Helsinki Seagulls acquired two new players

Remu Raitanen and Vili Vesterinen will play in the team next season. Both contracts cover one season.

Raitanen, 28, from Helsinki, is a meritorious pier. He won the Korisliiga best player award in the spring of 2022 at KTP. The 206-centimeter ToPo native has played 29 matches in the men’s national team.

“I am very excited that I was able to make a contract this early in the summer,” says Raitanen.

He played in Mäkelänrinte’s high school team HBA Märsky when he was young, from which he left for four seasons to the University of San Francisco in 2016.

After the NCAA years, Raitanen started his professional career in Lapuan Kobri in the 2020–21 season. The following season in Kotka, he averaged 17.1 points and 7.6 rebounds per game, which earned him the MVP award.

After the peak season, Raitanen played abroad: in the second tier of Spain, Slovakia and Iceland.

Raitanen didn’t start last season until December, when he signed a contract with KTP-Basket. He scored 10 points and grabbed 6.5 rebounds per game.

On the track before Kotka, there were contract offers from abroad, but he waited too long for something better and had to be without a company for quite a long time. The end result was a mediocre season.

He decided to take up the Seagulls’ offer now so that he would avoid something similar.

“I want to play a full, intact season,” Raitanen says.

“I got a good deal and the Seagulls’ situation sounds good. It meant a lot to me that the Seagulls understood my situation and wanted me.”

The Helsinki team has already secured a top playmaker Lassi Nikkarinen29, the guarantor of many championships René Rougeau40, as well as Ricky Waxlaxin26.

Raitanen and KTP lost in last season’s playoffs to Seaguls in the seventh match of the quarterfinals. If you can’t beat them, join thema Yankee would say.

“My first thought at the end of the season was not that I have to move to the Seagulls,” Raitanen says and laughs.

“Basketball is my job and I have to go where I’m wanted.”

Raitanen believes that the Seagulls will be a competitive team next season. He names the Finnish championship as his goal.

Western20, is a young and rising player who will debut in Korisliiga next season. Muuramelainen arrives in Helsinki from the Jyväskylä Basketball Academy, where he played in the A-first division last season.

The 211-centimeter Vesterinen plays as a center. His previous seasons were overshadowed by injuries, but last season he was able to play in every game.

The result is 6.1 points and 3.9 rebounds per game.

“Really great feelings. It’s cool to join the Seagulls and Korisliiga”, says Vesterinen.

Vesterinen is a student of Säynätsalo Rienno, who also played as a junior in Jyväskylä Honsu and Salon Vilppaa. He spent three years at JBA.

“I want to develop as an athlete and help my team as much as possible,” he says.

“My strength is good mobility and versatility.”

Both Vesterinen and Raitanen are top basketball players of the second generation. Vesterinen’s father Mika Vesterinen played in the Salon Vilppaa league in 1996–04. Raitanen’s father Jari Raitanen won four Finnish championships and played 76 national matches.