Ville Lehtinen

Football player infobox
playername = Ville Lehtinen


fullname = Ville Lehtinen
nickname = "Huli", "Fatman"
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1978|12|17
cityofbirth = Jyväskylä
countryofbirth = Finland
height = 6'0" (182 cm)| currentclub = AC Oulu
clubnumber =
position = Striker
youthyears =
youthclubs = Jyväskylän Jalkapalloklubi
years = 1997
1997-98
1999
2000
2001-2002
2002-2004
2005
2005-06
2007
2007-
clubs = HJK
Sheffield United
FC Jazz
Pallo-Iirot
Tampere United
F.K. Bodø/Glimt
AC Allianssi
Tampere United
Atlantis FC
AC Oulu
caps(goals) = 02 (0)
00(0)
023 (1)
0? (?)
048 (13)
020 (1)
010 (1)
036 (19)
02 (0)
0 4 (1)
nationalyears =
nationalteam =
nationalcaps(goals) =
pcupdate = September 5, 2007
ntupdate =

Ville Lehtinen (born December 17 1978 in Jyväskylä) is a Finnish footballer who plays as a striker for the Finnish Veikkausliiga club AC Oulu.

As a junior Lehtinen played for Jyväskylän Jalkapalloklubi. He made his first-team debut in Finland's top division Veikkausliiga for Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi in 1997. He played only two games before moving to Sheffield United. In Sheffield United he played only in youth and reserve team matches.

In December 1998 Lehtinen returned to Finland and practised with FC Inter Turku. Inter and Lehtinen had some controversy regarding the contract between them. Inter claimed that Lehtinen was only for trial in the team, but Lehtinen claimed he had signed a one-year contract with Inter. Inter won the court battle, and in 1999 Lehtinen played for FC Jazz from Pori. In 2000 he played with Pallo-Iirot from Rauma.

In 2001 Lehtinen joined Tampere United. He made seven goals and won the Finnish championship. During the seasen 2002 he moved to Norwegian F.K. Bodø/Glimt. He spent three years in Norway before returning to Finland and AC Allianssi. With Allianssi he won the Finnish League Cup in 2005. After Allianssi was drifted to match fixing scandal, Lehtinen returned to Tampere United during the seasen. In 2006 he was the best goalscorer for the team and again won the Finnish championship. After the season he traveled to England doing trials for many clubs like Leeds United and also tried to sign contract with FC Honka from Espoo. However no contract was made and Lehtinen decided to end his football career and concentrate on his job as an investment manager. In July 2007 Lehtinen decided come back to football fields. He played two games in Atlantis FC in Ykkönen (the second tier) before the contract with Veikkausliiga team AC Oulu was announced.

Lehtinen is very well-built player and sometimes ridiculed because of his slight overweight. Occasionally Lehtinen writes about his football career and personal life in the most popular finnish football discussion forum, Futisforum2.org, using an alias "FATMAN". He is also a musician and his fist single "Naapurintyttö" was released in 2006. Many Finnish radio stations have played his music.

External links

* [http://www.villelehtinen.fi/ Official homepage of Ville Lehtinen]
* [http://www.acoulu.fi/fi/joukkue/liigajoukkue/2007/hyokkaajat/ville_lehtinen.html AC Oulu profile]