Mika Lehkosuo

Mika Lehkosuo

Lehkosuo as HJK coach in 2017
Personal information
Date of birth	(1970-01-08) 8 January 1970 (age 54)
Place of birth	Helsinki, Finland
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1990–1993	Vantaan Pallo-70	48	(9)
1993–2002	HJK	189	(26)
1994	→ Jaro (loan)	1	(0)
1998–1999	→ Perugia (loan)	11	(0)
2004	Klubi 04	1	(0)
Total		250	(35)
International career
1997–2000	Finland	17	(1)
Managerial career
	HJK (youth)
2005	Honka (assistant)
2005–2014	Honka
2013–2015	Finland (assistant)
2014–2019	HJK
2019–2020	Kongsvinger
2023–	Finland U21
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Mika Lehkosuo, nicknamed "Bana", (born 8 January 1970) is a Finnish football manager and former player who works as a coach for Finland U21 national team.

Playing career

A midfielder, Lehkosuo played most of his career at HJK Helsinki. He was not a very prominent youth player and made his top division debut in 1993 after spending three years with lower division club Vantaan Pallo. He did not make his breakthrough into the HJK senior squad until 1995, when he made 24 league appearances and scored one goal. In the previous season he had even played one league match for FF Jaro.

In the following seasons Lehkosuo received more and more responsibilities and became one of the best midfielders in the Veikkausliiga. In the end of the 1990s he formed the successful midfield trio with Aki Riihilahti and Jarkko Wiss with whom he won the league title in 1997 and worked their way to the group stage of UEFA Champions League in the next season.

A sponsorship deal with a local radio station meant that Lehkuosuo wore the unusual shirt number 96.2 for a period at HJK Helsinki. This deal ended when he was forbidden to wear the number in UEFA Champions League matches. ^[1] Lehkuosuo captained HJK in the group stage of the Champions League that season, helping HJK become the first ever Finnish team to earn that distinction. ^[2]

In the winter of 1998 Lehkosuo was signed on loan by Italian Serie A side Perugia. ^[2] He only played eleven games in Italy and returned to HJK for the next Veikkausliiga season. ^[2] In 1999 and 2000 Lehkosuo was made the captain of the HJK squad and he played in a more attacking role. However, in August 2000 Lehkosuo injured his knee ligament. The knee didn't fully recover and Lehkosuo was forced to end his playing career in 2002 after playing 190 matches in Veikkausliiga, of which he played 189 for HJK.

International career

Lehkosuo played 17 matches for the Finnish national team and scored one goal.

Managerial career

Lehkosuo started his managerial career with HJK youth teams quickly after retiring as a player. In 2005, he was appointed as assistant manager of Ville Lyytikäinen of Ykkönen (the second tier) side FC Honka. After Lyytikäinen was sacked, Lehkosuo became head coach. He guided the team to the top place of Ykkönen. In the first season in the Veikkausliiga Lehkosuo guided his team to a fourth-place finish. In 2007 Honka was again fourth. In 2008 Lehkosuo guided Honka to second place and to the UEFA Cup qualifications for the next season. In 2009 Honka was again second in the league table. Lehkosuo managed Honka until February 2014.

On 29 April 2014, Lehkosuo was appointed as the manager of HJK after Sixten Boström was sacked. He led HJK into the Europa League group stages in 2014 with a 5–4 aggregate victory over Rapid Wien in the play-off round. After winning three Veikkausliiga titles and two Finnish Cups, he left the club in May 2019. ^[3]

Lehkosuo was appointed head coach of Norwegian 1. divisjon club Kongsvinger in December 2019. ^[4] He was dismissed in September 2020 after Kongsvinger picked up only 13 points from 18 games. ^[5] However, he continued with the club as a scout and the development director.

In January 2023, Lehkosuo started as a head coach of the Finland under-21 national team. He led the team to qualify for the 2025 UEFA European Under-21 Championship final tournament, for the second time in the nation's history, after finishing 2nd in the Group E and defeating Norway in the play-offs 6–3 on aggregate.

Personal life

Lehkosuo graduated as a Master of Science in Technology from Helsinki University of Technology in 2003.

Career statistics

Club

As of 1 September 2024 ^[6]

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

Club	Season	League			Cup		Europe		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Vantaan Pallo	1990	Ykkönen	3	0	–		–		3	0
	1991	Kakkonen	1	0	–		–		1	0
	1992	Ykkönen	19	4	–		–		19	4
	Total		23	4	0	0	0	0	23	4
HJK	1993	Veikkausliiga	17	1	–		2 [a]	0	19	1
	1994	Veikkausliiga	7	0	–		3 [b]	0	10	0
	1995	Veikkausliiga	24	1	–		–		24	1
	1996	Veikkausliiga	26	3	1	0	4 [c]	1	31	4
	1997	Veikkausliiga	22	3	–		2 [b]	0	24	3
	1998	Veikkausliiga	22	5	1	1	10 [a]	4	33	10
	1999	Veikkausliiga	22	2	–		4 [c]	1	26	3
	2000	Veikkausliiga	21	6	–		1 [c]	0	22	6
	2001	Veikkausliiga	10	3	–		2 [c]	0	12	3
	2002	Veikkausliiga	18	2	–		1 [c]	0	19	2
	Total		189	26	2	1	29	6	220	33
Jaro (loan)	1994	Veikkausliiga	1	0	–		–		1	0
Perugia (loan)	1998–99	Serie A	11	0	–		–		11	0
Career total			224	30	2	1	29	6	255	37

1. Appearances in UEFA Champions League
2. Appearances in UEFA Cup Winners' Cup
3. Appearances in UEFA Cup

International

As of match played 26 April 2000

Finland
Year	Apps	Goals
1997	3	0
1998	0	0
1999	6	1
2000	8	0
Total	17	1

Managerial statistics

As of match played 19 November 2024

Managerial record by team and tenure

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	W%
Honka		30 May 2005	14 February 2014	360	182	93	85	659	407	+252	050.56
HJK		29 April 2014	22 May 2019	249	143	64	42	460	228	+232	057.43
Kongsvinger		1 January 2020	29 September 2020	18	3	4	11	19	36	−17	016.67
Finland U21 national team		1 January 2023	present	20	9	4	7	35	21	+14	045.00
Total				641	332	164	145	1,167	702	+465	051.79

Honours

As a player

HJK ^[7]

• Veikkausliiga: 1997, 2002
• Finnish Cup: 1996, 1998, 2000
• Finnish League Cup: 1996, 1997, 1998

Individual

• HJK Hall of Fame Inductee ^[7]

As a manager

FC Honka ^[7]

• Finnish Cup: 2012
• Finnish League Cup: 2010, 2011
• Ykkönen: 2005

HJK ^[7]

• Veikkausliiga: 2014, 2017, 2018
• Finnish Cup: 2014, 2016–17
• Finnish League Cup: 2015

Individual

• Veikkausliiga Coach of the Month: October 2011, ^[8] May 2013, ^[9] June 2013, ^[10] May 2014, ^[11] September 2014, ^[12] May 2016, ^[13] April 2017, ^[14] June 2017 ^[15]

• Veikkausliiga Coach of the Year: 2014, 2017 ^[16]

References

1. "When footballers on loan score against their own clubs". The Guardian. 14 December 2016. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
2. "Lehkosuo taking HJK back to the brink". UEFA. 5 August 2014. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
3. Nyt HJK:n erotettu päävalmentaja Mika Lehkosuo kommentoi potkujaan – tunteikas viesti faneille, iltalehti.fi, 22 May 2019
4. , is.fi, 18 December 2019
5. , yle.fi, 30 September 2020
6. Mika Lehkosuo, National-Football-Teams
7. "HJK Hall of Fame: Mika Lehkosuo". HJK (in Finnish). 13 December 2015. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
8. HJK:n Akseli Pelvas lokakuun pelaaja Archived 14 September 2012 at archive.today (in Finnish)
9. Toukokuun parhaat julkistettu Archived 1 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine (in Finnish)
10. Tim Väyrynen kesäkuun kuukauden pelaaja Archived 29 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine (in Finnish)
11. Rasmus Schüller Veikkausliigan toukokuun pelaaja Archived 4 June 2014 at the Wayback Machine (in Finnish)
12. HJK:n Erfan Zeneli Veikkausliigan syyskuun kuukauden pelaaja Archived 4 October 2014 at archive.today (in Finnish)
13. Taye Taiwo valittiin kuukauden pelaajaksi (in Finnish)
14. Veikkausliigan kuukauden parhaat valittu (in Finnish)
15. (in Finnish)
16. Is, Stt- (3 November 2017). "Filip Valencic on Veikkausliigan kauden paras pelaaja". Ilta-Sanomat (in Finnish). Retrieved 2 January 2023.

• https://web.archive.org/web/20110720194121/http://www.urheiluarkisto.fi/portals/44/veikkausliiga20v/pelaajat/lehkosuo.htm
• https://archive.today/20100514124031/http://www.fchonka.fi/joukkue/group/10b6b4d8fec511dba79a4d356af4849a849a/4d09c21e15ad11dc9ab4f92f934831e431e4/