Bolton Wanderers legend played until 42 after 530 games – look what he does now | OneFootball

Bolton Wanderers legend Jussi Jaaskelainen remains involved in football in a couple of ways in Finland.

During the late-1990s and throughout the 2000s, Bolton Wanderers became a genuine force in English football with an abundance of cult heroes becoming legends at the club and one name still remembered ever so fondly within the Bolton fanbase is Jussi Jaaskelainen – and he remains in the sport to this day.

Eddie Hopkinson was between the sticks as Bolton famously defeated Manchester United to win their fourth FA Cup with a 2-0 victory at Wembley Stadium and is The Trotters’ all-time appearance maker, playing 578 games for The Whites.

During his time at Burnden Park after joining from Oldham Athletic, Hopkinson also earned 14 caps for England was a part of The Three Lions’ squad for FIFA World Cup 1958 while the bedrock of Bolton’s defence.

For a player to come close to and perhaps even surpass him as a legendary figure at Wanderers would have taken some doing – but that is exactly what Jussi Jaaskelainen managed to do when he joined Wanderers back in 1997.

Jussi Jaaskelainen became a legend at Bolton

In 1997, Jussi Jaaskelainen had undergone a trial at Norwich City but Bolton manager Colin Todd had managed to convince the Finnish goalkeeper to instead move to Lancashire and join Bolton, completing a £100,000 move from Vaasan Palloseura, or VPS, where he had been the Finnish Veikkausliiga’s Player of the Year.

Jaaskelainen arrived initially as the understudy to another Boltonian cult-hero in Keith Branagan, who had been Wanderers’ number one for almost a decade.

However, the Republic of Ireland international was usurped by Jaaskelainen after Bolton’s relegation from the Premier League in the 1997-98 campaign – and, wearing the number 22 shirt, Jaaskelainen never looked back.

Over the next 14 years, Jaaskelainen would go on to make 527 appearances for the club and put himself in the pantheon of Bolton greats, alongside Hopkinson, with only Hopkinson as well as Roy Greaves and Alex Finney making more appearances for The Whites.

As Bolton qualified for the UEFA Cup twice with famous results against Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid among others, finished in the top eight of the top-flight for four successive seasons, reached a League Cup final, a couple of FA Cup semi-finals and came close to UEFA Champions League qualification on a couple of occasions; Jaaskelainen established himself as one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League.

Jussi Jaaskelainen continued on under Sam Allardyce and at Wigan

Jaaskelainen departed the then Reebok Stadium as Bolton ended their 11-year stint in the top-flight at the end of the 2011-12 campaign, reuniting with Sam Allardyce down in London at West Ham United.

Allardyce, with Jaaskelainen as reliable as ever, managed to re-establish West Ham back in the Premier League and the 56-cap Finland international remained one of the better keepers in division even though he 38 by the end of the 2012-13 campaign.

Moving more towards the periphery of things over the next couple of years at Upton Park, Jaaskelainen then dropped into League One to return back to Lancashire and become a key figure in the Wigan Athletic side that romped to the third-tier title in the 2015-16 campaign.

He would continue playing until the age of 42 after a stint with Indian outfit ATK, under the management of Teddy Sheringham and with teammates such as Conor Thomas, Tom Thorpe, Robbie Keane, Ryan Taylor, David Cotterill and Martin Paterson.

Jussi Jaaskelainen is still involved in football

After his long and impressive playing career, Jaaskelainen took on the role as goalkeeping coach at Wrexham, with the manager of The Red Dragons being his former Bolton teammate Sam Ricketts.

In the midst of Ricketts departing the club to join Shrewsbury Town, Jaaskelainen even took charge of one game alongside Graham Barrow and Carl Darlington in the second round of the FA Cup against fellow Welsh outfit Newport County.

Jaaskelainen left the club at the end of that season but returned to football in February 2024, at the start of the Finnish football season, linking up with second-tier outfit PK-35.

PK-35, based in Helsinki, finished sixth in the Ykkosliiga in 2024, having gained promotion back to the second division in 2023, and then fifth last year. They currently sit second in the 2026 season with just four games to go and comfortably the best defensive record in the division, perhaps thanks to the coaching qualities and experience of Jaaskelainen, conceding just 15 goals in 23 games.

As well as his work at PK-35, Jaaskelainen works as an expert and analyst on the Premier League for Viaplay – and he may well be a part of a top-flight club in Finland in 2027, too, should PK-35 maintain their immense defensive record.