Career | Piipa Kämpi’s exceptional loyalty will soon be rewarded

of HPS attacker Piipa Kämppin33, exceptional consequentialism will receive the reward it deserves in the fall.

Kämppi has represented the Helsinki Football Club for 25 years, which is about to win its first medal in the women’s main league in the National League this season.

The medal could have eluded Kämp if he had not first survived mental health difficulties and then a serious knee injury.

“I have always played at HPS, and it has been really good to be there. I’ve sometimes toyed with the idea of ​​what if I had moved elsewhere when HPS wasn’t investing much yet, so could my career have taken me somewhere professional. I don’t know what the fuss will do,” says Kämppi.

When Kämppi started at HPS, the club’s home field in Paloheinä was a sand field, next to which was a small unheated Kipinä hall for winter training.

Circumstances and the development of coaching improved the level of the HPS women’s team. First, artificial grass was added to the field, and later women’s coaching also became more professional.

Nine years ago, the women’s representative team went straight from Third to Second and immediately after that from Second to First.

In the capital region, changing clubs is easy. It is becoming rare and exceptional for a female player to represent the same club throughout her career.

As a junior, Kämppi could have changed clubs, but decided to stay.

“Maybe I didn’t want to find out that I couldn’t do it elsewhere. Maybe I found it easy to stay. HPS was a home with lots of friends. I was an important player for the team. It’s nice to feel needed. Maybe these things made me stay. Leaving on one’s own initiative was too big a threshold.”

In the first team, Kämppi was a golden player for HPS, as he scored goals from match to match. In the first team between 2017 and 2020, Kämppi scored 61 goals for HPS. When HPS moved up to the National League, both Kämppi and HPS noticed the difficulty of the series.

“Of course, the first league season didn’t go terribly well, but it was easy to understand because it was our first league year. But then it felt like the second league year didn’t even start.”

That’s when his football career was at stake.

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“Sorry. This is not such a serious place.”

“I am quite sensitive to self-criticism. I’m really bad at handling the feeling of failure. If I get the feeling that I can’t, I can’t and I won’t manage, I feel that I won’t manage at all.”

Such a moment came in the second league season.

“I told the head coach at the time that I would see if I could last the whole season. We agreed that we will look at the matter again after the summer break.”

Around that time, Kämppi sought help from a doctor. He was diagnosed with depression for which he received medication. He says that in the end he didn’t take the medicine for very long. He visited a psychotherapist once, but did not find the therapist in question suitable for him.

“Maybe it happened that I felt better for a while with the help of medication, and then I couldn’t bring myself to look for a new therapist. It felt like life was winning.”

The feelings of Kämpi’s difficult times come to his mind again, and at the same time his eyes get blurry.

“Sorry. This is not such a serious place.”

“I’ve been thinking that it must have also had an effect, when so much energy has gone into everything other than football. If everything makes you a bit tired anyway, football seems more taxing. If I hadn’t been working so much, football would have seemed easier.”

The summer break helped two years ago. Kämpi’s mood improved.

Then two months passed, and he suffered a serious knee injury. It came at a really bad time, just when playing in the league was starting to go smoothly.

“Although my problem is in a way that I set myself tough goals, it is also an asset. The day after the knee injury, I announced to everyone that I will be fit to play in exactly nine months.”

The physiotherapist reminded Kämppi that nine months is usually the minimum time to recover from a knee injury. A more realistic estimate would be a year.

“Setting a goal made it easier to get in shape when my goal was still to play. Two days before the completion of nine months, I received a license to play. I succeeded in that project.”

“I didn’t want my playing to end in a way that I didn’t decide about it myself. It would have felt really miserable if my playing had ended with my injury.”

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“It is necessary to have flexible working hours and understanding from the employer.”

Ten for a year, Kämppi has been working day jobs in addition to playing. It has required him to cope, to plan his everyday life and to have flexible employers.

“It is necessary to have flexible working hours and the employer to understand that sometimes you have to go on a game trip to Kuopio at one on Friday.”

Kämppi’s sacrifices are a common story in the National League, where most players go to work or study before the day’s practice.

In HJK, KuPS and Åland United, the player budgets are between 150,000 and 220,000 euros, which means that some players may be able to focus on sports full-time.

In other clubs, player budgets are only tens of thousands. It will still take time for the National League to be a fully professional league, even if the clubs are otherwise professional.

After high school, Kämppi completed his studies as a restaurateur at the University of Applied Sciences and got a job right away.

“After graduation, I was on vacation when the teacher called me and asked if I wanted to work for Hartwall. I went for an interview and ended up there as a sales representative. I managed to do those jobs for six and a half years.”

For the past three years, he has worked at the wine importer Viinitie and since last December has been responsible for the company’s restaurant sales.

“My superiors have never been displeased if, for example, I have announced that I now have a broken arm and can’t drive a car. They have only said that we will come up with something else. Many times I have done work on gaming trips. I have sometimes worked longer days and put in hours.”

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“Sometimes I feel that maybe life would be easier if I didn’t do this and if I gave up something.”

He however, has sometimes wondered what it would be like to play sports well-rested and only focusing on sports.

“Perhaps I have accepted that this is just the way things are for me now. I’ve adapted. Sometimes I feel that maybe life would be easier if I didn’t do this and if I gave up something:”

Before this season, Kämppi thought that this might be his last season. Now he has thought that he could still play.

“I had thought that maybe this season I will be the best version of myself and it is a good time to stop. However, I have been left with the feeling that I could do better.”

He has one more dream as a player. The HPS women’s representative team’s goal record of 90 goals is in her name, but it could still be improved.

“It would be great to score a hundred goals in the national team, and that would require one more season.”

The European football association Uefa will start a new women’s international club team competition next year. It brings additional input to the last matches of HPS’s season, when the silver team could qualify for the Euro competition.

HPS is fighting with KuPS for the silver medals. Before Saturday’s games, KuPS still had a chance to reach the championship as well.

“I am super proud of the whole team and the coaching that we have done so well. We have a lot of potential young people who have a great career ahead of them. I am also happy for them.”

HPS–Åland United at the JYA Housing arena (Pakilantie 86) on Saturday at 14:00. Ruutu.fi will show the match.