Logan Rogerson took a second glance as he walked through the headquarters of his Finnish football club and saw a piece of All Blacks memorabilia on the wall.
Valkeakoski, where the club is based, is roughly 16,000 kilometres away from New Zealand, but everyone there knows all about New Zealand’s famous rugby team and the haka they perform before every game.
That is because the football club is named FC Haka, which loosely translates to being good at something.
Rogerson said he had been inundated with requests to perform the Māori ceremonial war dance for his team-mates ever since he arrived on loan from HJK Helsinki midway through the Veikkausliiga season.
“The first two weeks I was literally hearing the same thing over and over again: ‘Can you do the haka?’” Rogerson said. “Obviously being Māori as well it’s a bit funny.
“But this season coming, I know the boys are going to try to make me whip it out on a team night out.
“When I was playing in Germany they made me do it three times because they liked it that much.”
The 23-year-old forward joined HJK Helsinki, Finland’s most successful club, from Auckland City, where he had been a standout in the National League.
But after a few games for HJK’s reserves, where he teamed up with Kiwi Chris James, he was sent out on loan to get minutes at a higher level and impressed so much at FC Haka they made the move permanent.
“All the players that are there are young players with ambitions to kick on to a higher level who live around the club and just train, which is the perfect kind of set-up for me at the moment,” he said.
“The jump is not too high coming from New Zealand, and it is a pathway that soon I think more Kiwis will take. They will come to Finland and use it as a stepping stone to bigger leagues.”
Rogerson started his professional career here in New Zealand with Wellington Phoenix but then moved to Germany to try his luck in Europe with 3.Liga club Carl Ziess Jena.
After struggling to get a look in he came home and joined Auckland City, but Rogerson knew he needed to be playing professionally if he wanted to get back into the All Whites, which spurred the move to Finland.
He said FC Haka had actually made an offer as well but he elected to sign for 31-time Veikkausliiga champions HJK ahead of the 2021 season.
”HJK is a proper football club and it was really good to be a part of it for the time that I was there. I really learned a lot.
He captained the OlyWhites during qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics but was not selected for the Olympics.
Rogerson scored one goal and bagged a couple of assists in 12 appearances for FC Haka but hoped to build on that in 2022 after coach, former Tottenham player Teemu Tainio, made a big effort to keep him.
“He saw that towards the end of the season I was getting better and better with each game and he thinks next season I can really have a good season if I’m there from the beginning.
“With football you have to be playing. There’s no point sitting on the bench somewhere so I wanted to get a full season next season and see what happens after that.
“I haven’t had a full season under my belt aside from when I was at Auckland City so that’s the next step for me. I know if I get a full season I’m going to do well.”