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Jari Litmanen (born 20 February 1971 in Lahti) is a Finnish footballer. He was the first-choice captain of the Finland national football team between 1996–2008 in an international career that ran from 1989 to 2010, making him the only male footballer to play an international in four different decades.

Jari Litmanen the legendary playmaker/striker of Ajax F.C. Born in Finland, Litmanen had the unfortunate luck to be from a country that has much more success in Ice Hockey than it does in soccer. Nevertheless, Litmanen came of age in the 1990′s playing for such illustrious teams like Ajax, Liverpool and Barcelona. Though he reached the pinnacle of success with such clubs, Litmanen's national team of Finland was not part of the elite in Europe. Despite producing such great talents in the late 1990′s and early 2000′s like Litmanen and Sami Hyppia(another Liverpool legend) Finland could never get past the qualifying stage for the World Cup, though coming close a couple of times.