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10 July 2019
Author Red Matchday Team

Red Matchday 2019/20 | Issue 01 Preview

A warm welcome back to all our Red Matchday readers.

Firstly, we are pleased to announce that Dolly Digital will be designing the programme covers for a third season in a row.

I think we can all agree that our artist-in-residence has done a pretty fine job the past two seasons since taking over the paint brushes from Paine Proffitt.

After going for the retro covers last time around, this year’s programme theme will explore popular cultures.

The front of Thursday’s programme for the Europa League first qualifying round tie against Finnish side RoPS Rovaniemi has been inspired by an iconic computer game.

As the season goes on, we look forward to getting our readers thoughts of what might make a good cover.

As well as Dolly’s superb front page, we hope the contents inside will offer good value for money.

Over the past few weeks we have spoken to all the Dons new boys and you can read what they have to say about staring out on their Aberdeen careers, some for a second time: Ryan Hedges, Ashton Taylor, Curtis Main, Jon Gallagher, Craig Bryson, Greg Leigh and James Wilson. There is also a feature interview with Shay Logan who signed a new deal before the summer.

As ever there is plenty of historical content as we delve into the AFC European Archive. There are some great photos from the Ujpest Dozsa game at Pittodrie in 1984.

There is an in depth look at our Finnish opponents as we welcome RoPS to Pittodrie on Thursday and we spoke to Development Don Miko Virtanen who knows a number of their players from Finland International Youth Squads.

Plus, the AFC Former Players interview is with a former Finn.

And a very good one at that.

Midfielder Markus Heikkinen spent two seasons here in the early 2000s, making 80 appearances and scoring four goals. The Finnish Internationalist, now 40, became a cult figure among the Red Army.

Speaking from Oulu in Finland, his northerly hometown, Markus spoke to us at length about his career and sounded disappointed that he won’t get a chance to see his former club in action in his native land next week.

“I live about 200 kilometres from Rovaniemi, so it’s not too far! People here in Finland are used to travelling longer distances and this would be about a two and a half hour drive. Unfortunately, I’m at a youth tournament in Kokkola which is two and a half hours south, so I can’t come up and watch the game which I would have done otherwise. That would have been nice, to see Aberdeen play again along with my children.

“Rovaniemi is a really interesting place and I am sure the Aberdeen fans who go over will like it. It is the time of year that the sun does not go down, so it will be a long night!”
Finland might be the land of the midnight sun at this time of year, but the sun finally did set on Markus’ playing career recently.

“I retired last autumn. I played my last game at the end of October. The body was actually still going ok but I had too many other things to do also. I was having to make a lot of compromises whilst I was still playing and having done that for a lot of years, I decided it was a good time to stop. I had actually made the decision one year before I stopped playing. I was able to then enjoy my last season, knowing my career was coming to an end.

“If you asked me what were my best years were, I could not really pick because I feel that I managed to maintain a good, consistent level of play over a good period of time. So if there was a season when I was at my very best, I can’t pick it out. I like to think that I had a pretty long peak. I didn’t have one top season or unbelievable season or a particularly bad year.

“I had pretty good seasons from 2003 onwards and within that there were good spells at Aberdeen, in England, in Austria, the same in Norway, same when I came back to Helsinki. I would say that I had a solid career without it being spectacular.

“I spent six years in Austria and that was an important phase in my career. It was a nice time and all the kids were born there, so it is a place that matters a lot to the family. It is a special place. Vienna was a great city. What I actually miss most is the climate. At times in the middle of summer it was a bit too hot, but the autumn was really pleasant.

“But if I just think about my footballing life, I liked my time at every club that I played for, or certainly some period within it. It was not always easy, in football you are always going to have ups and down, but from every club I have happy memories.”

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Thursday nights programme will be available to buy in and around the ground, plus copies will be available in the AFC Club Shop.

Finally, as always, we welcome your feedback on the programme. Your opinions matter greatly to us so if you have any thoughts on what might make the magazine even better, please feel free to get in touch with the programme editor redtv@afc.co.uk

Thank you to all of you who continue to support Red Matchday and we hope to give you plenty of good publications to enjoy during the season.

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