Sauli Väisänen

Sauli Väisänen's career has taken him through five countries without ever settling long in one place. The Helsinki-born defender moved from Sweden's AIK to Italy in 2017, joining SPAL, and spent the following years shuttling between Serie A and Serie B — a loan at Crotone, then spells with ChievoVerona and Cosenza that stretched his Italian stint to six years in total.

A move to Denmark's Odense Boldklub in the summer of 2023 was meant to open a new chapter, but it proved short-lived. The contract with Odense was terminated by mutual consent that August, closing the Danish spell before it had properly taken hold.

Väisänen returned home at the end of December 2024, signing a two-year deal with Ilves and officially joining on 1 January 2025 as a free agent. It marked his first move back to Finnish football since leaving Honka more than a decade earlier.

He also came through the country's youth setup, playing for the under-21 and under-20 sides.

Since arriving at Ilves, Väisänen has been a regular fixture at the back, wearing the number 5 shirt and appearing in both league and cup competitions, as well as in the club's European fixtures. Across his career he has made 232 appearances and scored 11 goals in all competitions, though no major trophies feature on his record to date.