Mikkelin Palloilijat

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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	Ykkönen
2024	Ykkösliiga, 10th of 10 (relegated)
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.

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.

As of 3 August 2024^[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 3 DF  FIN Arvi Liljaniemi 4 MF  FIN Iiro Äijö 5 DF  FIN Olli Kilpelainen 6 MF  FIN Jan Heinonen 7 MF  FIN Niila Forsell 8 MF  FIN Rasmus Lehtonen 9 FW  FIN Vilho Huovila (on loan from Lahti) 10 FW  FIN Ajack Deng 11 MF  FIN Benjamin Dahlström 12 DF  FIN Ville Laiho 13 MF  FIN Noah Levis

No. Pos. Nation Player 14 MF  FIN Jesse Jäppinen 15 DF  FIN Joel Laitinen 17 MF  FIN Valtteri Nikulainen 18 MF  FIN Ossi Torniainen 19 FW  FIN Aapo Hyppönen (on loan from KTP) 20 MF  FIN Oliver Häyhänen 22 DF  FIN Kasper Viramäki 23 FW  FIN Eero Ylönen 24 DF  FIN Jesse Kilpeläinen 27 MF  FIN Veeti Määttä 30 GK  FIN Timi Heikkinen 44 DF  FIN Akim Sairinen 45 FW  FIN Veikko Karttunen

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 Janne Lindberg Coaching coordinator Ilkka Mäkelä Club president

• Official website