Username
Password
Jaaskelainen Profile
 
Jussi Jaaskelainen, Bolton Wanderers goalkeeper

Jussi Jaaskelainen

Born: Mikkeli, Finland, 19th April 1975

International Honours: Finland Full, U21

Position: Goalkeeper

Squad Number: 22

Former Clubs: Mikkeli MP (Finland), VPS Vaasa (Finland)

Jussi is now the longest serving player at the club having been signed from VPS Vaasa for £350,000 during the 1997-1998 season.

The Finn had been undergoing a trial period with Norwich City in November 1997, but the Canaries waited too long in offering the Scandanavian goalkeeper terms thus enabling then Bolton manager Colin Todd to make his move.

Initially he had wait in the wings as the understudy to both Keith Branagan and Gavin Ward, but an injury to Branagan in the summer of 1998 opened the door for Jaaskelainen to start the season as the club's number one goalkeeper.

He performed competently in the first 33 games of the 1998-1999 season as the Wanderers kept up in the chase for automatic promotion with Ipswich Town and Sunderland.

Unfortunately a shaky display against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light forced Bolton to go out and buy a goalkeeper with bit more experience and Jaaskelainen was later replaced by new-signing Steve Banks for the remainder of that campaign.

The following season saw fans favourite Branagan start the first fifteen games between the posts, but a clash with Huddersfield Town striker Clyde Wijnhard ruled the Irishman out for the rest of the campaign, and this proved to be his final game in a Bolton shirt before moving on to Ipswich

New manager Sam Allardyce immediately put his faith in Jaaskelainen when taking over from Todd in October 1999. Bolton saw a much more confident goalkeeper than the one who had previously suffered a loss of confidence some six months previously.

Jaaskelainen helped the club to the semi-finals of the FA Cup, League Cup and Play Offs, but the club where to lose out on each occasion with all three fixtures proving to be somewhat contraversial.

2000-2001 proved to be disasterous in terms of pre-season preparation, but this did not show when the club started off their league programme as they managed to keep within the promotion pack.

Jaaskelainen by now had been elavated to full international status by Finland and was proving to be an integral part of the Bolton team which had looked to return to the Premiership after a couple of near misses.

Tragedy struck in January 2001 when Jaaskelainen was ruled out for the rest of the season with knee ligament damage following a clash with Tranmere's Andy Parkinson.

Bolton had seen Branagan suffer a similar fate two years previously and this was to be the start of a goalkeeping hoo-doo which was to last two months.

Steve Banks, Tommy Wright, Juergen Sommer and Matt Clarke all had turns in goal, but Allardyce finally decided on Bradford loan star Clarke during the Wanderers promotion run in, which ended with a Play Off Final win over local rivals Preston North End this securing Bolton's return to the top division.

Jaaskelainen returned to the team for the Premiership return and put in a number of excellent displays, including one at Old Trafford when the Trotters defied all odds to beat arch rivals Manchester United.

He was voted as the best Premiership goalkeeper by Gillette in 2001-2002 and this was a perfect reward to what had been a fine season for the imposing stopper.

The last five seasons have seen him remain as the undisputed number one goalkeeper at Bolton, and the fact that he has signed another contract means that he will have completed over ten years service with the club, something that is now a rarity in today's game.

BOLTON RECORD: 317 appearances, 0 goals

Bookmark or share this story with: