Joonas Einari Kolkka (born 28 September 1974) is a Finnish retired 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, rugb ...

who played as a

left winger A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

most of his career, but could also play on the right wing. Having started his career in his native Finland, he went on to play for several clubs in the Netherlands, Greece, Germany, England, and the USA.

Club career

Born in

Lahti Lahti (; sv, Lahtis) is a city and municipality in Finland. It is the capital of the region of Päijänne Tavastia (Päijät-Häme) and its growing region is one of the main economic hubs of Finland. Lahti is situated on a bay at the southern e ...

, Kolkka started his career with

Reipas Lahti Reipas Lahti is a sports club based in Lahti, Finland. It is involved in various of ball games and also other sports. The club emerged in the late 1940s, when the inhabitants of Viipuri had mostly been relocated in Lahti, after evacuation during ...

and MyPa in Finland's

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 ...

. He won the

Finnish Cup The Finnish Cup ( fi, Suomen cup; sv, Finlands cup) is Finland's main national cup competition in football. This yearly competition is open for all member clubs of the FA of Finland and has been played since 1955. The winner qualifies for the ...

with MyPa in 1995 before joining Netherlands' Willem II the same year. In 1998 Kolkka joined Dutch club

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; en, Philips Sports Association ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional football department, w ...

on a four-year contract. At PSV he won two league championships and got to play in the

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 competi ...

. Kolkka then moved to Greek side Panathinaikos in 2001, and he spent two seasons there. After leaving Greece, Kolkka played a season each for

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e. V. Mönchengladbach, commonly known as Borussia Mönchengladbach (), Mönchengladbach () or Gladbach (; abbreviated as Borussia MG, BMG), is a professional football club based in Mönchengladbach, Nort ...

of the German

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footb ...

and

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...

of the English Premiership. He scored at both Anfield and Old Trafford during his stay at the club, and also scored in the thrilling 3–3 draw with Norwich. He was released by Palace, and returned to the Netherlands in 2005, signing a one-year deal with

ADO Den Haag Alles Door Oefening Den Haag (), commonly known by the abbreviated name ADO Den Haag (), is a Dutch association football club from the city of The Hague. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football, following relegatio ...

. After an impressive season with ADO, he was signed by Dutch side

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names before settling on being called after i ...

in the summer of 2006, and played until summer 2011 for

NAC Breda NAC Breda (), often simply known as NAC, is a Dutch professional football club, based in Breda, Netherlands. NAC Breda play in the Rat Verlegh Stadium, named after their most important player, Antoon 'Rat' Verlegh. They play in the Eerste Div ...

. In 2011, he was signed by his former club, Willem II, being employed as a player and a sales manager of the club. On 4 May 2012, it was announced that Kolkka had signed a three-month-contract with Texas Dutch Lions, in the

third level Tertiary education, also referred to as third-level, third-stage or post-secondary education, is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank, for example, defines tertiary education as including univers ...

of American football (not Dayton Dutch Lions). After his contract with the Dutch Lions expired, Kolkka returned to the Netherlands, working as a youth coach for his former club PSV.

International career

Kolkka made his debut for the Finland national team on 26 October 1994 against

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, an ...

, and was a regular in the Finland lineup until 2010.

Career statistics

International

:''Scores and results list Finland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Kolkka goal.''

Honours

MyPa *

: 1995 PSV *

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is ...

: 1999–2000, 2000–01 Finland *

Nordic Football Championship The Nordic Football Championship ( da, Nordisk Mesterskab, no, Nordisk Mesterskap, sv, Nordiska Mästerskapet, fi, Pohjoismaiden-mestaruusturnaus, commonly abbreviated NM or PM) was an international football competition contested by the men's ...

: 2000–01

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kolkka, Joonas 1974 births Living people Sportspeople from Lahti Finnish footballers Finland international footballers Association football wingers Reipas Lahti players Myllykosken Pallo −47 players Willem II (football club) players PSV Eindhoven players Panathinaikos F.C. players Borussia Mönchengladbach players Crystal Palace F.C. players ADO Den Haag players Feyenoord players NAC Breda players Veikkausliiga players Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players Super League Greece players Bundesliga players Premier League players Finnish expatriate footballers Finnish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate footballers in Greece Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Germany Finnish expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in England Finnish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate soccer players in the United States