HJK Helsinki

The club was formed in 1907 as Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi - Helsingfors Fotbollsklubb in 1907 by Fredrik Wathen. The first meeting took place at a bowling center in Kaisaniemi Park in May. The first competitive match took place with Ekenas IF in Ekenas. HJK defeated Ekenas IF 2-4.

In the beginning, HJK became popular amongst students who spoke Finnish, whereas those who were Swedish preferred to play mostly with Unitas and HIFK. In 1908, following an argument that was heated that resulted in the switch of the language to unilingual Finnish which resulted in several Swedish-speaking players moving to HIFK and other clubs but a few chose to remain.

in 1909 the colors white and blue were picked in support of the fennoman cause and bandy was made the second official sport of the club. The club relocated from the Kaisaniemi Ground to the new Elaintarha Stadium. The end of the year Fredrik Wathen had to quit his position as chairman of the club due to an illness.

The year 1910 saw Lauri Tanner was named the longest-running club president to the present. In the same year the club's first international game was held, with Eriksdals IF from Stockholm in Kaisaniemi. The first championship was taken in 1911. The club was founded in 1915 and relocated to the newly constructed Toolon Pallokentta. It was in 1916 that tennis was added in the three official sporting events for HJK and was played at the club up to the early 1920s. In the Finnish Civil War in 1918 2 HJK club members who were fighting on behalf of the "Whites" were killed.

In 1921 the first ever bandy championship was won. During the next five seasons, HJK reached five finals taking home three more championships. The bowling sport was added into the team's repertoire in 1925, however the bowlers created the club they had created, Helsingin Keilaajat, the next year. The year 1928 was the first time ice hockey was made an official sport, and its first title was held in 1929. League format was introduced into Finnish football in the year 1930, but HJK was not able to make it into the league for the first time. The year 1931 was the first time HJK participated in their inaugural season of the league however , at the conclusion in the league, they got eliminated from the league.

In World War II, HJK lost 22 members of the military. Of those, nine died during the Winter War, twelve in the Continuation War and one in the Lapland War. The sport of handball in 1943 was made available as the sixth official sports. HJK was awarded two bronze and two silver medals in handball over the next three seasons, but didn't achieve further successes. Handball was the first of HJK's sport where women also participated. Ladies' teams competed for 23 seasons, all at top standard; their best finishing position was fourth.

The year 1963 was the time that HJK had their final season at the second division of the pyramid of football and won 20 of 22 matches , and making 127 goal. in 1964, the newly-promoted club took home their 10th championship. The following season, 1965-66 they took part in their very first European Cup match, against Manchester United at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium. The defeat of 2-9 resulted in HJK's disqualification from the competition.

The club won their first cup championship with a victory over KTP by 6-1, in the presence of 7,000 fans. The bandy section was disbanded by the latter half of the 1960s. The final official sport that was played, figure skating, added to the roster of the club in 1966. However, it was removed in 1972. The ice hockey division was also disbanded in the year 1972 and the final season of handball took place in 1978. The following season, HJK therefore only participated in football for the next the 69-year period as a multisport team.

In 1998 and 1999, HJK becoming the only and until date, the sole Finnish club to take part in the group phase in the UEFA Champions League after defeating Metz in the second round of qualifying. The club also earned an impressive five points in their group, beating Benfica at home, and earning draws at home to 1. FC Kaiserslautern and away to Benfica. They were defeated by PSV twice, and also to Kaiserslautern away.

The current stadium for the club The stadium, known as Bolt Arena, which is the club's current home stadium Bolt Arena, was opened in 2000. The 20th championship was taken in 2002. Then, it was in the year 2008 that the club was awarded its 10th Finnish Cup title. The 2009 season marked the beginning of a championship streak that brought six titles consecutively from 2009 until the year 2014.

The year 2014 saw HJK made history as the only Finnish club to participate within the UEFA Europa League group stage after beating Rapid Wien in the play-off round. HJK won against Torino as well as Copenhagen in their home stadium, came in second in their group, with six points.

HJK has made several purchases in the winter of 2015 which included Cordoba forward Mike Havenaar, J-league playmaker Atomu Tanaka as well as Birmingham City holding midfielder Guy Moussi. With these new players on their team, HJK began the season with a bang, having the cup won by the club, which was something they haven't done since 1998. HJK also played their first derby at home against HIFK in April 1972, and drew 1-1. But, HJK could not replicate the success in league play they enjoyed the previous six seasons. They finished the 2015 season in 3rd spot, just in third place behind the champions SJK and second-placed RoPS.

The 2017 season saw the club only lost three times, resulting in a double win in the domestic league.

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The year 1910 was the time that HJK held a competition in 1910 to come up with a club crest however, the board of the club was not happy with the ideas. The crest was designed by Osmo Korvenkontio in 1913. it's been through only minor adjustments throughout the years.

The initial kit of HJK was a plain white shirt with black shorts, black shirt and black socks, with a few white horizontal stripes across the top. In 1909, HJK introduced its distinctive blue and white stripes on its shirt. The blue and white colors are a tribute to the fennoman style. The black trunks remained in use for a long time. The shirts were changed to unicolour blue for the 1973 season because of the pressure of sponsors. In an attempt to improve hockey's professionalism, the department club, the club was sucked in financial hardship and sponsors demanded greater visibility to their brands. The club's financial condition was improved in 1986, and as a result of fan demands, the shirt design was altered to striped at the time the year ended and has been the same for the rest of the time.

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• Veikkausliiga:
  • Winners (31): 1911, 1912, 1917, 1918, 1919, 1923, 1925, 1936, 1938, 1964, 1973, 1978, 1981, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1997, 2002, 2003, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021
  • Runners-up (14): 1921, 1933, 1937, 1939, 1956, 1965, 1966, 1982, 1983, 1999, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2016
• Finnish Cup:
  • Winners (14): 1966, 1981, 1984, 1993, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2014, 2016–17, 2020
  • Runners-up (6): 1975, 1985, 1990, 1994, 2010, 2021
• Finnish League Cup:
  • Winners (5): 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2015
  • Runners-up (3): 1995, 2009, 2012

• Finnish Women's Championship:
  • Winners (23): 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1991. 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2019
• Finnish Women's Cup:
  • Winners (17): 1981, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2017, 2019

• Finnish Championship:
  • Winners (3): 1928–29, 1931–32, 1934–35
  • Runners-up (6): 1930–31, 1932–33, 1937–38, 1938–39, 1940–41, 1971–72
• Finnish Cup:
  • Winners (1): 1970

• Finnish Championship:
  • Winners (5): 1921, 1923, 1924, 1928, 1937
  • Runners-up (3): 1925, 1927, 1946

• Finnish Champions
  • Pia Wingisaar: 1966, 1967
  • Anuliisa Numminen: 1970
  • Tarja Säde: 1971
  • Tarja Näsi: 1972

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• 81 seasons in Veikkausliiga / SM-Sarja
• 6 seasons in Ykkönen / Suomisarja

The past has shown that HJK was a popular club among the Finnish natives, a prosperous middle classes of Helsinki. HJK's supporters were usually nationalism, in line with the tradition of the majority of Finnish FA club of the time. The leftist clubs of the working class were able to play their own leagues as well as competitions in the Finnish Workers Sports Federation. However, the club was open to all honorable citizen', regardless of nationality, race, or social status and has always included people from other communities too. In the early 1970s HJK became specifically known as a Tooloan club due to the majority of their activities occurring in this particular region.

The club's image of a wealthy, middle class club from Toolo has been largely lost due to the social change in Finland and also the migration from the city into housing projects that were constructed during the mass exodus from rural areas in the 1960s and 1970s.

The main rivals of HJK in Helsinki were generally thought as Kiffen, HPS and HIFK. In the past , these were the four biggest clubs of Helsinki. The clubs were mostly separated by their language, HJK as well as HPS being Finnish speaking clubs , whereas HIFK KIF and HIFK KIF had been Swedish speaking. The four clubs also played in ice hockey, bandy and handball. They received support from HJK was mostly from the city's inner areas and later in the 1940s, also from Toolo and in the early period HPS Support came from same regions as HJK. Later on in the 1940s and 1950s the time when HJK support increased towards Toolo region, HPS gained more support in Vallila and Alppila districts. This was mainly due to their youth programs that took place in these areas. These boundaries were not strict however, and all one of four teams enjoyed members, players, and support throughout the city. HJK had already established youth teams in new suburbs in the 1960s, and their status as an Tooloan club was not long-lasting. KIF and HPS struggled to stay afloat and both were dropped to lower leagues following 1964, and then rapidly losing supporters. KIF was able to make a short two-season run to the first stage in the 1977/78 season. Although both KIF and HPS are still in operation in 2020, they've spent the last few decades playing at lower levels, with HPS being more focused specifically on the youth leagues in the northern part of Helsinki.

HJK and HIFK are the two clubs with the greatest rivalry as they are two of the longest-running as well as most profitable clubs. Both teams were successful when it came to Bandy which was a major winter sports in the early second half of the 20th century, KIF and HPS gained less successes. In addition, the two Ice hockey, the teams had to compete multiple instances as well as played longer seasons at the first division as compared to HPS as well as KIF. A game between these two clubs is referred to"so-called" Stadin derby. The language was the most significant element between the two clubs. HIFK was the team that was preferred by the Swedish spoken population of the city, and HJK for those who were Finnish natives of the city. In the year 2015 HIFK was elevated to the top league after a long period of struggle within the leagues of lower levels, having completed their final season in the highest division in 1972. Since HJK stopped playing in other sports in the 1970s and 1960s, the rivalry dissolved in large numbers and, in the last few decades, there were even fans who were supporters of both teams simultaneously, HJK in football and HIFK in the ice hockey. But, because of the growth of the Finnish supporters' movement in the late 2000s and the rise of HIFK's supporter scene, there's a lot tension between the loudest fans.

HJK had a brief but intense competition against FC Jokerit around the late 1990s and into the early 2000s. Jokerit received a lot of support by their popular section of ice hockey and the two clubs also played against one another on ice hockey in the latter half of the 1960s and early 1970s.

Numerous Helsinki club members have participated in the league, but because of their brief visits and a relatively weak support base, large-scale rivalries did not develop. The most notable clubs included Ponnistus, FinnPa, Pallo-Pojat and Helsingin Toverit.

HJK has played against Lahti clubs that were based in the 1960s. Between 1964 and the year 1980. HJK along with Lahden Reipas experienced a slight rivalry, both teams had excellent success in winning titles and were well-supported. Reipas also had seven cup wins against HJK. HJK. Reipas was dismissed after the his season in 1980. The most notable rivalry was with Kuusysi in the early 1980s through the mid-1990s. Between 1981 and 1992, HJK was able to win six league titles compared to Kuusysi's five. Both clubs also had two wins in the cup and faced two times at the end of the season (which were both taken in the favor of HJK). Both clubs also had a good performance in European tournaments. In 1996, the two Lahti clubs joined forces with FC Lahti. FC Lahti was born, HJK and FC Lahti matches are more well-known for their activities outside the pitch as well as some disturbances to the crowd and minor fights have been reported which aren't commonplace within Finnish football. Because of the relatively shorter travel distance that separates the cities the matches usually draw larger crowds away over other games.

HJK as well as Valkeakosken Haka are the two most successful clubs in Finnish football. HJK with 27 cups and 12 league titles, and Haka with 9 cups and 12 league titles. The game is also thought of as an "urban rivalry" or "urban vs. countryside" rivalry since HJK is a team that is located in Finland's capital cities of Helsinki and Valkeakosken Haka is from Helsinki and Haka is the representative of the tiny village of Valkeakoski.

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HJK's reserve team currently plays in the Finnish second Division.

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