Legend’s Corner | Life After Football

After a 13-year-long career and five years at Juventus, Tuija Hyyrynen has embarked on a new adventure post-football. She's set to be a working mom, who is looking to change the lives of young athletes and improve the future for female athletes.

Here's how her life has changed post-football, in her own words.

HANGING UP THE BOOTS

After a 13-year-long career, your identity becomes fixed as a football player. However, when I stopped playing, I needed to discover who else I was, what was important to me, what I wanted from life, and how I wanted to live my life. You hold all the keys in your hands: you can choose whatever you want because you can essentially build your new life from scratch. It's an opportunity to grow and develop even further as a person.

I hadn't made any decisions when the [2021/22] season concluded. I knew that I would not continue at Juventus, and I shifted my focus to the Euros. I was mentally preparing for the possibility because I wanted to play at the Euros, and afterward, I hadn't really determined what I wanted to do. So, the option to retire was always there. I wanted to take some time to ensure my decision was correct, and that I wouldn't have any doubts. However, we won the treble with Juve, and I was in the Euros.

I didn't have that one thing that was still missing. I felt that I had accomplished everything. And then I simply felt that, for me, it was better to stop while at the top – with all my positive memories and the feeling that I had achieved everything I had ever wanted to.

I made the decision a few months after the Euros. I took my time, and I also had a back injury that prevented me from training. I was quite prepared to retire. I had already completed my studies in Sweden, and I had started to come to terms with the fact that I might not play for many more years. So, for me, it wasn't a shock or a hasty decision. It happened naturally.

FEARS & MENTAL STATE

My emotions were a mess. You're thinking so many things and experiencing so many feelings; it was a mentally turbulent time. I didn't fear the decision, but as I talked to my friends who are still playing, some of them are genuinely scared to retire. These thoughts are very common. However, I wasn't as afraid. I just wanted to be sure I wouldn't regret anything. Of course, as your life changes completely, there's a lot to adapt to.

Your routine disappears. When you wake up in the morning, you think, ‘Oh, I don't actually have any plans or reasons to wake up’. That might sound harsh, but you're used to waking up every morning knowing exactly what you want to do. You know exactly what you want to achieve in training, and then there's the planning for the next game and the constant presence of the team around you. It's a big change.

I don’t miss playing football. I haven't even put on my boots for a year now. It's something that might come later, but right now, I don't miss it at all — the competitive aspect. I do miss my friends, my teammates, and the sense of being part of something bigger. You have shared plans and goals… and when you achieve them, all the associated feelings—the highs and lows—that's special. Because life right now is nice, but it doesn't carry the same big emotions as when I was playing.

REINVENTING TUIJA

At the beginning, I tried new things because I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do. My plan was to dabble in a bit of everything and then figure out what I truly wanted to do. I've been working as a physical coach in a sports academy. It's for high school girls. I've been with them since March, and that's what I do on a daily basis. But then I have been in the studios talking about the World Cup.

I'm soon to be a working mom. My passion now is to help young players develop and find their own paths to success. I'm trying to share my knowledge with the next generations and ensure that they might have it easier and better than I did at their age. This is the new passion I've discovered, and it's been incredibly rewarding.

In the autumn, I applied to do my PhD studies here in Finland, and I got accepted. If I secure funding for my research, I'll begin my studies in January. I'm someone who always seeks self-improvement and new challenges. I plan to study the impact of concussions in women’s football/sport. All the details for the study have been arranged. I will examine the prevalent risk factors and consequences of brain health, including heading the ball in football, etc. I also experienced a concussion during my career, and there were many unanswered questions. Will this affect me as I age? Could there be a link to Alzheimer's? Nobody still really knows, so I feel there needs to be more research.

PREGNANCY & FOOTBALL

I always thought that I would have a family after my retirement, but I think that idea was just because I didn't really have so much information and the teams I played in didn't really have many moms, so I didn't know how everything would work out. I think maybe that was a scary idea, to have a family while still playing. And basically, my partner was living still in Finland, so we were in two different countries.

There were a lot of question marks that I wasn't ready to answer or there was no answer to. I think I always thought that after I retire then I'll have a family. But it doesn't have to be that way and I hope in the future more players would have families while still playing.

My dream for the future and future players is that there will be a change and fewer questions, because that will also affect players having longer careers. They will feel safer having kids and knowing that not only the pregnancy goes well but everything afterward and the teams will take care of the players and have plans for everything. There are still so many teams that don't have any experience of having moms and babies within the team, so they don't really know what to do. It’s hard to be the first one in the team to fight all the fights and rights, you know?

To fall pregnant during one's career was something that was never discussed. I didn't feel pressured, and nobody ever said anything negative to me about it. But on the other side, nobody ever encouraged it or said that it was OK. I kind of had in my mind the facts that, that it will be difficult and that maybe when I'm ready to have a family then I want to just focus on my family.

Now there are big role models like Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir, who made the fight with Lyon. FIFPro has now introduced the basic pregnancy rules that all the teams have to follow, I think that's a good start. Then, of course, there must be even more safety for the players, because I can imagine that the best professional teams will follow the rules. But then what about all the smaller teams and the teams with no resources?

The superwoman who is having babies while still playing and coming back strong is showing that it's not something to hold you back. It's maybe something that even gives you more: you come back like a new person, and you’re empowered also by having a family. I'm inspired to see these ladies doing the job, and I hope that in the future, it will be so normal that we wouldn't even be talking about the issue. It’s important that organisations like FIFA and FIPRO are pushing the issue to go forward all the time, and then the clubs are also taking the responsibility to really follow the rules and encourage the players by saying that it's okay. I think it's important also to have longer contracts for the players because the older you get; you usually get just one year's contract, and then if you get pregnant, you come back and you're out of a contract and must worry about an income.

ASPIRATIONS FOR BABY

What I want is for our baby girl to find a safe home full of love and that she can grow up to be whatever she wants to be. I hope I will always be there to support her and provide for her. I'm just so excited to see the little girl arriving and having some time to spend with her. Now we are in a bubble of love, trying to be as good parents as we can.

Editor's Note: Tuija has since welcomed her baby daughter into the world and Juventus would like to convery their best wishes. Congrats, Tuija!