Pasi Kinturi is a retired Finnish

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player who played professionally in the

USL A-League The USL Championship (USLC) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that began its inaugural season in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer) as a Division II league since 2017, pl ...

. He was the 1996 USISL Premier League MVP. Kinturi played for

Malmin Palloseura Malmin Palloseura (abbreviated as MPS) is a Helsinki-based football club that was formed in 1948. The club's first team has been playing mostly in the Second and Third Divisions. Currently the team plays in the Kakkonen which is the third tier of ...

youth team when it won the 1993 Helsinki Cup. In 1994, he played for the Malmin Palloseura in the

Kakkonen Kakkonen or II divisioona is the third level in the Finnish football league system, league system of Finnish football and comprises 36 Finland, Finnish football (soccer), football teams. The II divisioona was introduced in 1973 and in the mid-1 ...

South Group. He then moved to

FinnPa Finnairin Palloilijat, or FinnPa as the club is more commonly known as, was a Finnish association football club established in 1965. The club was based in Helsinki and it operated from 1965 to 1998. FinnPa was founded by staff of the Finnish natio ...

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 ...

. That fall, Kinturi moved to the United States to attend

Campbell University Campbell University is a private Baptist university in Buies Creek, North Carolina. It is affiliated with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (Southern Baptist Convention). Southern Baptist ConventionColleges and Universities sbc.n ...

. He played four seasons with the

Campbell Fighting Camels The Campbell Fighting Camels represent Campbell University is the nickname of the school's 21 teams that compete at the Division I level of the NCAA. Teams A member of the Big South Conference, Campbell sponsors teams in nine men's and ten w ...

(1994-1996, 1998). He was a 1996 Third Team NCAA All American. In addition to his collegiate career, Kinturi also spent the summer of 1996 with the

Nashville Metros The Nashville Metros were an American soccer team based in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1989, the team most recently played in the Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the South ...

in the 1996 USISL Premier League. He was the league’s leading scorer and MVP. Then in 1998, he spent the summer with Malmin Palloseura back in Finland. In 1999, Kinturi turned professional with the

Hampton Roads Mariners Hampton may refer to: Places Australia *Hampton bioregion, an IBRA biogeographic region in Western Australia * Hampton, New South Wales * Hampton, Queensland, a town in the Toowoomba Region *Hampton, Victoria Canada *Hampton, New Brunswick * H ...

in the

. Brett Mosen coached the Mariners and when he moved to the

in 2000, he took Kinturi, and several other Mariners players, along with him. In 2001, Kinturi again played for Malmin Palloseura. In 2003, Kinturi signed with the Nashville Metros, now playing in the

USL Premier Development League USL League Two (USL2), formerly the Premier Development League (PDL), is a semi-professional developmental soccer league sponsored by United Soccer Leagues in the United States and Canada, forming part of the United States soccer league syst ...

. Kinturi retired in 2006 from professional soccer after the birth of his first child.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kinturi, Pasi Living people 1974 births Finnish footballers Finnish expatriate footballers Nashville Metros players Campbell Fighting Camels soccer players A-League (1995–2004) players USL League Two players Virginia Beach Mariners players Association football midfielders Association football forwards Footballers from Helsinki