Aron Kiviharju received a really great honor: “An absurd privilege”

Second-generation puck player Aron Kiviharju received the letter c on his shirt and the responsibility of captain from the coaching staff.

The other members of the captaincy are Kasper Halttunen, Jesse Kiiskinen, Rasmus Kumpulainen and Emil Pieniniemi. Only two players carry the vice-captain’s letter a at a time.

Kiviharju is proud to work as a skipper and admits that there are role models in the job.

– When my own father (Jani Kiviharju) was in Liiga as a coach, I saw Kallio Tomppa quite close, Eric PerrinHenrik Tallinderia, and Petteri Nummelin was also the captain then. Those were tough things in Turku.

– Mikko Koivu is probably a role model of a captain for Finns, as well as for me.

Lots of role models

HIFK also has leaders who like Kiviharju.

– We have to attract the home club to HIFK enough that there are some pretty great managers there as well. Ilari Melart, Jori Lehterä and Iiro Pakarinen. There are many good things in their management styles, which you can then apply to your own management.

– And our head coach Ville Peltonen is also quite an exemplary captain. I don’t know how many different teams he was the captain of in his time and in the World Cup as well. I’ve also heard what kind of leader he was in HIFK’s championship year 2011, you can learn from that for your own work as well.

Stereotypes away

Kiviharju does not imagine that he will lead Leijon alone.

– The stereotypical thinking that a captain is a captain and leads alone is no longer modern. We have a lot of players who bring their own personality to that.

– Maybe I’m more the face and image of the team in a certain way. It is an absurd privilege to be the captain of the Finnish national team, and you have to be a player worthy of that responsibility both on and off the field.

The role of the captain brings extra things to the tournament routine.

– There are many things related to this. You have to be the intermediary between the coaches and the players, let’s send the message in both directions. On the ice, you have to have a good relationship with the referees and talk to them about different situations, and you have to keep them on our side that way.

– But as I said, I’m not alone in that matter.

Tough Canada

The defender is happy to throw the pre-favorite cape of the tournament somewhere else than around Leijona’s neck.

– Let’s go with the crowd, Canada of course. And every time the games are played in Canada, they get that little extra boost. When you look at their material, country is probably at the top of quite a few lists.

– Of course there are others there. When you start listing these, there are quite a few countries that you can beat. It’s a great thing in the age group of twenty-somethings, the level differences decrease after the U16 and U18 age groups, and many countries can win the championship.

Kiviharju is a talkative young man in front of the media.

Are your speeches to the team that long?

– Well, it depends a bit on the situation. I talk quite a lot, but on game days I try to keep my speeches short and to the point, I try to bring out the core issue. You guys know what we’re after here.

The World Cup final will be played on January 5.