Eino Soinio

In his youth, Eino Soinio was a sprinter for the Helsinki athletics club Kisa-Veikot and was to become one of the country’s fastest footballers. He played in the central defence of HJK in Helsinki from 1910-25. With this club, he won the Finnish championship seven times, in 1911, 1912, 1917, 1918, 1919, 1923, and 1925. He then transferred to Helsingin Palloseura to win another two titles in 1926 and 1927. Although he was the youngest player in the Finnish team at the 1912 Olympics at age 17, he was considered to be their best player. Soinio played in all four games for the Finnish team. They defeated Italy (in overtime) and Russia in the first two rounds, but had no chance against England in the semifinal and the Netherlands in the bronze medal match. Soinio scored the equalizer against Italy for a 2–2 draw after 90 minutes. His older brother Kaarlo was the captain of the team. As of 2025 Eino is still the youngest player ever to score for the Finnish national team. Soinio had his début against Sweden just before the Olympics. He won a total of 40 caps until 1927 scoring two goals and was appointed team captain in one game. In 1993, he was introduced into the Finnish Football Hall of Fame.

He started his professional career as a railway worker. Under the alias M-o-n-I, Soinio later became a sports journalist for Helsingin Sanomat, the most widely read and influential daily newspaper in Finland. He also wrote books about a variety of sports. Soinio was on the boards of the Finnish Wrestling and Boxing Federations.