Hannu Tihinen

Hannu Tihinen (born 1 July 1976) is a Finnish former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. Since January 2014, he worked as a technical director at the Football Association of Finland. In October 2022, Tihinen was appointed as an expert adviser of FIFA in Global Football Development Division High-Performance -unit.

He has played for clubs in Finland, Norway, England, Belgium and Switzerland. Tihinen achieved five championships in three countries in a career that ended in 2010, a cup title in two countries and captained almost all of his club teams.

Club career Born in Keminmaa, Lapland, Tihinen started his career with KePS in second-tier Ykkönen in 1993. After the 1996 season, the club was relegated to Kakkonen, and Tihinen joined Veikkausliiga club HJK for the 1997 season. He won both the Finnish championship and Finnish Cup once with HJK, and also earned UEFA Champions League experience with the club in the 1998–99 season.

Tihinen then joined Norwegian club Viking in November 1999. He scored a decisive own goal in the final of the Norwegian Cup in 2000 but won the Cup championship the following year and headed the goal into the right goal. Tihinen spent two and a half seasons with Viking, while also having a brief loan spell at West Ham United in the English Premiership. Whilst at West Ham, he played in their 1–0 victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford in the 2000–01 FA Cup, and was named the man of the match. After his loan deal ended, West Ham was willing to acquire Tihinen on a permanent contract for around £2 million, but Viking felt he was worth more and tried to raise the transfer fee to the point where the deal collapsed eventually, and Tihinen returned to Norway.

International career Tihinen made his debut for the Finland national team on 5 June 1999 against Turkey. He scored five goals in the national team matches and formed Finland's regular central defensive pairing with Sami Hyypiä for most of the 2000s. Tihinen captained the national team in a match known as the eagle-owl match against Belgium in June 2007. In the match, an eagle-owl flew onto the field and the game was stopped for a while. The nickname Eagle-owls of the Finland national team originated from this event.

Helmet

Tihinen injured his head many times during his career. Because of that he wore a helmet during his last seasons. He was also very good with his head, which he used to score most of his goals.

Post-playing career After retiring, Tihinen joined FC Zürich as a deputy sports director. In the years 2012–2014, Tihinen was the chairman of the Finnish Football Players´ Association.

After his career, Tihinen has studied international leadership and management at the UEFA Academy and at the Aalto University in Helsinki and since 2014, he has been the technical director of the Football Association of Finland. In October 2022, Tihinen was appointed as an expert adviser of FIFA in Global Football Development Division High-Performance -unit.

Career statistics Club

International Scores and results list Finland’s goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Tihinen goal.

Honours HJK Veikkausliiga: 1997 Finnish Cup: 1998 Finnish League Cup: 1997, 1998 The best defender of the Finnish Veikkausliiga 1999

Viking Norwegian Cup: 2001

Anderlecht Belgian First Division: 2003–04, 2005–06

Zürich Swiss Super League: 2007, 2009 The best defender in the Swiss Axpo Super League 2009