura players Veikkausliiga players 3. Liga players Holstein Kiel players Expatriate footballers in Germany Expatriate footballers in England Finnish expatriate sportspeople in England Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Association football forwards People from Taivassalo Sportspeople from Southwest Finland {{Finland-footy-forward-stub