Football Season Guide

KuPS won back-to-back titles after finishing as runner-ups in the 3 years prior. In 2025 the defence of the title wasn’t easy early on. Finished the regular season only a point above their nearest pursuers and with 4 teams breathing down their necks. This was largely due to the team focusing all their attention in July-August on Europe where they reached the Conference League group phase, eventually even made the play-offs there. Come the autumn KuPS were all about the league though and ended up full 6 points above everyone else in the final standings. Managed to win 7 of their 10 play-off matches. Despite this success in his first season at the helm coach Wiss resigned unexpectedly, cited transfer policy differences. Now 34-year-old Miika Nuutinen is in charge. His only previous top flight experience was for 3 months at the helm of HJK last year. Managed TPS Turku in the lower division in 2023 and 2024. The squad had to be revamped in the winter. Striker Parzyszek arrived only last summer but he ended up scoring goals in 12 of his 15 league starts. This saw him sold for a large fee in the winter. His main partner up front Toure was also sold. The two main centre-backs Cisse and Miettinen also left. On top of that the crucial anchor-man Arifi moved to Germany. Adams and Hämäläinen signed to become the new main duo in defence. Might need some time to build synchrony but both are solid players on their own right. Gasc was signed from SJK for the holding midfielder role. If anything he is probably even better than Arifi so shouldn’t have issues in that area. The big question marks are in attack. Obviously, found quality replacements up front, at least on paper. The question mark is how productive they could be. Moreno hasn’t been a prolific goalscorer in his previous stints in Finland. Swedish striker Engvall has much better track record but he spent most of the last year warming the bench and might need time to find rhythm. Young winger Kabuye might become a star but he has limited senior experience and at least in 2026 is more likely to be used off the bench.