The Europa League draw this season that pitted us with Rovaniemi brought back memories of Markus Heikkinen, the mighty Finn who was one of the finest players to grace Pittodrie this far in the 21st century.

Midfielder Markus 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 sounded disappointed that he didn’t get a chance to see his former club in action in his native land.

“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 had a youth tournament in Kokkola which is two and a half hours south, so I could not go 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 went over would have like it. At that time of year that the sun does not go down, so it would have been 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.”

There were certainly a few downs in Markus’ first season at Pittodrie, the team struggling throughout the2003/04 campaign. The real highlight was the incredible victory over Martin O’Neill’s hitherto unbeaten Celtic side. David Zdrilic grabbed the headlines by scoring a late winner, but Markus was immense that evening at Celtic Park, marshalling what was essentially a youth team playing around about him.

From there, the summer of 2004 saw the arrival of Jimmy Calderwood and with him came a dramatic change in fortunes. By the end of the season, the Dons were only three goals from taking third place and European football, that chase going to the wire with Hibs.

“My time in Aberdeen, the first season the home crowd was booing us and the next season we finished fourth and were getting standing ovations! You realise in those moments just how much football matters to the supporters.

“It is amazing, wherever I have been in Europe, I have always met Aberdeen fans. I always appreciate the support they gave me.

“Of course, the first season was difficult because of many different reasons. Then, under Calderwood, we managed to get some good results and played some decent football. With pretty much the same group of players, he managed to change things around completely and we went from being second last to almost qualifying for Europe.

“Before I came here, I was playing at that time for Portsmouth and my contract was running out and then my agent asked if I’d have an interest in playing in Scotland for Aberdeen.

“I had an offer as well from Denmark, so there were two options. But I went to the training camp Aberdeen had in Bradford, played a couple of games and they said they wanted to sign me. I had a good feeling about it right away and so that was my decision made.

“When I went up to Scotland though, my plan was always to go back to England. I was dreaming as a little boy to play in England, because when I was a kid in Finland, the only football you got on TV was the English league. Every Saturday, usually one game. I was always a big Arsenal fan.

“I moved down south again and had two years with Luton Town. We finished 10th in the Championship. We had a good team and a lot of good players, but they were eventually sold on. It is good to see them back in the Championship for this season.

“I had already been in the UK for four and a half years and couldn’t find a big club who would fight for a place in the Premier League. I was thinking it was time for new challenges, then many things happened, but I ended up going to Austria and signing for Rapid Vienna. They are a massive club. Six years there and some memorable times and games. I played a lot of games, 170 appearances, and started a family with wife Leena who I met in Finland the summer I left Aberdeen.”

Around five year ago, Markus returned to his homeland and HJK Helsinki, the current Finnish champions, for whom he had turned out for before arriving in Britain, via a short spell with Norway’s Start. After two years in Finland’s capital, his final club was, fittingly, AC Oulu, which now continues to define his off field career.

“AC Oulu are the main team in Oulu, they play in the second highest league. I’m a sports director, which is part-time. For the other half of the day, I’m coaching an under-17 team for a different organisation. They are two very different roles, but I enjoy them both and it is great experience for me.

“I have done the sports director role for the past two years, so was initially doing it whilst I was still playing. There are some moments when you have an awful lot of work, like during the transfer windows when you move players on, when you sign players, when you are scouting players, when you are building a new team. Other parts of the year, you are still busy, there are always the emails and the phone calls, but the work is less intensive.

“It is a great experience for me. I am getting a good understanding of how a football club works. Because we are a small club, if we have to make decisions, we can make them quickly. I speak with the CEO, he says yes or no, or on occasion he will have to speak with the board, and then I get an answer. The process all works really well.

“Let’s say for example I want a player, but the signing will exceed our playing budget, I get in touch with the CEO who will ask a couple of questions to decide if the money will come for that player and he will say yes or no. I get an answer within 24 hours, 48 hours maximum.

“I am really enjoying the coaching too. I finished my UEFA A Licence course just a couple of months ago and I’ve been really enjoying working with the youth team.

“Where my future lies, coaching-wise, I don’t really know. I made a promise to my family that once I stopped playing and moved home, we would not move again.

“This is the first time our family have had a support network close to us. In that sense, being close to your relatives, it really helps. I am sure it is something any. parents reading this can appreciate. I moved from here in 1997 so it was a pretty long time to be away – almost 20 years. I see the place with a different prospective. What I have around me now, I don’t need to be in a big city.

“In a way, I don’t want my family to have to go through the same things they did during my playing career, where we are changing addresses all the time. On the other side, I would like to test my limits as a coach as well.

“It will be difficult to forge out a great coaching course living here, but you never know. I have just started my coaching career and in this city, I still have a lot of challenges left as a coach. What the future brings, I don’t know.”

As Markus’ coaching career gathers pace, he’ll doubtless drawn on experiences from those he worked with as a player. But who was the best?

“It is really difficult to pick one because most of the managers I had, they all had something, they all had good attributes, and, like all people, maybe some things they needed to improve. It is impossible to find a manager in the top level who has everything. Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp, they get close, but it is difficult because as a manager nowadays, there are so many areas you have to handle and be good at.

“I liked the managers who knew how to handle me. I was never a player who needed a lot of pampering. I did not need someone coming up to me and asking how I was doing each day. They gave me space but still kept a relationship with me. They respected me and I respected them. With those kinds of managers, I did not have any kind of problems.

“I learned something from every manager and coach I worked with. I was lucky to work under different kinds of managers – for example not just guys who were very tactical and analytical, or guys who gave the hairdryer treatment all the time. They were all different, so of course that will help me with my own coaching career. I can draw on all those different experiences.”

Playing experiences will be an important source of information too, for Markus played at the top level. When he was at Aberdeen, he was already in the Finland national squad. He made his national team debut on 4 January 2002 against Bahrain and won 61 caps before announcing his retirement from the international stage in September 2011. Most of caps were won as a defensive midfielder, though later in his career he became a very accomplished centre back. So who was the best player he played with?

“In the Finnish national team there were many, many good players like Jari Litmanen, Sami Hyypiä Mikael Forssell, Antti Niemi, Jussi Jääskeläinen – plenty of good players.

“If I was forced to pick one, because of the consistency and the fact he was able to stay at the top level for such a long time, I would say Sami Hyypiä. He was a great professional and is a really good example for any footballer. Litmanen with his skills was unbelievable at certain moments. We had never produced a player before like that, and probably haven’t since.

“The national team is doing well at present. It is different now. The players who are playing in the national team are not playing in the big clubs across Europe like they were before. In my time, there were eleven players earning a living in the English Premier League.

“But now, with the current national team, the cohesion is unbelievably good. The coaching staff have really managed to put all the pieces together and it really is a team. You can see the way they play, there is a great spirit and they all fight for each other.

“They have had a really good two years result wise and you can see the confidence in the team. It now is a good time to watch the Finland national side. Hopefully we can get into the European Championships. If that happens, then the players will then get bigger moves and it will help Finnish football even more if the players are playing in a better environment and for bigger clubs – they will become better players and we will have a better national team.

“It is a couple of years since I played in the top league at home. With my work I haven’t been able to follow the other domestic games as closely as I would have liked.

“It has changed. Say 15 years ago, players were moving from the Finnish league straight to major leagues like England, the Scandinavian countries, Holland, Germany and they started playing almost straight away. Now it is really difficult to move from the Finnish league direct to one of the big European leagues.

“There are a lot of good young players playing but there is not as much money involved, therefore the older players are retiring too early in my opinion. There are not many players who are say between 28 and 32, which is a period some people call the best years of your career.

“As the wages are relatively low, they start studying or working because they get better salaries and prepare for the rest of their lives. There are also not many foreign players to fill the gaps. But in spite of that, I think in a tactical sense, the teams are better equipped.

“A lot of things within football have changed since I first played in Finland. It is a lot more professional now. There is a lot more information for players on what to do, what not to do. The sports science part has changed the game a lot. You have to be careful, but if you know how to handle the information in a way that helps your team, then it is a great tool to have.”

Finally, will we ever see Markus return to the Granite City? After all, his three boys – Viljami, ten, Jesperi, eight, and Akseli, six – are all taking their first steps in the game and want to find out more about their famous dad’s impressive career.

“I want to return one day because of the kids. They are starting to realise their useless father was actually a professional player once! They have a real interest to see where I was living and where I was playing and want to find out more. They’ve been asking about my career, so we’re really looking for a time we can come back and see how things are nowadays.

“This spring, for the first time we went back to Vienna. It was good to see that there were still some people working who were involved with the club at the time I was there.

“So it’s in my plans to come and show my family Aberdeen. I don’t know when, but it something I am looking forward to.”

And we look forward to welcoming you back one day Markus.