FC Inter Turku
- This article is about the football club from Turku, Finland. For the Milan football club, see Internazionale.
| Logo of FC Inter Turku | |||
| Full name | Football Club International Turku | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Sinimustat ('Black and Blues') | ||
| Founded | 1990 | ||
| Ground | Veritas Stadion, Kupittaa, Turku | ||
| Capacity | 9,000 | ||
| Chairman | Stefan Håkans | ||
| Manager |  Job Dragtsma | ||
| League | Veikkausliiga | ||
| 2007 | Veikkausliiga, 9th | ||
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Football Club International Turku (commonly known as FC Inter or Inter Turku) is a football club based in Turku, Finland. It was founded in 1990, and has played in the Veikkausliiga, the highest level of Finnish football since 1996. Together with TPS, it is one of the two teams from Turku playing in the Veikkausliiga. The two teams also share their home venue at Veritas Stadion.
FC Inter's 'B team' is Sinimustat, which currently plays in the Kakkonen, or the third level of football in Finland. FC Inter also operates 14 youth teams and a youth academy in association with the city of Turku.
History
FC Inter was founded in 1990 by Stefan Håkans, the managing director of the towage and salvage company Alfons Håkans, allegedly after his 11-year-old son couldn't fit into any of the other youth teams in Turku. The club started out as a youth team, but in 1992 a senior squad was founded and it entered the Finnish league system at the fourth level (Third Division). The following year, the club assumed the place of the financially troubled local club Turun Toverit in the Second Division. Manager Timo Sinkkonen invested in new players, and eventually the club finished first and was promoted to the First Division (Ykkönen).
In 1995, Inter finished first in the Ykkönen and was promoted, as well as reaching the semi-final stage in the Finnish Cup. The squad was strengthened with new players, and in 1996, as both of Turku's better teams were now playing in the Veikkausliiga, the club's attendance records were broken with 8,200 spectators in the local derby between TPS and Inter.
In 1997, the club were relegated after finishing last in the Veikkausliiga, but achieved promotion again the following season. New foreign players were bought to strengthen the squad, such as Richard Teberio and Fernando della Sala. Since then the club has consistently finished between 7th and 4th in the league, and maintained a steady inflow of foreign players as well as young starlets from its own youth academy.
During the 2006 season Inter sacked their manager Kari Virtanen and hired new coach, Dutch Rene van Eck. After the season van Eck returned to Switzerland to coach FC Wohlen, and another Dutchman Job Dragtsma took over.
Current squad
The players in bold have senior international caps. Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Records
- Best league position: 4th (2004)
- Most goals scored: Tero Forss, 74 goals (1993 - 2001)
- Most matches played: Petri Lehtonen, 227 matches (1993 - 2002)
Past managers
- Anders Romberg (1992)
- Timo Sinkkonen (1993 - 1994)
- Hannu Paatelo (1995 - 1997)
- Tomi Jalo (1997 - 1998)
- Steven Polack (1998)
- Timo Askolin (1999 - 2000)
- Pertti Lundell (2001 - 2002)
- Kari Virtanen (2003 - 2006)
- René van Eck (2006 - 2006)
- Job Dragtsma (2007 -
Notable former players
Luciano Álvarez
Marcel Mahouvé
Ari Nyman
Artim Sakiri
Joakim Jensen- Magnus Bahne
- Richard Teberio
- Aristides Pertot
Steven Polack (1995-98)
External links
- fcinter.com - The club's official site.
- UltraBoyz - A supporters' club in Turkish.