Finland national football team

General

Kit history

Finland
Nickname(s)	Huuhkajat (The Eagle-owls)
Association	Football Association of Finland (Suomen Palloliitto) (Finlands Bollförbund)
Confederation	UEFA (Europe)
Head coach	Markku Kanerva
Captain	Tim Sparv
Most caps	Jari Litmanen (137)
Top scorer	Jari Litmanen (32)
Home Stadium	Helsinki Olympic Stadium
FIFA code	FIN
FIFA ranking	54 (27 May 2021)
Highest FIFA ranking	33 (March 2007)
Lowest FIFA ranking	108 (July–August 2017)
Elo ranking	40 9 (9 June 2021)
Highest Elo ranking	30 (March 2002)
Lowest Elo ranking	125 (1962–1963)
First international	Finland 2–5 Sweden (Helsinki, Russian Empire; 22 October 1911)
Biggest win	Finland 10–2 Estonia (Helsinki, Finland; 11 August 1922) Finland 8–0 San Marino (Helsinki, Finland; 17 November 2010)
Biggest defeat	Germany 13–0 Finland (Leipzig, Germany; 1 September 1940)
European Championship appearances	1 (First in 2020)
Best result	TBD

The Finland national football team (Suomen jalkapallomaajoukkue, Finlands fotbollslandslag) represents Finland in international football competitions and is controlled by the Football Association of Finland.

Finland had not qualified a major tournament until securing a spot at UEFA Euro 2020. After many decades of relative obscurity, the Nordic nation made remarkable progression in the 2000s, reaching a peak of 30th on the Elo Rankings, under coach of Roy Hodgson they achieved notable results against much more established European teams. Unfortunately, after a few years of bad performances, they dipped to a FIFA ranking of 101, their lowest in history, but then began to rise up again after having great results in the UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying stage. As of May 2021, they sit at 54th.

Early history

The Football Association of Finland was founded in 1907 and became a member of FIFA in 1908. At the time, Finland was an autonomous grand duchy of the Russian Empire. Finland played its first international on 22 October 1911, as Sweden beat the Finns at the Eläintarha Stadium in Helsinki. Finland participated the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, beating Italy and the Russian Empire, but losing the bronze medal match against the Netherlands.

Competitive records

FIFA World Cup

FIFA World Cup record										Qualification record
Year	Result	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA		Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1930	Did not enter									Did not enter
1934
1938	Did not qualify									3	0	0	3	0	7
1950	Withdrew during qualifying									2	0	1	1	1	4
1954	Did not qualify									4	0	2	2	7	13
1958										4	0	0	4	2	19
1962										4	0	0	4	3	12
1966										6	1	0	5	5	20
1970										6	1	0	5	6	28
1974										6	1	1	4	3	21
1978										6	2	0	4	11	16
1982										8	1	0	7	4	27
1986										8	3	2	3	7	12
1990										6	1	1	4	4	16
1994										10	2	1	7	9	18
1998										8	3	2	3	11	12
2002										8	3	3	2	12	7
2006										12	5	1	6	21	19
2010										10	5	3	2	14	14
2014										8	2	3	3	5	9
2018										10	2	3	5	9	13
2022	To be determined									To be determined
2026
Total		0/21								129	32	23	74	134	287

UEFA European Championship

UEFA European Championship record										Qualifying record
Year	Result	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA		Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1960	Did not enter									Did not enter
1964
1968	Did not qualify									6	0	2	4	5	12
1972										6	0	1	5	1	16
1976										6	0	1	5	3	13
1980										6	2	2	2	10	15
1984										6	0	1	5	3	14
1988										6	1	1	4	4	10
1992										8	1	4	3	5	8
1996										10	5	0	5	18	18
2000										8	3	1	4	13	13
2004										8	3	1	4	9	10
2008										14	6	6	2	13	7
2012										10	3	1	6	16	16
2016										10	3	3	4	9	10
2020	Qualified									10	6	0	4	16	10
2024	To be determined									To be determined
Total		1/16								114	33	24	57	125	172

UEFA Nations League

UEFA Nations League record
Season	Division	Group	Pos	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	P/R	RK
2018–19	C	2	1st	6	4	0	2	5	3		28th
2020–21	B	4	2nd	6	4	0	2	7	5		21st
2022–23	B	To be determined
Total				12	8	0	4	12	8	21st

Results and fixtures

2020

2020–21 UEFA Nations League 3 September 2020	Finland	0–1	Wales	Helsinki, Finland
21:45 (UTC+3)		Report	Moore  80'	Stadium: Helsinki Olympic Stadium Attendance: 0 Referee: Daniel Siebert (Germany)

2020–21 UEFA Nations League 6 September 2020	Republic of Ireland	0–1	Finland	Dublin, Ireland
17:00 (UTC+1)		Report	Jensen  64'	Stadium: Aviva Stadium Attendance: 0 Referee: Fabio Maresca (Italy)

Friendly 7 October 2020	Poland	5–1	Finland	Gdańsk, Poland
20:45 (UTC+2)	Grosicki  9', 18', 28' Piątek  53' Milik  87'	Report	Niskanen  68'	Stadium: Stadion Energa Gdańsk Referee: Michal Ocenáš (Slovakia)

2020–21 UEFA Nations League 11 October 2020	Finland	2–0	Bulgaria	Helsinki, Finland
19:00 (UTC+3)	Taylor  52' Jensen  67'	Report		Stadium: Helsinki Olympic Stadium Referee: Erik Lambrechts (Belgium)

2020–21 UEFA Nations League 14 October 2020	Finland	1–0	Republic of Ireland	Helsinki, Finland
18:00 (UTC+3)	Jensen  66'	Report		Stadium: Helsinki Olympic Stadium Referee: Lionel Tschudi (Switzerland)

Friendly 11 November 2020	France	0–2	Finland	Saint-Denis, France
21:10 (UTC+2)		Report	Forss  28' Valakari  31'	Stadium: Stade de France Attendance: 0 Referee: Nikola Popov (Bulgaria)

2020–21 UEFA Nations League 15 November 2020	Bulgaria	1–2	Finland	Sofia, Bulgaria
21:45 (UTC+2)	Iliev  68' (pen.)	Report	Pukki  7' Lod  45+1'	Stadium: Vasil Levski National Stadium Referee: Donatas Rumšas (Lithuania)

2020–21 UEFA Nations League 18 November 2020	Wales	3–1	Finland	Cardiff, Wales
19:45 (UTC)	Wilson  29' James  46' Moore  84'	Report	Pukki  63'	Stadium: Cardiff City Stadium Referee: Jesús Gil Manzano (Spain)

2021

2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying 24 March 2021	Finland	2–2	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Helsinki, Finland
21:45 UTC+2	Pukki  58', 77'	Report	Pjanić  55' Stevanović  84'	Stadium: Helsinki Olympic Stadium Attendance: 0 Referee: Anastasios Sidiropoulos (Greece)

2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying 28 March 2021	Ukraine	1–1	Finland	Kyiv, Ukraine
21:45 UTC+3	Moraes  80'	Report	Pukki  89' (pen.)	Stadium: NSK Olimpiyskiy Attendance: 0 Referee: István Kovács (Romania)

Friendly 31 March 2021	Switzerland	3–2	Finland	St. Gallen, Switzerland
21:45 UTC+2	Gavranović  22' Vargas  57' Seferović  86'	Report	Pohjanpalo  30', 40' (pen.)	Stadium: Kybunpark Attendance: 0 Referee: Manuel Schüttengruber (Austria)

Friendly 29 May 2021	Sweden	2–0	Finland	Solna, Sweden
18:00 UTC+2	Quaison  23' Larsson  58' (pen.)	Report		Stadium: Friends Arena Referee: Jakob Kehlet (Denmark)

Friendly 4 June 2021	Finland	0–1	Estonia	Helsinki, Finland
19:00 UTC+3		Report	Sappinen  59' (pen.)	Stadium: Helsinki Olympic Stadium Referee: Jørgen Burchardt (Denmark)

UEFA Euro 2020 12 June 2021	Denmark	v	Finland	Copenhagen, Denmark
18:00 (UTC+2)				Stadium: Parken Stadium

UEFA Euro 2020 16 June 2021	Finland	v	Russia	Saint Petersburg, Russia
16:00 (UTC+3)				Stadium: Krestovsky Stadium

UEFA Euro 2020 21 June 2021	Finland	v	Belgium	Saint Petersburg, Russia
22:00 (UTC+3)				Stadium: Krestovsky Stadium

2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying 4 September 2021	Finland	v	Kazakhstan	Finland
19:00 UTC+3

2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying 7 September 2021	France	v	Finland	France
20:45 UTC+2

2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying 9 October 2021	Finland	v	Ukraine	Finland
19:00 UTC+3

2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying 12 October 2021	Kazakhstan	v	Finland	Kazakhstan
20:00 UTC+6

2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying 13 November 2021	Bosnia and Herzegovina	v	Finland	Bosnia and Herzegovina
15:00 UTC+1

2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying 16 November 2021	Finland	v	France	Finland
21:45 UTC+2

Players

Current squad

The following 26 players have been called up for the UEFA Euro 2020, and for the pre-tournament friendly match against Estonia on 4 June 2021.
Caps and goals as of 4 June 2021 after the game against Estonia.

#	Pos	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
1	1GK	Lukáš Hrádecký (Vice captain)	24 November 1989 (1989-11-24)	65	0	Bayer Leverkusen
12	1GK	Jesse Joronen	21 March 1993 (1993-03-21)	14	0	Brescia
23	1GK	Anssi Jaakkola	13 March 1987 (1987-03-13)	3	0	Bristol Rovers
2	2DF	Paulus Arajuuri	15 June 1988 (1988-06-15)	51	3	Pafos
3	2DF	Daniel O'Shaughnessy	14 September 1994 (1994-09-14)	11	0	HJK
4	2DF	Joona Toivio	10 March 1988 (1988-03-10)	73	3	Häcken
5	2DF	Leo Väisänen	23 July 1997 (1997-07-23)	8	0	Elfsborg
15	2DF	Niko Hämäläinen	5 March 1997 (1997-03-05)	7	0	Queens Park Rangers
16	2DF	Thomas Lam	18 December 1993 (1993-12-18)	26	0	PEC Zwolle
17	2DF	Nikolai Alho	12 March 1993 (1993-03-12)	12	0	MTK
18	2DF	Jere Uronen	13 July 1994 (1994-07-13)	49	1	Genk
22	2DF	Jukka Raitala	15 September 1988 (1988-09-15)	56	0	Minnesota United
25	2DF	Robert Ivanov	19 September 1994 (1994-09-19)	4	0	Warta Poznań
6	3MF	Glen Kamara	28 October 1995 (1995-10-28)	31	1	Rangers
7	3MF	Robert Taylor	21 October 1994 (1994-10-21)	20	1	Brann
8	3MF	Robin Lod	17 April 1993 (1993-04-17)	45	4	Minnesota United
9	3MF	Fredrik Jensen	9 September 1997 (1997-09-09)	18	7	FC Augsburg
11	3MF	Rasmus Schüller	18 June 1991 (1991-06-18)	49	0	Djurgården
13	3MF	Pyry Soiri	22 September 1994 (1994-09-22)	31	5	Esbjerg
14	3MF	Tim Sparv (Captain)	20 February 1987 (1987-02-20)	81	1	AEL
19	3MF	Joni Kauko	12 July 1990 (1990-07-12)	25	0	Esbjerg
24	3MF	Onni Valakari	18 August 1999 (1999-08-18)	5	1	Pafos
10	4FW	Teemu Pukki	29 March 1990 (1990-03-29)	91	30	Norwich City
20	4FW	Joel Pohjanpalo	13 September 1994 (1994-09-13)	42	9	Union Berlin
21	4FW	Lassi Lappalainen	24 August 1998 (1998-08-24)	8	0	CF Montréal
26	4FW	Marcus Forss	18 June 1999 (1999-06-18)	5	1	Brentford

Recent call-ups

The following players have been called up for the team in the last twelve months. Only players available for call-up, not retired players.

Pos. Player Date of birth (age) Caps Goals Club Latest call-up GK Carljohan Eriksson 25 April 1995 (1995-04-25) 0 0 Mjällby v. Estonia, 4 June 2021 PRE GK Niki Mäenpää 23 January 1985 (1985-01-23) 27 0 Venezia v. Switzerland, 31 March 2021 DF Sauli Väisänen 5 June 1994 (1994-06-05) 20 0 Chievo UEFA Euro 2020 INJ DF Aapo Halme 22 May 1998 (1998-05-22) 0 0 Barnsley v. Estonia, 4 June 2021 PRE DF Albin Granlund 1 September 1989 (1989-09-01) 19 0 Stal Mielec v. Estonia, 4 June 2021 PRE DF Juhani Ojala 19 June 1989 (1989-06-19) 32 1 Vejle v. Estonia, 4 June 2021 PRE DF Juha Pirinen 22 October 1991 (1991-10-22) 20 0 Trenčín v. Switzerland, 31 March 2021 MF Jasin Assehnoun 26 December 1998 (1998-12-26) 1 0 Lahti v. Estonia, 4 June 2021 PRE MF Ilmari Niskanen 12 October 1997 (1997-10-12) 6 1 FC Ingolstadt 04 v. Wales, 18 November 2020 FW Roope Riski 16 August 1991 (1991-08-16) 6 1 HJK v. Estonia, 4 June 2021 PRE FW Rasmus Karjalainen 4 April 1996 (1996-04-04) 13 1 Örebro v. Switzerland, 31 March 2021 FW Jasse Tuominen 12 November 1995 (1995-11-12) 15 1 Häcken v. Republic of Ireland, 14 October 2020 INJ FW Santeri Hostikka 30 September 1997 (1997-09-30) 0 0 Pogoń Szczecin v. Republic of Ireland, 6 September 2020 INJ = Withdrew due to an injury WD = Withdrew due to a non-injury issue PRE = Preliminary squad / standby Coaching staff Position Name Head Coach Markku Kanerva Assistant Coach Mika Nurmela Kari Martonen Goalkeeping Coach Antti Niemi Fitness Coach Jari-Pekka Keurulainen Physiotherapists Jari-Pekka Keurulainen Paavo Leiramo Team Manager Lennart Wangel Alumni Former players Main article: List of Finnish international players Managers Main article: List of Finland international managers Honours Summer Olympics Fourth place: 1912 Minor tournaments Baltic Cup Runners-up: 2012 Third-place: 2014 Nordic Football Championship Winners: 2000–01 Third-place: 1964–67 King's Cup Runners-up: 2000, 2013 Fourth place: 1996 Lahti Cup Winners: 1981 External links Official website (Finnish) RSSSF archive of results 1911– RSSSF archive of most capped players and highest goalscorers RSSSF archive of coaches The Finnish National Team Supporters' Association Reports for all official matches Finland Finnish competitions • Finnish coaches • Finnish players • Finnish stadiums Football in Finland League competitions FAF Cup competitions Veikkausliiga (tier 1) Finland Finnish Cup Ykkönen (tier 2) {U-21) (U-19) (U-17) Finnish League Cup Kakkonen (tier 3) · Kolmonen (tier 4) List of clubs Nelonen (tier 5) · Vitonen (tier 6) List of competitions Kutonen (tier 7) · Seiska (tier 8) List of venues International football FIFA · World Cup · Confederations Cup · U-20 World Cup · U-17 World Cup · Minor tournaments · World Rankings · Player of the Year · Teams · Competitions · Federations · Codes Confederation Competitions AFC Asian Cup CAF Africa Cup of Nations CONCACAF Gold Cup CONMEBOL Copa América OFC Nations Cup UEFA European Championship Non-FIFA N.F.-Board · Viva World Cup National football teams of Europe (UEFA) Albania · Andorra · Armenia · Austria · Azerbaijan · Belarus · Belgium · Bosnia and Herzegovina · Bulgaria · Croatia · Cyprus · Czech Republic · Denmark · England · Estonia · Faroe Islands · Finland · France · Georgia · Germany · Gibraltar · Greece · Hungary · Iceland · Republic of Ireland · Israel · Italy · Kazakhstan · Kosovo · Latvia · Liechtenstein · Lithuania · Luxembourg · Malta · Moldova · Montenegro · Netherlands · North Macedonia · Northern Ireland · Norway · Poland · Portugal · Romania · Russia · San Marino · Scotland · Serbia · Slovakia · Slovenia · Spain · Sweden · Switzerland · Turkey · Ukraine · Wales Finland – UEFA Euro 2020 – Group stage 1. Hrádecký 2. Arajuuri 3. O'Shaughnessy 4. Toivio 5. L. Väisänen 6. Kamara 7. Taylor 8. Lod 9. Jensen 10. Pukki 11. Schüller 12. Joronen 13. Soiri 14. Sparv (c) 15. S. Väisänen 16. Lam 17. Alho 18. Uronen 19. Kauko 20. Pohjanpalo 21. Lappalainen 22. Raitala 23. Jaakkola 24. Valakari 25. Ivanov 26. Forss Manager:   Markku Kanerva