Mikkelin Palloilijat

Full name	Mikkelin Palloilijat
Nickname(s)	Siniset (The Blues)
Founded	1929; 95 years ago (1929)
Ground	Mikkelin Urheilupuisto, Mikkeli, Finland
Capacity	7,000
Chairman	Olli Heinikainen
Manager	Juha Pasoja
League	Ykkösliiga
2023	Ykkönen, 3rd of 12
Home colours Away colours

Mikkelin Palloilijat (or MP) is a Finnish professional football club, based in Mikkeli, that competes in the Ykkösliiga, the new second-tier in Finnish football league system. The club was founded in 1929 and also included volleyball, bandy and ice hockey sections.

History

In 1998, MP merged with Mikkelin Kissat to form FC Mikkeli. Due to financial difficulties, this union was dissolved in 2001 and the two clubs returned to manage individually. 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 Juha Pasoja, and it plays its home matches at Mikkelin Urheilupuisto. In 2015, they got promoted to the Ykkönen again.

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

Bandy department of MP was disbanded in 1977. After that the colours of Mikkeli on bandy fields have been represented by Mikkelin Kampparit. Kampparit was formed in 1972.

MP was a pioneer of women's football in Finland, forming one of the first ladies team. The spot in Kansallinen Liiga was moved from MP to Porrassalmen Urheilijat-62 in 1992.

Season to season

Current squad

As of 3 August 2023^[1]

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  FIN Aleksi Honka-Hallila 2 DF  FIN Benjamin Urgenc 4 DF  FIN Ville Laiho 5 DF  FIN Mikko Haponen 6 MF  FIN Jan Heinonen 9 FW  FIN Peetu Kerminen 10 FW  FIN Egzon Avdi 11 MF  FIN Rasmus Lehtonen 12 GK  FIN Jonne Uronen 14 MF  FIN Jesse Jäppinen 15 DF  FIN Joel Laitinen 17 MF  FIN Valtteri Nikulainen 22 FW  FIN Aapo Nykänen

No. Pos. Nation Player 23 FW  FIN Eero Ylönen 24 DF  FIN Jesse Kilpeläinen 26 DF  FIN Joona Kuismala 30 GK  FIN Timi Heikkinen 30 GK  FIN Tuomo Hiltunen 35 MF  FIN Jimi Teittinen 45 FW  FIN Veikko Karttunen 53 MF  FIN Eetu Kivinen 69 MF  FIN Niila Forsell — MF  FIN Benjamin Dahlström — MF  FIN Noah Levis — FW  FIN Ajack Deng

Management and boardroom

Management

As of 21 February 2020^[2]

Name Role Juha Pasoja Head coach Jorma Naakka Coach Ozeias Graciano Coach Janne Loukiainen Coach Mika Korpela Team manager Aki Lampinen Kit manager Hannu Paajanen Doctor Ilari Kuitunen Doctor Timo Kyttä Physiotherapist