Ilves told internally about the appointment of Joonas Rantanen last week.
The betting league club Ilves has hired a Helsinki native as its new head coach Joonas Rantanen36. Ilves confirmed the news reported by Sanoma sports after noon on Monday.
Rantanen will move to Tampere from Helsinki neighborhood club IF Gnistan, who will play against IFK Mariehamn in the league qualifiers this week.
Ilves and Rantanen signed a contract at the beginning of last week, and in Ilves Rantanen’s contract was reported internally last week. Rantanen’s contract is for two years, with an option for a one-year extension.
in Tampere at least some of the supporters seemed to hope that Ilves coached the Finnish Cup champion Joni Lehtonen, 50, would have received a head coaching contract at the end of the season. Lehtonen continues as a coach in the coaching group of Ilves’ representative team.
Rantanen is Ilves’ new sports director Miika Takkulan first appointment as head coach. Rantanen was Takkula’s first choice for head coach ever since Takkula himself agreed to move to Ilves from the Helsinki Football Club.
“Joonas is a top-class content expert, a developer of both the game and the players. It’s great that we get him as Ilves’ head coach. As a leader with strong values and people, he is good at getting both players and coaches committed to a common goal,” Takkula said about Rantase in Ilves’ press release.
Tackle knows Rantanen well from their time together at HJK. Takkula started working at HJK ry in 2008, and Rantanen started working the following year.
Rantanen started at HJK as a sports coordinator in the club’s district operations. After that, he worked at Nappulaklub as a coach of the three youngest boys’ academy teams. He continued as a junior coach until 2015.
Rantanen has graduated with a master’s degree in education. After a year’s study leave, Rantanen started as HJK’s women’s head coach in 2016. Under Rantanen’s coaching, HJK’s women’s rankings rose steadily: first fourth place, then bronze, silver and finally in 2019 the Finnish championship.
For the 2020 season, Rantanen was appointed head coach of HJK’s men’s second team Klubi-04. Rantanen raised the team from Second to First, and the team did not lose a single match during the season. The balance was sixteen wins and one draw.
In the 2021 season, Rantanen was in HJK’s representative team as an assistant coach, when Toni Koskelan led by HJK won the second consecutive Finnish championship and secured a place in the conference league group games.
A season of success after Rantanen moved to IF Gnistan’s head coach in Ykköen. Last season, Rantanen coached Gnistan to seventh place, and this season came second in the series, and as a result, access to the league qualifiers.
Gnistan, coached by Rantanen, starts the league qualification on Wednesday with a home match against IFK Mariehamn, and the second leg is next Sunday.
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