EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT FROM THE SAMI STORY
Liverpoolfc.tv 08 May 2009
'Oh Sami Sami' is an official club publication that marks Sami Hyypia's Liverpool career in glorifying detail.
The 84-page glossy reveals all about the giant Finn's rise to Anfield greatness, from the views of teammates past and present through to an in-depth chat with the man himself.
In an extract from an exclusive interview with LFC Magazine's Simon Hughes, Sami explains all about his early career and Voikkaa, the little-known village where he grew up.
"Let me write that down for you," Sami Hyypia says for the umpteenth time, grabbing the biro. "Finnish spelling is never straightforward."
Hyypia, Liverpool's longest serving foreign player since Bruce Grobbelaar, is one of the most genuine footballers you are ever likely to meet.
Whether it's out of respect for his friends and former teammates or out of courtesy in an attempt not to make the writer look foolish, he takes time to scrawl the names of the people that have most influenced his career.
"I have been very lucky throughout my life and have been given the kind of breaks that not a lot of people get – so I need to appreciate the roles of everyone who has helped me."
The Finn has travelled a long way from his snow-bound upbringing in Voikkaa, a village with a population of less than 2,000 on the outskirts of Kuusankoski a paper-mill town 100 miles north east of Helsinki.
Last year alone Kuusankoski produced 1.4 million tonnes of paper, which was exported to more than 60 countries. The town is now regarded as the paper capital of Scandinavia.
"But Voikkaa is quite a remote place and the kind of village where everyone knows one another," insists Hyypia who moved there a year after his birth when his father, a paper merchant, relocated from the southern outpost of Porvoo. Although his father has since retired, his mother still works to this day as a banker in their adopted hometown.
"Voikkaa wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the paper mills and small industries," Hyypia continues. "When people think of Finland, sometimes they think of Lapland. But I can assure you that Voikkaa is very different to that perception.
Sami Hyypia"You have to remember that there are only three major cities in Finland that you can compare to England. They are Helsinki, Tampare and Turku. Finland is quite rural compared to other countries and hasn't adopted urbanisation so a lot of children like me grow up in small villages or the countryside."
In a nation which has just three juvenile offenders locked up behind bars, Finland has never been a place that has bred mischievous adolescents and Hyypia, like the rest of the population enjoyed a grounded childhood of education and sport.
"Both of my parents were decent players and I lived 200-yards from a pitch so football was always there.
"My mum was a very keen goalkeeper and I always used to go and watch her play. I would have a kick-around with all of the substitutes while the match was going on to keep warm because it was very cold.
"I was pretty good at school too. I never really had to stress about results and exams because I was naturally quite good at academics. That helped me with football because there was never any pressure on me to make sure I made it at a professional level because I always thought there would be another profession out there for me if I didn't.
"Maths was my favourite subject and I enjoyed languages too. Before I left school, I could speak a bit of three different foreign languages, English, Swedish and German. It made it easier to learn Dutch when I went to Holland."
Hyypia began playing organised football from the age of seven after being inspired by Liverpool and Ian Rush.
"There was more English football on tele when I was growing up than there was Finnish football, so I never supported any Finnish teams. Every Saturday, I would watch and because Liverpool were the best team in England and playing the best football, they were on every single week.
"I really liked the way Ian Rush played. It wasn't just the way he scored all the goals, it was the way he worked so hard and fought for the team. He worked harder than any other player on the pitch and deserved every success he achieved because of it.
"He was a great example to young players like me because it showed me that if I worked hard on the pitch, I would get the absolute maximum from my game.
"When he came here to coach the strikers under Gerard (Houllier), I was really nervous about meeting him for the first time. It really made me realise then how far I had come from Finland.
"Football was still only hobby for me though when I was growing up. It was the number one sport for me but I also enjoyed ice hockey and cross country skiing. In the winter, I'd usually leave football alone because it was quite difficult trying to play underneath half a metre of snow. I still follow ice hockey now and watch the NHL whenever I can because there are quite a lot of Finnish players playing in it.
"I think it was important in my development as a footballer to learn and understand other sports. All of them help each other in some small way because you need a lot of stamina in cross-country skiing just to compete. That can only help you in football because although I have never been the fastest, I have never been substituted in my life because of fatigue."
Hyypia's all-round attributes meant that he never tied himself down to a position in his early days, only becoming a centre back when he signed youth forms with local Ykkonen side, Kumu, at the age of 17.
"I played through the spine of the field all the way through my teens. I had a go in each position. I probably enjoyed playing centre midfield the most because I scored quite a lot of goals from there, but I was never a natural striker.
"Even at an early age when I wasn't as tall, I always had the physical attributes to be a defender. I didn't start really growing until I was 15 or 16, but I was a bit taller than other players.
"I never obsessed myself with football, though, and by the time I signed for Kumu who were in the Second Division, everything started to fall into place.
"I had a lot of other interests in my life and never really idolised any team or player. It was only when I started playing adult football for Kumu that I started taking football really seriously.
"I was lucky to play with a defender called Esa Pekonen. He'd played a few years in Sweden with AIK Stockholm and returned home to finish his career. I learnt a lot off him because he was a Finnish international and a role model to a lot of young players. I saw what he had achieved in his career and wanted to emulate it. But I never thought I'd end up achieving what I did."
Hyypia believes the second pivotal moment that aided his development as a player came once again by chance when he was mid-way through pre-season training with Kumu.
"It was winter time and we were playing a friendly game indoors," Sami explains. "They didn't have the synthetic surfaces in Finland like they do now in England. It was all thin carpet and I would finish training sessions with deep cuts all over my knees.
"Luckily though, on this one occasion, the Finnish under-18s side were camping for a few weeks near where we were playing and had arranged to train shortly after our friendly match had finished.
"Before the game, our coach was speaking with the national team coach by chance and told him to keep an eye on me. I played the game and did quite well, then straight after the match had finished, the national coach came to the changing rooms and asked my coach if I could come back the following day and train with the national squad.
"I would say that was my biggest break in football because in Finland, because the bigger teams in the top league aren't really interested in players that haven’t represented the national team at some level. It is also very difficult to get into the national team unless you play for one of the big teams, so it's a vicious circle.
"From then on, I was playing at a good standard with international games and other teams started to notice me.
"This moment really kick-started my career."
But before Hyypia's career could really begin, he had to embark on national service with the Finnish army.
"I never seriously believed I would go and play abroad, but just in case I did, I completed my national service when I was still young. Some of the younger players coming through now are facing problems because they have been abroad for years but are being told by the government that they have to come back at inappropriate times. Most people have to do half a year, but they can't just say to the club who they are contracted to and pay their wages that they are going home for half a year and to be happy with that.
"I could see that this might be a problem in the future if I ever did move abroad and so decided to get it out of the way as quickly as possible after I finished my studies.
"I was there for 11 months in total. We had to sleep in the woods in a little tent night after night and walk miles and miles for food and water. It was for conditioning.
"I had to shave all my hair off too for the first time. Beforehand, I had long hair like a mullet at the back, but the army wouldn't allow that. I kept the short hair for years after - but now the longer look is returning.
"It was a tough time, but looking back, it was a good experience for me. It would be a good experience for any young man."
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Upon his return to football, Hyypa was spotted by MyPa-47 boss Harri Kampman after impressing in the Kumu team alongside cousins Mika Hernesniemi and Toni Huttunen.
"We were all brought up in Voikkaa so for a village with so few people to have three footballers play in the top league of Finnish football is quite something.
"Me and Toni signed for MyPa and Mika went elsewhere. Toni had been at MyPa ever since, apart from a very short spell at Falkirk more than ten-years ago.
"It was an easy decision to leave Kumu. MyPa were the biggest relatively local team around and a family club where everyone was together in defeat and victory."
During his four years at MyPa of Anjalankoski, another club spawned from a paper town in the south of Finland, Hyypia helped his team to three second placed finishes in the Veikkausliga – each time behind HJK Helsinki.
He did win the Finnish Cup on two occasions, however, featuring in the same side as Jari Litmanen when MyPa defeated FF Jaro in 1992 immediately before Litmanen was sold to Ajax.
"Jari scored in the cup final and that made Ajax move for him. He was a brilliant, brilliant player even then," Hyypia says with a humbling smile. "I already knew about him before I signed for MyPa, but I didn't know just how good he actually was. Seeing him in training and in games was special for me because it is not very often that a player in Finland can say that he was a team-mate of the country's greatest ever player at such a young age."
Then, three years later, it was Hyypia's turn to score a winner in the cup final.
"It turned out to be my last game. We won 1-0 and I scored with a header at the front-post. I didn't know I was leaving at the time so it was a real high point for me.
"The cup final was in the end of October then by February I'd moved to Holland."
Hyypia left MyPa barely a year before his former club drew Liverpool in the Cup Winners' Cup with the Reds eventually winning through to the second round, 4-1 on aggregate.
"I remember watching the game on my TV in Holland. But I had no regrets.
"If I didn't move away from MyPa when I did, my chance to play in Europe and in England with Liverpool may have passed me by."
A true legend and a very genuine player, there's far to few of them in the game today.
Sami I wish you all the best and I hope you continue to enjoy your football.
You'll be sadly missed 'Around the Fields of Anfield Road'
