Elina Hannele Syrjälä (born 1 March 1982) is a Finnish former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

defender who finished her playing career at

HJK Helsinki Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi (), commonly known as HJK Helsinki (), or simply as HJK (), is a Finnish football club based in Helsinki. The club competes in Veikkausliiga, the top division of the Finnish football league system. Founded in 1907, the ...

of the

Naisten Liiga The Kansallinen Liiga ('National League') is the premier division of women's football in Finland. It was previously called the Jalkapallon naisten SM-sarja ('Women's Football Finnish Championship Series') during 1974 to 2006 and the Naisten L ...

. She previously played for

FC Honka FC Honka is a Finland, Finnish Association football, football club based in Espoo. It was founded in 1957 as Tapion Honka, and changed its name to FC Honka in 1975. The club will play in Kakkonen in the 2024 season, after Esport Honka filed for ...

, with whom she also played in the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

, and

Asker Fotball Asker Fotball is the football department of Norwegian sports club Asker SK from Asker. The women's football team is one of the most successful clubs ever in Norway, with six top flight championships and five cup championships. Due to financia ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

Toppserien The Toppserien is the top level of women's association football in Norway. It was founded in 1984. History Women's league football was introduced on a county basis in 1977. These leagues acted as qualification for the regional (South) league in ...

. She was also a member of the Finnish national team, appearing in the 2011 World Cup qualifying and the

2011 Algarve Cup The 2011 Algarve Cup was the eighteenth edition of the Algarve Cup, an invitational women's football tournament held annually in Portugal. It took place between 2–9 March 2011. Format The twelve invited teams were split into three groups that pl ...

. She announced her retirement from football in April 2012.

References

1982 births Living people Finnish women's footballers Finnish expatriate women's footballers Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Norway Expatriate women's footballers in Norway Toppserien players Finland women's international footballers Kansallinen Liiga players Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi (women) players FC Honka (women) players Women's association football defenders Footballers from Helsinki 21st-century Finnish sportswomen {{Finland-women-footy-bio-stub