Mika Kohonen

Mika Kohonen

Mika Kohonen celebrates a goal during a Finnish national team game
Personal information
National team	Finland
Born	(1977-05-10) May 10, 1977 (age 48) Jyväskylä, Finland
Height	6 ft 3 in (191 cm)
Weight	176 lb (80 kg)
Sport
Sport	Floorball
Position	Forward
Shoots	Left
League	Salibandyliiga (1995–2000, 2004–2005, 2015–2016, 2018–2019) SSL (2000–2004, 2005–2015, 2016–2018)
Team	Happee Jyväskylä (1995–2000, 2004–2005, 2018–2019) Balrog IK (2000–2004) Storvreta IBK (2005–2015) SPV Seinäjoki (2015–2016) FC Helsingborg (2016–2018)
Turned pro	1995
Achievements and titles
National finals	4× SSL  Gold 2× SSL  Gold (coach) 1× Salibandyliiga  Silver
Medal record Representing   Finland World Championships 1998 Czech Republic 2000 Norway 2002 Finland 2004 Switzerland 2006 Sweden 2008 Czech Republic 2010 Finland 2012 Switzerland 2014 Sweden 2016 Latvia 2018 Czech Republic World Games 1997 Lahti 2017 Wroclaw

Mika Kohonen (born May 10, 1977) is a retired Finnish floorball player and currently a floorball coach. He is five-time recipient of Innebandymagazinet Award for the best player in the world. Since 2022, he is the head coach of Storvreta IBK, a team competing in the Swedish Super League. In addition to Storvreta, during his playing career, which spanned from 1995 to 2021, Kohonen played for Finnish clubs SPV Seinäjoki and Happee Jyväskylä and Swedish Balrog IK and FC Helsingborg. He was also a long-time member of the Finnish national floorball team, serving both as a player and later as an assistant coach.

Club career

Kohonen began his professional career at the age of 18 during the 1995–96 season with the Finnish club Happee Jyväskylä, from his hometown of Jyväskylä. After five years, he started playing in the Swedish top league with the club Balrog IK. In his very first season, 2000–01, he set a still-unbroken league record with 107 points. ^[1] In the 2003–04 season, he won his first title with the team after assisting on the decisive goal 13 seconds before the end of the final match. ^{[2] [3]} After four years in Sweden, he returned to Finland for the 2004–05 season due to military service, where he won the Finnish league silver medal with Happee.

He then played another ten seasons in Sweden, this time with the club Storvreta IBK, where he won first club's title in the 2009–10 season, followed by two more titles in the 2010–11 and 2011–12 seasons. ^{[4] [5] [6]} In 2010 and 2012, he also won the Champions Cup with Storvreta. ^{[7] [8]}

He played the 2015–16 season back in Finland for SPV Seinäjoki. He then spent the next two seasons with the Swedish club FC Helsingborg. In 2018, he returned to Happee for the second time. In December 2019, he stopped playing due to an achilles tendon injury, and in January 2021, he officially retired from his career. ^[6]

After the end of his playing career, he returned to Storvreta in 2020, initially as an assistant coach and, from 2022, as the head coach. ^[9] Among others, he coaches his son Gabriel on the team. As a coach, he won two more titles with Storvreta in the 2022–23 and 2023–24 seasons. ^[10]

He had his own line of floorball sticks, called MK29, which were released by floorball company Karhu. ^[3]

International career

Mika Kohonen in a match against Sweden at the Euro Floorball Tour in 2018.

Kohonen represented Finland for the first time at the demonstration tournament at the home 1997 World Games. He subsequently played in a record 11 World Championships between 1998 and 2018. He won a medal at every tournament, including four golds, and was named to the All-Star Team five times. He holds the record for the most games played at the World Championships, as well as the record for the most games and total points for the Finnish national team. ^{[3] [11]}

At the World Championships in 2020 and 2022, he served as an assistant coach for the Finnish national team.

Year	Team	Event	Result
1997	Finland	WG
1998	Finland	WFC
2000	Finland	WFC
2002	Finland	WFC
2004	Finland	WFC
2006	Finland	WFC
2008	Finland	WFC
2010	Finland	WFC
2012	Finland	WFC
2014	Finland	WFC
2016	Finland	WFC
2017	Finland	WG
2018	Finland	WFC
2020	Finland (asst. coach)	WFC
2022	Finland (asst. coach)	WFC

Awards and achievements

Awards

In the Innebandymagazinet poll, he was named the best floorball player in the world a record five times, in 2005, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012. ^{[3] [12]}

In 2021, during the Men's world floorball championships, he was inducted into the IFF Hall of Fame for the 2000–2009 decade. ^[13]

Achievements

• Swedish Super League
  • Player of the Year: 2001-02
  • Rookie of the Year: 2001-02
  • Top Point Scorer: 2001-02
  • Most Assists: 2001–02, 2002–03
  • SSL Champion: 2010, 2011, 2012
  • SSL Third-placed: 2005, 2007, 2009
• Salibandyliiga
  • Most Assists: 2004–05 ^[14]

Family

Kohonen's son, Gabriel, who was born in Sweden, is also a floorball player and represents Sweden at the international level. ^[15] Kohonen's brother, Mikko, is a floorball too. ^[16]

Gallery

• 
  Mika Kohonen in 2013
• 
  Mika Kohonen (left) in the final match against Sweden at the 2018 World Floorball Championships.
• 
  Mika Kohonen (left) in the semifinal match against Sweden at the 2022 World Floorball Championships.

References

1. Nicolai, Daniël (17 October 2019). "1.500th official match point for Mika Kohonen". FloorballToday. Retrieved 2 February 2025.
2. "Tillbakablick: År 2004 i bilder". Innebandymagazinet (in Swedish). Retrieved 2 February 2025.
3. "Konec éry finského krále. Kohonen uzavírá kariéru" (in Czech). 6 November 2021. Archived from the original on 2021-11-06. Retrieved 2 February 2025.
4. "Storvreta obhájila švédský titul". Florbal.cz (in Czech). 16 April 2011. Retrieved 2 February 2025.
5. "Švédský titul patří Storvretě, Tomašík má stříbro". Florbal.cz (in Czech). 21 April 2012. Retrieved 2 February 2025.
6. "Konec legendy s plastovou holí: Mika Kohonen se loučí". iDNES.cz (in Czech). 29 January 2021. Retrieved 2 February 2025.
7. Bureš, Vítězslav (9 October 2010). "Florbalisté Vítkovic na triumf v EP nedosáhli. Stříbro je i tak senzací". iDNES.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 2 February 2025.
8. "Florbalista Tomašík se ve finále Poháru mistrů zranil a Dalen prohrál". iDNES.cz (in Czech). 7 October 2012. Retrieved 2 February 2025.
9. "Legendární Mika Kohonen je novým hlavním trenérem Storvrety. Neuvěřitelná pocta, říká". Florbal.cz (in Czech). 21 May 2022. Retrieved 2 February 2025.
10. "Němeček s Langerem získali švédský florbalový titul se Storvretou". ČT sport - Česká televize (in Czech). Retrieved 2 February 2025.
11. "Kohonen si připsal dva rekordy, Finsko však na MS podlehlo Švédsku". iDNES.cz (in Czech). 1 December 2018.
12. "Emelie Lindström & Mika Kohonen best players in the world". floorball.org. International Floorball Federation. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 9 November 2014.
13. "Members of the IFF Hall of Fame". IFF Main Site. Retrieved 2 February 2025.
14. "Salibandyliigan ennätykset". floorball.fi (in Finnish). Finnish Floorball Federation. Archived from the original on 2014-12-16. Retrieved 2 December 2014.
15. "Florbalové MS startuje. Češi jdou po zlatu, Švédové vyhazují trenéry, za Kanadu syn hráče NHL". www.livesport.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 2 February 2025.
16. "Mikko Kohonen ends his playing career". IFF Main Site. 18 March 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2025.

External links

• Profile on floorball.sport website