Kalevi Lehtovirta

Kalevi " Kale " Valdemar Lehtovirta ( born February 20, 1928 in Turku ) is a former Finnish football, ice hockey and Bandyspieler. In 1951 he was honored as player of the year in Finland.

Career

Lehtovirta played for Turun Pyrkivä, Turun Weikot, Turun Turun Palloseura and Toverit in Finland. After debuting in 1947 in the Finnish national team, he participated with the squad at the 1952 Olympics. There she retired after a 3:4 defeat against Austria.

He had attracted international attention and moved to the French Division 1 Kalevi Lehtovirta belonged together with Aulis Rytkönen and Nils Rikberg (both Toulouse ) to the first Finnish professional football players. For Red Star Paris he played 1953-1957, until he returned to Finland. In 1958 he was playing for TPS Turku together with Kai Pahlmann (HPS Helsinki) scorer of the Mestaruussarja. In 1959 he ended his international career in which he scored twelve goals in 44 games.

Besides football, ice hockey and bandy played Lehtovirta even before he became a professional football player in 1953 with his move to France. In football, he was in 1953 with Pyrkivä become football champions of the workers' Sports Federation TUL. 1947 and 1948 he had won the Hockey Championship and 1951 and 1952 the championship in Bandy.