Sami Hyypiä

Sami Tuomas Hyypiä (born 7 October 1973) is a Finland Association football who plays in the Defender (association football) Centre back position. Currently, Sami Hyypiä plays for German Fußball-Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen and is the Captain (association football) of the Finland national football team. Sami Hyypiä has recently joined Leverkusen, ending a ten year spell at Liverpool F.C. in the English Premier League .

Hyypiä began Sami Hyypiä career with Ykkönen side KuMu and soon moved to Veikkausliiga outfit MyPa. Sami Hyypiä spent four years at the club, helping them win the Finnish Cup in 1992 and 1995. Sami Hyypiä moved to Willem II Tilburg in 1995 and spent the following four years there. Sami Hyypiä became the team captain and was nominated their player of the year after helping them qualify for the UEFA Champions League.

Hyypiä moved to Liverpool, the team Sami Hyypiä supported as a child, in a deal worth £2.6 million. Sami Hyypiä quickly established himself in the first team, partnering Stéphane Henchoz in defence. By 2001, Sami Hyypiä regularly captained the team and that season Liverpool won a slew of honours: completing a cup treble of the Football League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup, in addition to winning the UEFA Super Cup and FA Community Shield. Sami Hyypiä became full-time captain in the FA Premier League 2001-02 and was part of the Football League Cup winning team in 2003. Steven Gerrard superseded Sami Hyypiä as captain in 2003 but Sami Hyypiä occasionally captained the side in Sami Hyypiä absence. Hyypiä won Sami Hyypiä highest football honour in 2005 as a part of Liverpool's victorious UEFA Champions League 2004-05 campaign.

Hyypiä has been a prominent figure in the Finland national team and has been selected as the Finnish Sports' Journalists and Football Association Finnish Footballer of the Year numerous times. Sami Hyypiä made Sami Hyypiä debut in 1992 and since then has captained the team on various occasions, fulfilling the role of second choice captain. Sami Hyypiä is the third most capped Finnish player after Jari Litmanen and Ari Hjelm.

Early life

Hyypiä was born in Porvoo and raised in Kuusankoski, Finland, north-east of Helsinki; the son of Irma and Jouko Hyypiä. Hyypiä's parents were both footballers, Sami Hyypiä father Jouko playing for Finnish team Pallo Peikot, and Sami Hyypiä mother an amateur goalkeeper.
The young Sami played Ice Hockey, but Sami Hyypiä parents' influence was important to Sami Hyypiä choosing a career in football; Sami Hyypiä has stated "I guess there was only one career option for me."

Club career

Early career

Hyypiä started Sami Hyypiä career with Pallo-Peikot where Sami Hyypiä played every position except Sami Hyypiä final destination defender and KuMu, before joining Veikkausliiga club MyPa for the 1992 season. Sami Hyypiä won the Finnish Cup with MyPa in 1992 and 1995.

Willem II Tilburg

Later that year Hyypiä joined Netherlands club Willem II Tilburg. Hyypiä spent four years with the Eredivisie team and soon became a favourite with the fans winning the fan's player of the year award in Sami Hyypiä final season. Initially, Hyypiä was derided as an unknown who would not live up to expectations but this preconception was dismissed when Sami Hyypiä immediately formed a successful central defensive partnership with fellow arrival Stéphane Henchoz. Almost ten years later in a farewell tribute to Hyypiä, Ron Yeats, then the chief scout for Liverpool, commented that the deal was "one of the best bits of business we've done over the years...a steal - a bargain..."
In the FA Premier League 2000-01 season, Hyypiä shared the captaincy of Liverpool with Robbie Fowler while Jamie Redknapp, the full-time captain, was suffering from a long-term injury. During that season, Hyypiä and Fowler led the team to a historic cup treble: the Football League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup.

Captaincy

In 2002, Hyypiä became the full-time Liverpool captain after Redknapp, who had been blighted by long-term injuries, and Fowler both left the club. However after such a bright start to Sami Hyypiä Liverpool career came a relative lull and in 2003 Hyypiä was replaced as Liverpool captain by Steven Gerrard. With some of the pressure lifted, Sami Hyypiä performances generally improved.

2003 & Beyond

In 2003, Hyypiä received a red card against Manchester United, the only red of Sami Hyypiä career. "Van Nistelrooy was going through and maybe I took Sami Hyypiä shirt a little bit. The referee thought so. I got a straight red card. They got a penalty. It was an agony to watch the game in the dressing room. The only red card of my career. You remember that sort of thing." On 25 August 2007 Hyypiä broke Sami Hyypiä nose during an away match against Sunderland A.F.C. in the Stadium of Light. Sami Hyypiä quickly returned on the pitch to play against Toulouse FC in the UEFA Champions League qualifying match on 28 August 2007, in which Sami Hyypiä scored the second goal for Liverpool while wearing the captain's armband in the absence of Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher.

In April 2008, Hyypiä signed a new deal until Summer 2009 with Benítez stating Sami Hyypiä is a good role model for young defenders such as Martin Skrtel and Daniel Agger.
The 2008/2009 season marked the defender's tenth season at the club. On the 22 August 2008 Premier League newcomers Stoke City F.C offered £2.5 million for Hyypiä but Liverpool rejected the offer. On 2 March 2008 with Sami Hyypiä appearance against Bolton Wanderers, Hyypiä made it into the top 20 Liverpool FC player appearances of all time.

Hyypiä was voted in 19th place in Sky Sports' Top 50 Premier League Foreign Players, in 45th place in FourFourTwo magazine's 100 Greatest Foreigner Players, and in 38th position in the Liverpool's "100 Players Who Shook the Kop". Underlining the important role Hyypiä had fulfilled at Liverpool, Ian Rush noted: "He’s got to be up there with the best signings the club has ever made."

In September 2008, Sami Hyypiä was not included in the 25-man Liverpool squad for the group stages of the Champions League, as new Uefa regulations meant that clubs had to include at least eight home-grown players in their squad.
On 4 May 2009, it was announced that Hyypiä had signed two-year contract with Bayer Leverkusen.
Liverpool had offered Sami Hyypiä the chance to stay at Anfield in a coaching capacity but Sami decided to carry on playing, though Sami Hyypiä expressed interest in returning to Liverpool as a coach once Sami Hyypiä playing career is over.

Sami Hyypiä will move to the Fußball-Bundesliga side when Sami Hyypiä contract expires in the summer.

International career

Hyypiä made Sami Hyypiä debut for the Finnish national football team against Tunisia national football team on 7 November 1992 aged 19. Sami Hyypiä is the captain (football) of the team. As of May 2009, Sami Hyypiä is third most capped player in the list of all time Finland_national_football_team Most_capped_players with 97 caps.
Sami also got a header on target in Sami Hyypiä final match at Anfield; what a noise the fans would have made if the goalkeeper didn't scramble across Sami Hyypiä line to keep it out.
If Hyypiä plays all of Finland's qualifying game for the 2010 World cup Sami Hyypiä will reach 100 caps. On Sami Hyypiä 50th cap in 2003, Hyypiä scored the winning goal in a friendly against Northern Ireland national football team, coincidentally, the same team Hyypiä scored Sami Hyypiä first international goal against in 1999. Hyypiä has been crowned footballer of the year in Finland seven times.