Legendary former Bolton goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskeleinen says Wanderers means 'everything' to him as he reflected on his time at the club and the success he had.
The ex-Finland international played more than 500 times for Wanderers between 1997 and 2012, representing the club in the Premier League and the Championship.
His time at the club included qualifying for Europe twice under legendary boss Sam Allardyce.
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Jaaskeleinen turned out at the University of Bolton Stadium once again today as he was part of a legends team under Allardyce which played the current Bolton team as part of fundraising for the treatment of Wanderers defender Gethin Jones' mother, Karen, who has been diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND).
The family are aiming to pursue the best current care and leading course of treatment which is available only in the United States.
And the Finn believes the club means everything to him as he turned out in a team which included Ivan Campo, Jay-Jay Okocha, Kevin Davies and Stelios Giannakopoulos once more.
He said: “It means everything to me in my football career and everything in my life, I suppose. My boys were born here and it was our family home for 23 years so it’s great memories and great to be back.
“You just go day by day and week by week and you try and just learn and play your football in the best possible way. In the end, it ended up being a great journey, especially spending here 14 or 15 years of my football career so it’s a special place and a special journey.
“We were a little bit of an up and down team for a couple of years, but then what Sam did here and stabilized the football club and got them in the Premier League, and got to Europe as well.
“It was great because we had loads of matchwinners on the field and players who can deliver good quality football, week in, week out. Things worked well.
"Sam and the backroom staff did great work getting the players here and could get the best out of them as well. Some of the players were dipping a little bit in their form but the science behind and the things that we were doing was good.”
The goalkeeper's career at Wanderers was filled with high moments and Jaaskeleinen picked out qualifying for Europe as the top ones.
He believes his old manager Allardyce and the people behind the scenes at Wanderers helped make the players what they were and the chance to succeed.
And after difficult times for his old club which has seen them tumble down the divisions in recent years, the former goalkeeper is pleased to see the club back on the up again under Football Ventures, chairman Sharon Brittan and manager Ian Evatt.
He said: “It’s difficult but there was the full time with Sam and before that and after that I had a great time here. Getting into Europe was great but that journey that we started in the Championship, stayed up a couple of years in the Premier League and then we finished in the top eight four years on the bounce. I think that full journey and being a part of that has been great.
"He would look after us. He demanded lots from the players, we had a loads of backroom staff and everything from life to football, he just gave us the best opportunity possible to play that football week in, week out at a high level.
"There are loads of people behind the scenes. Obviously I had a good (goalkeeping) coach here and Sam came in. He brought more players but of course he helped me a lot, and there’s been other backroom staff helping next to Sam."
"The main thing is we survived the bad couple of years. We have new owners now and it wasn’t the best start to last season but we got up to League One. Now they can start rebuilding so that’s a good thing.”
