Jari Litmanen

Who is Jari Litmanen?

Jari Olavi Litmanen is a Finnish footballer. He was the first-choice captain of the Finland national football team between 1996–2008 in an international career that ran from 1989 to 2010, making him the only male footballer to play an international in four different decades.

He is widely considered to be Finland's greatest football player of all time. He was chosen as the best Finnish player of the last 50 years by the Football Association of Finland in the UEFA Jubilee Awards in November 2003. Litmanen also finished 42nd in the 100 Greatest Finns voting in 2004. The Association of Football Statisticians' compendium of 'Greatest Ever Footballers' listed Litmanen as the 53rd best footballer ever.

In Finland, he is often called 'Litti', which dates from his early years, and is also known as 'Kuningas'.

During his club career, he represented Reipas, HJK, MyPa and Lahti in Finland and Ajax, Barcelona, Liverpool, Hansa Rostock and Malmö abroad. Once considered one of the best attacking midfielders in the world, he became the first Finnish footballing superstar while playing for Ajax in the mid-1990s, winning the Champions League in 1995, the peak year of his career.