Litmanen belongs in the loftiest company

To help mark UEFA's Jubilee in 2004, each national association was asked to nominate its most outstanding player of the past 50 years. Finland chose Jari Litmanen as their Golden Player.

There were few eyebrows raised when Jari Litmanen was named Finland's Golden Player. After all, Litmanen's career with AFC Ajax, FC Barcelona, Liverpool FC and the Finnish national team is unequalled in his home country.

When he received his nomination at the time of UEFA's Jubilee celebrations, Litmanen declared: "It is an honour to be one of the Golden Players, who are some of the best players in history." An honour certainly, but not enough to diminish the appetite of a player who was still going strong more than six years later when, in November 2010, he became Finland's oldest goalscorer by finding the net in a UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying win over San Marino – three months shy of his 40th birthday.

Litmanen's football story began with FC Reipas in his home town of Lahti, where he was born on 20 February 1971. His father Olavi had spent his whole career with the club as well as representing Finland and Litmanen Jr followed in his footsteps by making his senior Reipas debut in 1987. He was voted national player of the year for the first time in 1989 and silverware arrived after he joined HJK Helsinki on the eve of the 1991 campaign, HJK winning the Finnish Cup that term. The next season, with Myllykosken Pallo-47, Litmanen won the cup again.

Litmanen then transferred to Ajax and, in 1992/93, played 12 Dutch Eredivisie matches, scoring once. That was the prelude to a magnificent 1993/94 campaign, when he announced himself with 26 goals in 30 games – enough to earn footballer of the year awards in Finland and the Netherlands. "Jari is a pioneer; he showed that Finnish players can succeed with the best teams in the world," said his former national coach Antti Muurinen.

Litti – as he was nicknamed in boyhood, after the former Germany midfielder Pierre Littbarski – duly became a key figure in the great Ajax side of the mid-1990s. He won the UEFA Champions League in 1994/95, and top-scored in the same competition the following term with nine goals. Litmanen's next moves were to Barcelona in 1999, then to Liverpool in 2001, each a free transfer. However, his influence at both clubs was restricted for tactical reasons and by injuries.

So, in the autumn of 2002, the schemer decided to return to Ajax. Injuries continued to trouble him in Amsterdam, though, and it was no surprise when he agreed to cancel his contract and join hometown team FC Lahti in April 2004. He went on to spells with FC Hansa Rostock in Germany and then Swedish club Malmö FF.

For all his success with Ajax, where he scored 96 league goals in 179 appearances, Litmanen has left a still greater imprint on the Finland team. Capped for the first time in 1989, he made his 100th appearance in January 2006; by the close of 2010, he had 137 caps and 32 goals. "I have always represented Finland with pride on and off the field," he said of his contribution.

It was on Finland duty that Litmanen had a heart scare – in the form of minor palpitations – in February 2008. At the time, he was on a short-lived stay at Fulham FC in the Premier League; he never played for the club and subsequently returned to Lahti where he was still going strong in the 2010 season, making 21 league appearances and scoring five times.

As a mark of local esteem for Litamenen, a statue of him was unveiled at the old football stadium in Lahti, Kisapuisto, on 10 October 2010 – a fitting date for the country's favourite No10, who has largely operated behind the front men for Finland, creating openings for others. His ex-coach Muurinen had already underlined Litmanen's significance to the Finland cause when speaking at the time of his Golden Player accolade.

Muurinen said: "In the 1990s he had a massive role in the national team; today he has a stronger group of players around him and the responsibility is not all his any more. He has great intuition and his passing repertoire is unbelievable. He has been an extremely important player for Finland, and still is." Few would have expected those words to remain pertinent at the end of 2010 yet Litmanen's longevity is almost as admirable as his ability. Whatever the future might hold from now, he has already made a singular contribution to the national game.

Last updated: 1 February 2011