Tuomas Haapala

Tuomas Haapala
	Haapala (center) at the KuPS vs HJK at Magnum Areena, Kuopio. Finnish League Cup, 11 March 2008
Personal information
Date of birth	20 April 1979 (age 45)
Place of birth	Lahti, Finland
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Youth career
0000–2000	Pallo-Lahti
	Lahden Reipas
	FC Kuusysi
Senior career*
Years	Team
2000–2003	FC Lahti
2004–2005	MyPa
2005–2006	Manchester City
2006–2007	Sandefjord Fotball
2007–2009	HJK Helsinki
2010	Tampere United
International career‡
2005–	Finland
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 8 October 2009; ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 17 December 2009

Tuomas Haapala (born 20 April 1979) is a Finnish former footballer who ended his career after 2010.

Haapala has previously played for FC Lahti (2000–03) and MyPa (2004–05) in the Finnish Veikkausliiga. He won the Finnish Cup with MyPa in 2004, and captained the club to the Finnish championship in 2005. After an excellent 2005 season, Haapala was invited for a trial with Manchester City. After two weeks at the club, manager Stuart Pearce decided to offer him a contract to the end of the 2005–06 season. However, Haapala failed to break into the first team, and made only reserve team appearances. After his long try-out in Manchester he signed for Sandefjord Fotball. In August 2007 he joined HJK Helsinki. After three seasons with HJK, Haapala joined Tampere United for the season 2010, which was his last year as a professional football player.

Haapala played his first game for the Finnish national team on 12 October 2005 against Estonia.

Honours

Finnish championship: 2005, 2009
Finnish Cup: 2004, 2008

External links

Profile at HJK.fi
"Stats at Veikkausliiga.com". Archived from the original on 24 October 2007. Retrieved 29 August 2008.
Guardian Football
Tuomas Haapala at National-Football-Teams.com