Feyenoord’s goalkeeper coach Nieminen takes on new role with Finland | OneFootball

According to MTV Urheilu, Jyri Nieminen has been hired as the new goalkeeping coach of Finland’s national team. Nieminen will continue his current role as Feyenoord’s goalkeeping coach, in addition to the Huuhkajie.

Finland have been without a permanent keeper coach since Dane Jacob Friis was hired to lead the national team in January. Nieminen arrives in a position most recently held by longstanding Finnish legend Antti Niemi.

The 37-year-old Nieminen will start in his new position in the June national team window, when the Owls face the Netherlands and Poland in their first home matches of the World Cup qualifiers.

The Finnish Football Association confirmed Nieminen’s contract on Thursday afternoon, while Feyenoord also announced that he had signed a new deal through to 2027.

Nieminen has been Feyenoord’s goalkeeping coach since the summer of 2023. At the Rotterdam club, he has so far been a part of the staff that helped win the KNVB Cup in his first season and the Dutch Supercup in his second.

Nieminen’s Huuhkajat stint is his first coaching assignment in Finnish football in over a decade. In 2014, he moved from Turku Palloseura to the Estonian youth national team, after which Nieminen enjoyed success in Qatar, South Africa and the United States before his current top stint in the Netherlands.

GBeNeFN | Eetu Ikola