Claimed:Jokinen Bio

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Fabio Jokinen Biography 

 

 

Early life

 

Fabio was born in Finland 19 years ago. His father, Ronald is from Italy who came to Finland to play football in a club called Ilves. Back then only the foreign players were able to focus on football without having to get a part time job. Fabio´s mother, Katri was the daughter of one of the coaches at Ilves and rumor has it that it did not take too long for Katri to fall in love with the smooth talking Italian. At first Ronald was not interested in Katri, he feared it would only hurt his career in Finland if he gets involved with the coaches daughter, but eventually he could not say no to his feelings, six months after meeting for the first time, Katri and Ronald were officially together.

 

Ronald´s career was the number one thing in the relationship, that caused quite few heated arguments. Katri wanted to spend more time together, while Ronald just wanted to rest after a tough game or exhausting practice session. Katri was seriously thinking about leaving Ronald, but before she could make a final decision, she got pregnant. Ronald was shocked at first, but after talking about it together, they decided to give the relationship one more chance. Roughly nine months later their son Fabio was born.

 

First few years of Fabio´s life was hectic. Ronald was one of the best players in the Finnish league, but that also meant he was still spending too much time away from the family, at least if you ask from Katri. That was going to change though, in a rivalry game between Ilves and Tampere United, Ronald injured his knee badly. Eventually he was forced to retire from football at the age of 28. It was a huge shock for everyone, Ronald got depressed and in a truly Finnish way he looked help from our good old friend alcohol. Katri did not look his drunken ass for long, he took Fabio and moved away from their apartment.

 

Nobody knows for sure what Ronald did during the time, but it´s believed he kept drinking while reminiscing about the good times, eventually moving back to Italy. Fabio still has not met his father after that. Katri has tried to contact Ronald numerous times over the years, but no luck. When Fabio was 15, Katri asked from Fabio if he would be interested in traveling with her to Italy, hoping they could find Ronald, but Fabio did not want to go. They had no idea if he was even alive and if he was, where is he living? It´s been close to 16 years now since Katri and Fabio last time saw or spoke with Ronald.

 

 

Hockey 

 

 

Katri was basically a single mother who was raising a young boy all alone, life was not easy, but with the help from her parents and friends, she managed to do just fine. Fabio looked like a normal kid and did fairly well in school. Hockey was and still is big in Finland, from TV Fabio got his first touch in the game of hockey when he watched the Finnish national team play. All the winters were naturally spent playing on the outdoor rinks with friends. There was not a single day when Fabio did not go and at least skate around on the ice. During summer time football was the other sport kids played and Fabio was no different. Fabio joined Tappara juniors at the age of 7. He spent next 9 years playing with the Tappara juniors before eventually making his debut with the senior team. His role was fairly marginal at first, playing game or two here and there while still playing mostly in the juniors. After the so called rookie year,he was a regular member in the team, playing on average 16 minutes each game.

 

Young 17 year old guy playing against full grown men naturally got attention from the scouts and after playing one full year with the Tappara senior team, Fabio moved to Saskatoon and started playing in the VHLM. Start was bit shaky as you can imagine, Fabio only played 15 games in his first year in Saskatoon, but to be fair, he joined Saskatoon quite late in the season. In those 15 games, Fabio scored decent 7 goals and collected 2 assists. It was quite clear that he had potential to be a VHL player some day. 

 

After the short season with Saskatoon was over, next in line was the VHLM draft. Saskatoon was holding quite few picks in the first round, including the first overall. Fabio managed to impress the Saskatoon staff during his time with the team, they picked him first overall! That meant Fabio would play in Saskatoon for at least one more year. This time it would be a full year though.

 

The next year was much easier for Fabio, he already knew everybody and how things happen in the VHLM and in Saskatoon. Healthy off-season and quite few new faces added into the Saskatoon roster got everybody excited, the team had a chance to win something big. That excitement eventually lead Saskatoon all the way to winning the cup! They also had the highest point total in regular season in the whole VHLM, so the team was dominant. Fabio had a fairly big role in the team, played all 72 games, scored 20 goals and 22 assists.  In the playoffs he was playing like a leading player, 12 games with 3+6. 

 

 

Solid year for Fabio meant many were expecting him to be drafted high in the VHL draft. Defender who can do pretty much everything is usually quite wanted around the hockey world. Fabio was picked third overall by Quebec. At that point it was still not clear if Fabio would play in the VHL right away or was he going to play one more year in Saskatoon or perhaps even in Finland? After the rookie training camp was over, the Quebec GM informed the media that Fabio Jokinen will start the year with Quebec and in the VHL. It was bit of a shock for many, but now that the season has been underway for some time, it´s not a big surprise anymore that Jokinen is playing in the VHL, in 20 games he has 6+10 while playing in a massive role, he is on the ice on average 31 minutes on each game.

 

Remains to be seen how well rest of the year goes for Quebec and for Jokinen, one thing is for sure though, if he plays like the way he has done so far and perhaps even improves, fans of Quebec will be having a lot of fun in the future.
 

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