Tero Penttilä (born 9 March 1975) is a former professional football player who played for Rangers in defence.

Club career

Penttilä began football career at Reipas Lahti, before moving to arch rivals FC Kuusysi in 1994. By 1997, the two sides had merged and become

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 Lah ...

. Penttilä continued to play for the side until 1999, when he moved to

Haka Valkeakoski FC Haka is a Finnish football club based in the industry town of Valkeakoski. It is currently competing in Finland's premier division of football, Veikkausliiga. It is one of the most successful clubs in Finland, with nine Finnish championships ...

, where he won his first

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 Veikkau ...

title. It was at Haka that the then Rangers manager

Dick Advocaat Dirk Nicolaas Advocaat (; born 27 September 1947) is a Dutch former football player and coach who is currently the head coach of Eerste Divisie side ADO Den Haag. Advocaat was successful as a football player and as a coach, including three sti ...

noticed him during a

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 ...

qualifier. Penttilä joined the Gers in November 1999, he cost £300,000. He made a total of five top team appearances (four in the league) over three seasons and left Rangers on 16 May 2002. He made 4 of his 5 appearances in the 1999/2000 season, but didn't make his 5th and final appearance until the 2001/02 season when he came on as a substitute against Kilmarnock. He returned to

, with

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 ...

a month later. Penttilä was named team captain and won 2002 & 2003 league titles with the club. He retired in 2005 due to a knee injury and went on to study medicine.

International career

Penttila won five caps 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 ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Penttila, Tero 1975 births Living people People from Suomussalmi Footballers from Oulu Finnish men's footballers Finland men's international footballers Men's association football defenders FC Haka players Rangers F.C. players Scottish Premier League players Finnish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland