Former Southampton and Rangers goalkeeper Niemi played with the likes of Jari Litmanen, Sami Hyypia and Teemu Tainio. He was asked if his generation was the best Finland had ever seen and if the nation would ever see a group of players like them ever again.
Neimi said, “The times were different we just played England at Wembley, I was going through the match programme and I was like wow! Early 2005 we had a lot of players in the Premier League but it is not happening at the moment.
“I would say, the current team, this generation managed to reach a major tournament for the first time which we never did. On paper we probably had better players but we never did anything special, we never did anything worth mentioning really.”
“This team we have had over the last few years with Teemu Pukki and players such as him have managed to put us in the major finals for the first time and that’s historical. It is difficult to say, I think we had a great team 20 years ago but this team is great as well.”
Neimi is currently assistant manager with Volos FC in Greece and also works as goalkeeper coach with Finland.
He opened up about Finland’s biggest strength and how many other nations do not compare when it comes to the dressing room.
“Our strength has always been as a nation we have a good dressing room. Our biggest star right now is Lukas Hradecky, he won the Bundesliga last year and he is regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in Europe but he is just a normal guy.
“If you went into a Finnish dressing room before the game you couldn’t spot who plays in the Bundesliga, who plays in Poland, who plays in Sweden or Finland. I love that even the biggest players like Teemu Pukki, Lukas Hradecky, Glen Kamara they are just normal guys who care about each other and they don’t act like they are big stars.
“Then again, we had Jari Litmanen, we had Sami Hyypiä so if we get a player who is the Liverpool captain one day or someone who has been voted the third best player in Europe then
"I think that will increase our chances of winning more games but we are a small nation so we don’t produce Litmanen or Hyypiä every year so we just have to get along with the players we have.”
Antti Niemi was speaking to Tribalfootball.com courtesy of Freebets.com.