Personal Life
Litmanen was born into a footballing family. His father, Olavi Litmanen, was also a Finnish international and a Reipas player. His mother also played for Reipas at the women's highest level. Litmanen became a father in November 2005, when his Estonian girlfriend Ly Jürgenson gave birth to a son named Caro. The couple's second son, Bruno, was born in September 2007.
On 10 October 2010, Litmanen became the first Finnish team sport player to receive a statue. His statue is located at Kisapuisto (Lahti) where he started his career in the 70's.
Besides playing, Litmanen – using his old contacts in Netherlands – has also managed to send young Finnish players to visit the training camps and play on trial to numerous clubs in Eredivisie. Including Kari Arkivuo, Drilon Shala and Berat Sadik at Go Ahead Eagles and most recently Henri Toivomäki at Ajax.
Read more about this topic: Jari Litmanen
Famous quotes containing the words personal and/or life:
“I would rather have as my patron a host of anonymous citizens digging into their own pockets for the price of a book or a magazine than a small body of enlightened and responsible men administering public funds. I would rather chance my personal vision of truth striking home here and there in the chaos of publication that exists than attempt to filter it through a few sets of official, honorably public-spirited scruples.”
—John Updike (b. 1932)
“Unable to create a meaningful life for itself, the personality takes its own revenge: from the lower depths comes a regressive form of spontaneity: raw animality forms a counterpoise to the meaningless stimuli and the vicarious life to which the ordinary man is conditioned. Getting spiritual nourishment from this chaos of events, sensations, and devious interpretations is the equivalent of trying to pick through a garbage pile for food.”
—Lewis Mumford (1895–1990)