Mikael Forssell joins Birmingham City on three-year contract

EUR 4.5 million deal sees striker rejoin team-mates, but this time not as a Chelsea loan

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Finnish international striker Mikael Forssell, 24, has joined Birmingham City from Chelsea for a fee of £3 million, or EUR 4.5 million. He signed a 3-year contract with the Midlands Premiership club on Friday, ending speculation about his future that has been rife for weeks.
      Forssell expressed his delight at the outcome of the negotiations, and at the fact he had passed a medical examination to satisfy the Birmingham staff that his recent lengthy knee injury was no impediment to the signing.
      Equally satisfied was the Birmingham City manager Steve Bruce, who had worked hard to secure the signature of a player he knows well, as Forssell was on loan at St. Andrews for the 2003/2004 season, when he scored 19 goals, including 17 in the Premiership.
      Steve Bruce negotiated a further year's loan but a serious knee problem requiring surgery ruled Forssell out of practically all of the 2004/2005 campaign, and Birmingham terminated the loan deal in January of this year, with the Finn moving back to Chelsea.
     
He originally joined the London club on a free transfer from Helsinki HJK in 1998, as an outstandingly promising 17-year-old. The Chelsea management saw the raw talent, and - perhaps wisely - decided to groom the youngster in the lower leagues before making full use of their acquisition.
      Forssell was loaned to Crystal Palace during the latter part of the 1999/2000 season, and he made an immediate impact there. A further full year followed at Selhurst Park, seeing him score 13 goals in 31 starts for Palace.
      Any number of clubs would then have been willing to buy Forssell, who had clearly matured and benefited from the rough and tumble of the First Division, but Chelsea kept him on their books and used him as a "super-sub". This was a role that brought him 9 goals in the blue strip but a simultaneous sense of frustration that he could not hold down a first-team starting place.
     
The arrival of Russian money and a glut of star players at Stamford Bridge only exacerbated this situation, and after a layoff with injury Forssell was loaned out yet again in January 2003, this time to Borussia Mönchengladbach in the Bundesliga.
      He was equally popular with fans and management alike in Germany (which incidentally is where he was born - it did no harm that he also speaks fluent German), and he scored seven goals in 12 matches. The Germans wanted to see more of Forssell, but he went instead to Birmingham on loan and was an immediate hit, scoring freely until hit by injury - in fact he was "Chelsea's highest-scoring striker" in that first 2003/2004 season.
     
The disappointments of the past year were keenly felt by the player and by Steve Bruce. The manager commented that Birmingham - who finished 12th in the Premiership last season - would have scored eight to ten more points if they could have called on the goalscoring services of "The Force" alongside strikers like Emile Heskey, signed last summer from Liverpool for a club record fee of £6.25 million.
      After such a long layoff, there were naturally doubts and rumours about the player's full recovery, and even media claims that Forssell had "failed a medical" with Everton, who were among several clubs seeking to sign him this summer.
      Bruce and the Birmingham medical staff had no such qualms, perhaps because of the personal connection: the manager said he respected the player's honesty as well as his talent. He also commented that Forssell had shown great strength of character to overcome such a setback and that it would inevitably stand him in good stead for the future.
     
Though Mikael Forssell will be in familiar company when he plays for Birmingham City this autumn, one thing will be different: there will be no clause preventing him from playing against Chelsea, and so he will be able to turn out against his former team-mates. "Finally! It's great, and I'm really looking forward to it", the player grinned when the subject of the two Premiership encounters with League Champions Chelsea was raised.
      Forssell has been capped 33 times for Finland, most recently coming on for a short appearance as a substitute in last Wednesday's defeat to Holland, and he has scored 12 goals in the Finnish shirt.
      His absence during the recent World Cup qualifying campaign was also a bitter blow for national head coach Antti Muurinen, since Finland has desperately needed a thoroughbred striker capable of taking any chance offered.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Knee injury to keep Forssell out of football for six months (23.9.2004)
  Forssell scores twice on Birmingham début (15.9.2003)
  Footballer Mikael Forssell makes every minute count (18.2.2003)

Links:
  Yahoo Sport: Forssell Seals Birmingham Switch
  UEFA.com: Forssell makes Birmingham move

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