Tomi Petrescu (born 24 June 1986), is a Finnish professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

winger and attacking midfielder who plays for Finnish club Jyväskylä Blackbird and has represented Finland national under-21 football team. Petrescu was born in Jyväskylä, Finland where he played for the local JJK youth team before moving to

Leicester City F.C. Leicester City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Leicester in the East Midlands of England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home mat ...

Club career

Early career

Petrescu's career began in the junior organisation of

JJK Jyväskylä JJK Jyväskylä (JJK; full name Jyväskylän Jalkapalloklubi) is a Finnish football club, based in Jyväskylä. JJK plays its home matches at Harjun Stadion. History Early years 1923–1992 Jyväskylän Palloilijat (abbreviated JyP), the p ...

. In 2001, he moved to

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

's youth academy. In Leicester he represented the academy team and the reserves. He made one appearance in the first team on 4 May 2003 in a match against Wolverhampton Wanderers. When he failed to make a break through he terminated his contract in the end of 2004.

Inter Turku

For season 2005 Petrescu joined Veikkausliiga team Inter Turku. where he quickly established his place in the midfield and scored seven goals during the season. During season 2006 he gained 20 caps and scored three goals.

Tampere United

In December 2006 Petrescu signed a two-year contract with Tampere United. He stated that his main reason to join Tampere United was coach

Ari Hjelm Ari-Juhani Hjelm (born 24 February 1962) is a Finnish football coach and former player. He was the head coach of home-town club Tampere United in Finland's Veikkausliiga. A forward, Hjelm played in the Bundesliga for Stuttgarter Kickers in th ...

. Season 2007 was a true break through for Petrescu to the elite of Veikkausliiga. He was one of the key players that led the team two a second consecutive championship. During the second qualifying round of the 2007/2008 Champions League edition, Petrescu scored a goal to help Tampere secure a prestigious 1:0 win against Bulgarian champions Levski Sofia in their home game. Tampere repeated the feat in the away game and became the first Finnish side to eliminate a Bulgarian club from the high-profile competition. However, the Finns were unable to qualify for the group stages of the Champions League, as they were eliminated by Norwegian side

Rosenborg BK Rosenborg Ballklub, commonly referred to simply as Rosenborg () or RBK, is a Norwegian professional football club from Trondheim that plays in Eliteserien. The club has won a record 26 league titles, a shared record 12 Norwegian Football Cup ti ...

in the third qualifying round. In 2007, he was selected as the best footballer of Pirkanmaa. He was loaned to Italian

Ascoli Ascoli may refer to: Places in Italy *Ascoli Satriano, a town and ''comune'' in the province of Foggia in the Apulia region *Province of Ascoli Piceno, a province of the Marche region **Ascoli Piceno, a city which is the seat of the province above ...

for the spring of 2009. In Ascoli he made his first appearance on 7 March in a match against Grosseto.

Panthrakikos

In January 2011 Petrescu joined Greek side Panthrakikos on a 1,5 years contract. He made just one appearance in the first team.

Honka

Petrescu represented seasons 2011-12 FC Honka in the Veikkausliiga. He gained 32 caps and scored two goals.

Haka

Petrescu transferred to FC Haka for the season 2013. During the fall of 2013 he made a short spell in Romanian first division side

CSM Studențesc Iași CSM may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Cantigas de Santa Maria'', a collection of medieval Galician-Portuguese vernacular songs and poems in praise of the Virgin Mary * Chaos Space Marines, in the ''Warhammer 40,000'' fictional universe * C ...

Ilves

After season 2013 he moved on to Ilves on a three-year contract.

JJK

On 23 June 2016, he returned to JJK on a three-year contract.

International career

Petrescu became well known after playing in the

2003 FIFA U-17 World Championship The 2003 FIFA U-17 World Championship, was the tenth edition of FIFA U-17 World Championship. It was held in the cities of Helsinki, Tampere, Lahti and Turku in Finland between 13 and 30 August 2003. Players born after 1 January 1986 could particip ...

, which were held in Finland where he scored two of three goals of Finland. He scored a goal in the opening game against China in the tournament. He was nominated as candidate by head coach

Markku Kanerva Markku Tapio Kanerva (born 24 May 1964) is a Finnish football manager, former player and elementary school teacher. He is the current manager of the Finnish national team. Playing career Kanerva, who is known by the nickname ''"Rive"'', was bo ...

for the Finland U-21 team for the

2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship The 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship began on 15 June 2009, and was the 17th UEFA European Under-21 Championship. This was the first tournament after the competition reverted to a two-year format, following the single-year 2006–07 compe ...

finals but he suffered an injury one month prior to the tournament and was forced to withdraw.

Personal life

Petrescu's father is Romanian and he has got an older brother,

Ștefan Petrescu Ştefan Petrescu (1 July 1931 – 1993) was a Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulga ...

, who also plays football.

Honours

Club

;Tampere United * Veikkausliiga:

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

* Finnish Cup:

* Finnish League Cup:

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

;Honka * Finnish Cup:

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

* Finnish League Cup:

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

Career statistics

Club

References

External links

Tomi Petrescu
at

* *
Veikkausliigan stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Petrescu, Tomi 1986 births Living people Sportspeople from Jyväskylä Finnish men's footballers Finland men's youth international footballers Finland men's under-21 international footballers Finnish people of Romanian descent Veikkausliiga players JJK Jyväskylä players FC Inter Turku players Tampere United players Ascoli Calcio 1898 FC players Leicester City F.C. players FC Honka players FC Haka players FC Politehnica Iași (2010) players Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Liga II players Serie B players Football League (Greece) players Men's association football midfielders