Mikkelin Palloilijat

Mikkelin Palloilijat

Full name	Mikkelin Palloilijat
Nickname(s)	Siniset (The Blues)
Founded	1929
Ground	Mikkelin Urheilupuisto, Mikkeli, Finland (Capacity: 7,000)
Chairman	Harri Kivinen
Manager	Janne Wilkman
League	Kakkonen
Home colours Away colours

Mikkelin Palloilijat (or MP) is a Finnish football club, based in Mikkeli. Club was formed in 1929 and has also had teams in volleyball, ice hockey and bandy. It played in the Finnish First Division (Ykkönen) from 2004 to 2006 but was relegated to Kakkonen at the end of the season. The club gained promotion to Ykkönen by winning the Group A of Kakkonen 2009 but was immediately relegated back to Kakkonen in 2010. The club's manager is Janne Wilkman, and it plays its home matches at Mikkelin Urheilupuisto.

Ice hockey departments of MP and local rivals MiPK merged in 1970, creating new club Jukurit. Jukurit has then been quite successful in Finnish amateur levels of ice hockey. However the only medal on Finnish championship level is still won by MP, a bronze in A-juniors year 1961.

Bandy department of MP was disbanded in 1977. After that colours of Mikkeli on bandy fields have been represented by Mikkelin Kampparit. Kampparit was formed in 1972, same year when Finnish Bandy Federation separated from Finnish FA. MP was a pioneer of women's football in Finland, forming one of the first ladies team. The spot in Naisten Liiga was moved from MP to Porrassalmen Urheilijat-62 in 1992.

Current Squad 2011

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Ville Taivalantti 2 FW Justus Peitola 3 DF Arttu Uotila 4 DF Mikko Huotari 5 DF Tuukka Sirviö 6 DF Janne Reinikainen 7 MF Miikka Turunen 8 FW Toni Tanninen 9 MF Teemu Pastila 10 DF Juha-Matti Murtonen 11 MF Mika Roivas 13 DF Jiri Haikonen

No. Position Player 14 FW Mikko Mutka 15 FW Denis Lima de Assis 16 MF Eetu Hokkanen 17 DF Jerry Särkkä 18 MF Rithison Oliveira Santos 19 MF Felipe de Oliveira Benevides 21 DF Mikko Iivanainen 22 DF Ilari Kuitunen 23 MF Joona Mäenpää 24 GK Tuomas Kolehmainen 30 GK Tuomo Hiltunen

Notable players

• John Allen
• Michael Gilkes
• Tamás Gruborovics
• Jussi Jääskeläinen
• Jokke Kangaskorpi
• Juuso Kangaskorpi
• Antti Kuismala
• Njazi Kuqi
• Shefki Kuqi
• George Lawrence
• Eetu Muinonen
• Ilkka Mäkelä
• Olli Rehn
• Babatunde Wusu

External links

• Official website