Finland took home bronze at The World Games (TWG) in 2017. The team finished second at the World Floorball Championships 2020 and hereby qualified to TWG 2022. Ville Lastikka is one of the key players of Team Finland and we will now get to know him a bit better outside the court.
Debut at the Men’s World Floorball Championships (WFC) and finishing it with the gold medal. This is how Ville Lastikka became internationally known at the Men’s WFC 2018 in Prague. At WFC 2020, Lastikka was elected to WFC All-Star Team and received the MVP award. He has also won the U19 WFC gold in 2015 and the Finnish championship title with his club team Classic.
What made Lastikka choose floorball was the “lack of opportunities” to play team sport in the municipality he grew up. But floorball was one sport that he could play and so, the end is history.
— What made me fall in love with floorball was the excitement of playing and I just wanted to play it with my friends all the time on the streets. I think we played almost four to six hours in a day with couple of my friends and just shooting and playing and enjoying the game.
There are also several highlight moments when looking back on the current career of Lastikka. One of those is the gold he won with his junior team. And of course the WFC gold in Prague.
At TWG, Finland will be in the same group with Czech Republic, Canada and USA. But what does Lastikka think about The World Games and the floorball competition?
— The World Games are important for floorball because we can make our sport a little bit more familiar to new people and new countries. Floorball at The World Games will be amazing because there will be some of the best players in the whole world and we will see pretty nice goals and tight games.
Lastikka also gives one advice to young players who are keen to play at The World Games one day:
— Just enjoy the game, don’t think too much that you have to be something or in a hurry to achieve something, just play and enjoy!
Watch the video and learn more about Lastikka:
Road to The World Games is a series of interviews with floorball stars who are getting ready for the 2022 edition of TWG. The interviews are created by Adam Troy.
