The Football Association of Wales has announced the appointment of Mr. Jarmo Matikainen from Helsinki, Finland as the new National Women’s Teams Manager.
Jarmo has a wealth of experience in football, both as a player and a coach. He has worked in all areas of football administration, including with UEFA technical studies groups at various tournaments over the last five years.
During his 400 match-playing career he played in the Finnish 1st to 4th Divisions with clubs such as Ponnistus Helsinki, KontU Helsinki, MPS and Viikingit (as player-coach). He worked as a head coach with Ponnistus before working with various Finnish women’s national sides from 1999 onwards.
This included helping the A team reach the semi-finals of the 2005 Women’s Euros. In the same year, he took the Under 19 side to the semi-finals of their tournament.
Most recently, his work at the Finnish FA has been as head of the Women’s and Girls national teams.
Fluent in five different languages, Jarmo will have a brief to manage the Women’s national teams at Senior, Under 19 and Under 17 level. In addition it will be his job to co-ordinate a strategy for Women’s Football in Wales with the FAW and Welsh Football Trust.
Jarmo was born in 1960 and is married. He holds a UEFA Pro Licence and is looking forward to the challenge of helping the Women’s game to progress in Wales.
