Jari Litmanen on Ajax, Barça and a wrist that ‘broke into eight pieces’ | Finland

Tright here should not many individuals who can get away with a leather-based jacket. Especially a fur-lined, double-breasted leather-based jacket. But Jari Litmanen, now 53, is certainly a type of folks, as he strolls via the Old Town in his adopted residence metropolis of Tallinn. It could be unimaginable in Finland or Amsterdam however right here he walks freely, seemingly simply one other middle-aged man attempting to remain out of the chilly. But between 1994 and 1996 he was the perfect footballer at Ajax, then the perfect male crew on this planet. Of course, he was cherished for his expertise. But he was additionally cherished for the best way he kicked the ball, the best way he regarded. Nineties Litmanen was a vibe, and it seems the 2024 model isn’t far off.

The Finn doesn’t grant many interviews, definitely not in individual. His aloofness has fed the picture that he’s shy, reserved, mercurial, even perhaps a little conceited. This is the other image of the one who comes bouncing into the room, who beams comfortably on the digital camera. Litmanen is beneficiant along with his time, well mannered to all these round him, meticulous along with his particulars. He can also be surprisingly humorous. Not laugh-a-minute humorous, however there may be a mischief in his face, a sparkle in these darkish eyes. We speak about his latest look on the Finnish model of Top Gun, his new Instagram account (by which he shares optimistic information of Edwin van der Sar’s restoration from severe sickness), his appearing as an Amsterdam diamond jeweller and comedic timing in Finnish youngsters’s movies as a Dutch artwork seller and an Italian pizza supply man.

Is Litmanen at risk of being a little bit of a card? He shakes his head. “But before Covid, I did play in the father-son matches at my boy’s school,” he says with a snicker. “But Covid stuck with me for a couple of years. Now, I’m trying to do more things. It’s not the same though, not 100%. I can now walk, cycle, and can now do one hour of cross-country skiing. But I have to be careful because I remember how low I was. I’m more focused on family life in Tallinn than doing things in football. My wife is Estonian. I live here, Finland is my country, but Amsterdam is my city.”

Litmanen is, by a distance, the best Finnish participant of all time, though he by no means led his nation to a main event. As a spectator, he eagerly awaits Thursday’s Euro 2024 playoff semi-final in Cardiff. “They are the favourite but not as strong as they were,” he says with a smile of Wales.

It is troublesome to overstate how a lot reverence they’ve for Litmanen at Ajax. Walk round Amsterdam and you may see his shirt adorning house home windows or keychains within the memento outlets, 30 years after his heyday. To put his reputation into context, Ajax have simply introduced a retro Litmanen vogue line. The solely different participant to have one is Johan Cruyff. Five Eredivisie titles, three Dutch Cups and a well-known Champions League title in 1995 have left their mark on participant and membership.

Things may have been so totally different. The highway to Ajax and European glory was not clear and Litmanen got here near signing for a lot of different golf equipment as a teenager. “I went to train with Malmö with Roy Hodgson when I was 17,” Litmanen says. “I had also visited PSV for two weeks, one week each at Leeds and Barcelona when Johan Cruyff was the [Barcelona] coach.

“A complication was that I had to do military service. It is compulsory in Finland. I did 11 months when I was 19. We would have to survive in the forest for a few days when it was -25C and also when it was +25C. Finland has been invaded in the past. People know what can happen. We learned to protect our country with our guns.”

Litmanen ultimately earned a trial at Ajax, aged 21, which almost resulted in catastrophe. “I had a bad first training match, playing on the right, and had a kick on my thigh. After the game, Louis van Gaal said: ‘No, he doesn’t understand the Ajax system.’ But the physio and chief scout pleaded for another game as a second striker, my position. Van Gaal only agreed as Dennis Bergkamp had an ankle problem. I scored four goals and two assists and signed for Ajax the next day.

“Van Gaal told me to spend a season shadowing Bergkamp. He was so much better than me. But Van Gaal said he would stay just one more year and then leave. When Bergkamp left [for Internazionale in 1993] I was ready. He showed me the way. Edgar Davids, Edwin van der Sar, Patrick Kluivert, Clarence Seedorf, Finidi George, Nwankwo Kanu all came through. I signed at the perfect time. It would not have been the same if I had signed one year earlier or later.”

These kids have been the lifeblood of that Ajax facet that beat Milan in 1995. Litmanen was the linchpin, a creator and a finisher who knitted all the pieces collectively.

Coming from a soccer backwater, Litmanen had at all times gone the additional mile to get the sting. He would take saunas in nothing however his boots, so they’d mould to his toes, and later misplaced his sponsorship deal as a result of he wouldn’t change from Copa Mundials to the brand new Adidas model.

“I tested Predators in training – it must have been the worst session I ever had. I’m a football player because of feeling. Boots are the most important equipment. I always did strange things. I was a strange guy, practising alone, stretching all the time. I was ready to do more than the others, who first laughed at me, and then copied me.”

If the 1995 Champions League remaining was his pinnacle, it was a bittersweet match with an out-of-sorts Litmanen changed within the second half by Kluivert, who scored Ajax’s winner.

“I didn’t feel well for a week, didn’t sleep and my eyes were red. I have an allergy to grass and plants but only three times in my life I have had a heavy reaction. One of those was before that Champions League final. That was unlucky. It was unclear if I could play. I was really tired. You have to be 100% when Marcel Desailly is man-marking you. So I was totally gone in that match. The change was logical.”

Litmanen scored six objectives from midfield en path to that 1995 remaining, and the next season top-scored within the Champions League with 9 objectives, together with one within the remaining towards Juventus earlier than a penalty shootout defeat. “We were better in ’96 than ’95. [Frank] Rijkaard had finished, Seedorf had left but we were one year more experienced. But we missed five players through injury and suspension, including Marc Overmars. He was maybe the most dangerous winger in Europe.”

Litmanen stayed at Ajax via the 90s, turning down curiosity “from Liverpool, Milan and Atlético Madrid”, regardless of a lot of his teammates shifting on. “In the end, three clubs made an offer in 1999: Liverpool, Barcelona and Bayern Munich. It was not difficult to choose Barça: they had the same philosophy as Ajax. They are two different clubs who are built from the same source. I have heard [Pep] Guardiola say: ‘Cruyff built the chapel, and we just painted it.’”

But Litmanen’s first season in Catalonia was dominated by accidents. The Observer joked on the time that he was “going the way of Pope John Paul II, making few appearances and looking more frail each time”, and by the point Litmanen had recovered in the summertime of 2000, the membership had descended into turmoil.

“The president, Josep Lluís Núñez, left the club after 23 years,” explains Litmanen. “Van Gaal [who also joined Barcelona from Ajax in 1997] won two league titles in three years, but also left. We didn’t really have a coach for a while. All the players were away for the Euros. [Luís] Figo went [to Real Madrid]. It was chaos.”

Litmanen left a few months later to affix Liverpool, the membership he had supported as a boy. Hailed by Gérard Houllier as “world class”, he instantly made an impression on kids comparable to Steven Gerrard. “From the moment I saw Litmanen at Melwood, I was bewitched,” the Englishman wrote in his first autobiography. “He was like a chess grandmaster, always anticipating three or four moves ahead.”

But simply as at Ajax and Barcelona, his first season at his new membership was disrupted. In March 2001, Litmanen broke a wrist in a World Cup qualifier towards England, at Anfield of all locations. Amazingly he completed the sport, virtually scoring an equaliser. “It broke into eight pieces,” Litmanen says. “After the game, I collapsed in the dressing room after the adrenaline wore off. I went to the hospital but I don’t remember the journey.”

Recovered and revitalised, Litmanen sparked into life in his second season at Liverpool. “I played much more with Houllier but when he had his heart problem, Phil Thompson came in,” says Litmanen. “My minutes dropped down. Suddenly I didn’t play at all. I remember there were two games in four days in September 2001, Tottenham and Dynamo Kyiv, where I scored the only goals in two 1-0 wins. It took another month for me to start another league match. As a player, you think: ‘What did I do wrong?’ But I never asked why. I have never said anything negative about players or staff.

“I didn’t miss any training or games because of illness or injury. That was my best year ever, fitness-wise. People would come up to me in Tesco and ask why I wasn’t playing. I didn’t have an explanation.”

Litmanen returned to Ajax in 2002 and though he gained one other league title, appearing as a “big brother” to Zlatan Ibrahimovic, accidents started to take maintain. Some of the misfortune was virtually ridiculous. At Malmö, a lemonade bottle high flew into Litmanen’s eye. “Hasse Borg, the sporting director, used a snuff tobacco box to open it. Before I realised, the top was in my eye. For six weeks I couldn’t do anything. Even now, I can’t see very well in that eye.”

At Fulham in 2008, he fell unwell with a fever and an irregular heartbeat. “I went to the hospital and they put me to sleep, they shocked my heart. After that my heartbeat was normal, but I missed three or four weeks.” On his return, Fulham’s reserve goalkeeper Ricardo Batista by chance launched a ball into the again of his head. “The next thing I know I was on the ground. The players were around me. I was out for seven to 10 days with a concussion.” Litmamen by no means made a aggressive look for Fulham.

It could be simple for Litmanen to really feel as if his expertise was spoiled by unhealthy luck. But he sees the start of his profession – signing for the following European superpower from obscurity, Bergkamp’s mentorship and the proper coach in Van Gaal – as a blessing. Alongside different legends of the sport within the De Boer twins, Seedorf, Davids, Kluivert, Kanu and his good good friend Van der Sar, he was basic in making a good Ajax period a nice one. “There has been a lot of luck and unluckiness in my life and career,” Litmanen says with a smile. “In that period, a lot of lucky things happened.”

Litmanen retired in 2011 on the age of 40. An injury-prone genius who carved out a 24-year profession. For a few of these years, he was among the finest and most sleek gamers on this planet and folks cherished him for that, a Finnish king in glass slippers.