Jussi Leppälahti (born 22 August 1986) is a Finnish

football manager ''Football Manager'', also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008, is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game beg ...

and a former player, currently working as a manager of

IF Gnistan IF Gnistan (''Kipinä'' in Finnish; ''The Spark'' in English), commonly known as Gnistan, is a Finnish football club from the city of Helsinki, founded in 1924. The club is currently playing in the Veikkausliiga, the first tier of the Finnish le ...

Veikkausliiga Veikkausliiga () is a professional association football league in Finland and the highest level of the Finnish football league system. The league comprises the top 12 clubs of the country. Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agenc ...

Playing career

Leppälahti played in the youth sectors of

Espoon Palloseura Espoon Palloseura (abbreviated EPS) is a Finnish football club, based in Espoo. The club was founded in 1970 and it currently competes in the Ykkönen, the third-tier of Finnish football league system. The club is based at the Espoonlahden urheil ...

(EPS) and

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 ...

. Later he played for FCK Salamat, FC Espoo and

HIFK HIFK, the Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna, Helsingfors (IFK, Helsingfors) rf (officially abbreviated IFK Helsingfors, colloquially often Helsingfors IFK or Helsingin IFK) is a multi-sport association based in Helsinki, Finland. Formed in 1897 on ...

, where he met

Gert Remmel Gert Remmel (born 31 December 1975) is an Estonian football coach who is currently an assistant coach of Polish Ekstraklasa club Motor Lublin and the Finland under-21 national team. Coaching career After working for Pallo-Pojat Juniorit (PPJ) ...

Coaching career

Leppälahti started as a youth coach for FC Espoo,

and

, and in 2015 was named the head coach of his former youth club

(EPS), competing in the fifth-tier Nelonen. At the end of the season, the club gained a promotion to

Kolmonen Kolmonen or III divisioona is the fifth level in the Finnish football league system, league system of Finnish football and comprises 108 Finland, Finnish football (soccer), football teams. The III divisioona was introduced in 1973 and in the mi ...

.Jussi Leppälahti kertoo EPSin edustuksen kulttuurin muutoksesta – ”Marraskuun ensimmäisissä treeneissä oli kaksi pelaajaa”
espoonpalloseura.fi, 23 March 2020 In 2017 he was a youth coach for

Käpylän Pallo Käpylän Pallo, commonly referred to as KäPa for short, is a football (soccer) club from the Käpylä district of Helsinki. The club currently plays in the Ykkösliiga, the new second tier of the Finnish league system. Their home arena is Max ...

(KäPa).

Jippo

After coaching in the

Northampton Town Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team competes in EFL League One, League One, the third level of the English football league system. Founded in 1897, the c ...

academy between 2017 and 2018, Leppälahti returned to Finland and on 25 September 2018 he was named the head coach of

Jippo Jippo (stylised as JIPPO 2001–2024) is a Finnish football club, based in Joensuu. It plays in the Ykkösliiga, the second highest level of Finnish football. Jippo plays its home matches at Mehtimäki, Joensuu. History JIPPO was formed in 200 ...

in the third-tier

Kakkonen Kakkonen or II divisioona is the fourth level in the league system of Finnish football and comprises 36 Finnish football teams. Until the end of 2023, ''Kakkonen'' was the third-highest level in Finland, but after the creation of new second-t ...

. The club gained a promotion to

Ykkönen ''Ykkönen'' (Finnish language, Finnish for 'Number One'; , previously I divisioona) is the third highest level of the Finnish football league system (after the Veikkausliiga and Ykkösliiga), managed by the Football Association of Finland. Until ...

for the 2021 season, but was relegated back one year later.

KTP

Leppälahti was named the head coach of newly relegated

Kotkan Työväen Palloilijat Kotkan Työväen Palloilijat (abbreviated as KTP) is a Finnish association football, football club based in Kotka, and currently competing in Finland's top-tier, the Veikkausliiga. The club was founded in 1927 and its colours are green and whi ...

(KTP) for the 2022 Ykkönen season, and led the team win the

title and earn a promotion back to top-tier

for the

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

. On 23 August 2023, Leppälahti was unexpectedly dismissed by KTP, after the club had first exercised their option and extended his contract earlier in the summer. Prior to his departure, KTP were 10th in the league standings and had gained 20 points in 20 matches, with five wins and five draws.

Gnistan

On 10 November 2023,

from

Oulunkylä Oulunkylä (, also known as ''Ogeli'') is a suburb and a neighbourhood of Helsinki, the capital of Finland. It is located north from the center of the city. It has been inhabited since the 13th century. Earlier an independent municipality, it ...

, Northern Helsinki, appointed Leppälahti as their new manager. Later it was announced that Gnistan were granted the league license for

2024 Veikkausliiga The 2024 Veikkausliiga was the 94th season of top-tier football in Finland, which takes place from April to November. Veikkaus was the league's sponsor. Teams The league consisted of twelve teams; ten teams remaining from the previous season, an ...

season via supplemental process. Leppälahti was named the Veikkausliiga Coach of the Month in

August 2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

, after leading his team to a four-game unbeaten run in the league during the month, and a five-game winning streak in total. On 30 September, his contract was extended for the 2025.

Personal life

As a teenager, Leppälahti played also

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

for

Espoon Honka 237px, Petteri Koponen with Espoon Honka in 2007 Espoon Honka, also known as Honka Playboys, was a basketball club based in Espoo, Finland and it played in Korisliiga. The club was dissolved in 2011 due to financial difficulties. History Espoon ...

. Leppälahti has also worked as a sports journalist in 2010s for Jalkapallolehti,

Urheilulehti ''Urheilulehti'' is a popular weekly Finnish sports magazine. It is the second oldest sports journal in the World (after Italian ''La Gazzetta dello Sport''). History and profile ''Urheilulehti'' was founded by Ivar Wilskman in January 1898. The ...

and

Elmo Elmo is a Muppet character on the children's television show ''Sesame Street''. A furry red monster who speaks in a high-pitched falsetto voice and frequently refers to himself in the third person, he hosts the last full 15-minute segmen ...

, gaining popularity as a critical writer with controversial and provocative style.Jalkapalloasiantuntija Jussi Leppälahti liittyy SuomiFutis-sivuston vahvuuteen: ”Yritän tehdä sitä mitä parhaiten osaan”
suomifutis.com, 4 July 2019

Managerial statistics

Managerial honours

EPS * Nelonen, Uusimaa Group 1, runner-up: 2015 Jippo *

, Group C:

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

KTP *

: 2022 Individual *

Coach of the Month: August 2024Gnistanin Tim Väyrynen Veikkausliigan kuukauden pelaaja elokuussa
veikkaus.fi, 30 August 2024

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Leppälahti, Jussi 1986 births Living people Finnish men's footballers FC Espoo players FC Honka players HIFK Fotboll players Finnish football managers People from Espoo Finnish sports journalists Finnish expatriate sportspeople in England Veikkausliiga managers IF Gnistan managers 21st-century Finnish sportsmen Expatriate football managers in England Finnish football coaches Jippo managers