Jonas Hakkinen on switching Cork City for Cobh: It's a really strong group to be involved with

It may be a new look Cobh Ramblers side this season, but for some players, it’s familiar territory with so many former Cork City players joining the East Cork club.

For Jonas Hakkinen, it’s been a year without football but the drive and determination make him hungrier than ever.

Hakkinen is loving life at the East Cork club and he hopes he can help his side reach the top tier of football in the League of Ireland.

The centre-back who hails from Canada spent two seasons with Cork City so the transition was made easier when joining Ramblers due to the volume of former City players now plying their trade with Cobh. Here Hakkinen tells of how he is settling in and what it’s like training as a part-timer.

“I’ve settled in Cobh really well so far, all the lads and the staff have been brilliant,” said Hakkinen. "I would be familiar with a lot of the boys down here having played against some of them before and also have some close friends from my time in Cork here as well so that helps as well.

“It was great to get off to a great start on Friday night away to Treaty. The lads fought right until the end even being down 2-0 in the 80th minute. There was always a belief that we could get one back, but to get two and three as well shows the character of the group. It’s a really strong group to be involved with.

“It’s a huge to start with three points, especially in the manner of how the game went. 

The mentality for us this year is one match at a time and hopefully we can keep accumulating points one week at a time!

“We will be expecting another tough match, this Friday against Kerry. There are no easy games in this league and we will be up for a really tough challenge again this Friday and hopefully the crowd can come out in big numbers and play a massive part while supporting us from the stands.

“The first Division this year is very competitive, you could see it playing against Treaty last Friday. There are no easy games and we will have to earn any points that we get during the year. Having said that, with the amount of quality we have in the squad and if we play as well as we hope, we should competing at the top end of the table come the end of the season.

EXPERIENCE

“I spent three years at Cork City, two in the First Division, and one in the Premier Division. My second year we won the league and gained promotion.

I definitely gained a lot of experience playing in both divisions, maybe in different ways because of the difference in style in the two divisions. 

"However I hope I can bring some of that experience to Cobh this year and we can have similar success going forward.

“I was left without a club for a whole season and was looking for a place to play while trying to stay fit. It’s never something that you expect to happen, but this is a job that it can, and unfortunately it did."

Now the target is another First Division title. 

"However, I’m more than delighted to be back and very grateful to Cobh for giving me this chance to get back into it. I played one year in the Premier Division and absolutely I would like to play at that level again, we will do everything we can this year to push up the table and towards promotion.

“Competition is high in the squad and that’s always a good thing in professional sports. It means we have a lot of quality in the squad. We have so much depth in the squad where we have a number of players who can fight for spots in each position. That will push us to work hard every day and I’m sure we will only get better as a team as well as individuals.” 

How different is Hakkinen finding it training as a part-timer?

“The only difference really is that we are training in the evening instead of in the morning. I am working in the club shop two days a week in town here in Cobh and then we have training in the evening. 

"My girlfriend and I have moved into Cobh and we’ve settle in really well so life is great. Long may it continue.”