This has been very popular at the Gothenburg film festival

www.101greatgoals.com/gvideos/clip-from-...h-english-subtitles/

I haven't seen it myself but friends say it's quite entertaining.
The man's a legend. One of those great who never got to play a world cup.

I've been wanting to watch it for ages.

That's only the trailer, it seems.

Maybe the full version will turn up online at some point.

Yes, I was hoping by putting it up either someone's seen it and can confirm whether it's any good or someone has a stream

I've not, but will have a scour of the internet when I get home tonight - love a bit of Litmanen, so thanks for bringing it to my attention.

Best payer I ever saw with my own eyes. Better than Trevor Francis, better than either of the Laudrups

My favourite thing about Jari Litmanen is that he always breaks the net. None of this passing the ball into the goal bullshit.

Greatest Ajax players I have seen with my own eyes:
1. Jari Litmanen
2. Michael Laudrup
3. Edgar Davids

I've seen one of those players play live! Not Litmanen, sadly.

I saw Edgsr Davids play for Barnet. Is he still there?

Yeah, he's the manager now.

Well, he always was. Sole manager. He still plays.

(He's the one I saw, too)

I've never understood why Houllier seldom played Litmanen.

it's because he was a fucking idiot. he preferred the muscle of heskey. it made no sense, the results with litmanen in the team were good and he made other players play better. they literally couldn't help it, because they had to chase the ball to the positions he passed it to. oh hang on, now i remember, houllier paid £11m for heskey and litmanen cost fuck all.

i was at anfield the day litmanen scored a great goal against spurs in a 1-0 win - in fact it was probably the pinnacle of his sad premier league career. he didn't break the net on that occasion, he smacked the ball satisfyingly against the post and in with an outside of the boot shot that swerved away from the goalkeeper. the crowd loved him and it's such a pity the club was too fucking stupid to figure out a role for him. especially when you consider he played till he was nearly 40.

Yeah.

Liverpool's loss was Ajax's gain. Litmanen may have been prone to injuries, but his pinch hitting abilities contributed massively in Ajax getting to the 2002-03 Champions League QF.

That CL campaign still leaves me feeling a bit sick. Ajax went out due to John Dahl Fucking Tomasson scoring in the 91st minute in the San Siro in the second leg of the QF. Ajax were being played off the park in the first half and then Koeman brought on Litmanen at half-time. Litmanen was totally inspired, owned the Milan midfield and totally changed the game. Ajax could have won the Champions League that year, I rekcon. It would have been the ultimate triumph for Litmanen as well. It was quite a team. Some of the names: Christian Chivu, John O'Brien, Nigel de Jong, Rafael van der Vaart, Wesley Sneijder, Jari Litmanen, Steven Pienaar, Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

It's a sad story with Litmanen's injuries, but the story of John O'Brien's injuries is even sadder. That guy is probably the greatest ever player to come out of the US.

I've got the DVD - I plan on watching it tomorrow, but most of it's in Finnish and mine isn't great so I have to get my wife to translate. Looks like a lot of talking heads as well, Bergkamp and Gerrard etc.

I was planning on putting some translations of the key parts on my website in the week. It's www.escapetosuomi.com.

I got the DVD from Levykauppa for 20 euros. Arrived from Helsinki within 48 hours. www.levykauppax.fi/movie/kuningas_litmanen/#dvd

John O'Brien is doing OK by the way, I still occasionally hear from his dad. John is now a qualified psychologist and was looking to make his way on the world of sports psychology. Last I heard (about 18 months or so ago) he was dong a lot of work with 'Football Without Borders'.

He was the best midfielder USA ever produced, but his career was hampered by marked scoliosis, which game him all kinds of hip and knee problems. He had to play with a built up shoe on one foot, which in turn caused him a host of foot injuries on top of everything else. A situation not helped by training on California's concrete-hard fields.

Much of Litmanen's injury problems were caused by chronic depression - a life-long issue for him. He had a series of minor complaints that would magically disappear after he spent a week tooling around a Finish lake on his boat.

fantana275 wrote:


Excellent, it says it has Swedish subtitles.

Oh fuck but my laptop's DVD player is broken. GAH! I can borrow one I suppose.

The Purple Cow wrote:


He was fit for about a month for the 2002 World Cup. He was one of the players of the tournament.



In a way his obsession with football was how he battled it. That's why I want to watch this DVD. It should be interesting. As is the case with many of the greats, it's their personality that made them the player they are.

fantana275 wrote:


Great if you could post a brief review when you've seen it

Watched the first half last night (up to when he left Ajax). Fans of Jari, even those who don't speak English, will love the highlights. Some goals from his early days with Reipas, and the scrapbook gets an airing.

His Ajax teammates speak glowingly, and most of those segments are in English. Plenty of footage from the 94/95 European Cup run.

At this point, Jari doesn't open up much other than about his cousin's death. He happily reminisces about his early career. A Swedish paper described as a glorified YouTube collection. Harsh but fair.

Will come back when I've seen the other half...