Joeli Baubeta
|
| ||
| Full name | Joeli Odber-De-Baubeta | |
| Nickname | Joeli, Baubeta, The Headbutt | |
| Age | 33 | |
| Nationality | Oceania | |
| Team | Tykkimiehet FC | |
| Position | Winger | |
| Joined Tykkimiehet | April 2006 | |
| Stats | ||
| Matches | 124 (80 in league/cup) | |
| Matches as a captain | 56 | |
| Goals | 22 | |
| Star record | 4,5 stars | |
Joeli Odber-De-Baubeta (28343721) is a former winger of Finnish team called Tykkimiehet FC. He is one of the legends of the club, as he played second-most league and cup matches in Tykkimiehet's history (80) and third-most total matches (124). He also leads clearly the stats of most played games as a captain with 56 caps. He played in Tykkimiehet for a long time, about two years and eight monts. Until the season 34 he was an important player of the first team, but in season 35 and especially in season 36 he was very rarely in starting eleven. In season 37 he had many injury problems and later on that season he retired to Tykkimiehet FC Hall of Fame.
Life and career before Tykkimiehet FC
Early life
Baubeta is an Australian Aborigine with some Australian and Indonesian descent. Somehow he started to play football as a kid. When he was fifteen, he joined to the youth academy of an Australian team called Mannix United. In March 2004, he was promoted to the first team, where he spent some time.
Career before Tykkimiehet
In April 2004 Baubeta was sold to a Swedish team called AJW IF, but just three days later he was sold again to Croatia to Real Zagreb. The transfer price was 15 000 euros. Baubeta spent seven seasons in Real Zagreb. On that time his aggressiveness had been noted, as well as his powerful pushes towards the crossing area and other good playing skills. Sharply two years after, 30th April 2006, he joined to the team of his career, Tykkimiehet FC.
Tykkimiehet FC career
Seasons 29-30: Early TFC career and The Headbutt
Tykkimiehet FC bought Baubeta with just 2 000 euros in the end of April 2006. His contract was almost expired and the transfer fee was so only minimal. Immediately after this 25-year old Australian joined Tykkimiehet, he occupied the position in the starting eleven. He was excellent player as a winger in that time's Tykkimiehet FC, as he was powerful, good crosser and also excellent playmaker. Baubeta's first league goal was made in his fourth league match in TFC in team's 4-0 triumph against FC Mauri-Antero.
Baubeta's most memorable game was the friendly match against ZC Kukkila, which was won by Tykkimiehet by 7-1. Iikka Pikkarainen scored TFC's first hat-trick and Petri Laru almost played a clean sheet, but we shouldn't forget Baubeta's head-butt. It happened on 40th minute and he got an immediate red card. Nobody knows was the head-butt provoked or not, but this was very unique event and it also happened clearly before Zinedine Zidane's head-butt in World Cup 2006 Final.
In season 29 Baubeta was still just an ordinary player, but in season 30 he became one of the most important players in TFC squad. He scored seven goals in season 30.
Season 31-32: to the top and back to the ground
Most of the fans think that Baubeta's best season was 31, along with seasons 33-35. He played in many games and was very important player in attack, defence and in midfield battles. Baubeta scored only two goals in season 31. On that time, Baubeta played more often outside of the box in attacks and thus scored less goals, and there were more top strikers in Tykkimiehet, too. Also thanks to Baubeta's efforts, Tykkimiehet was promoted to seventh division for season 32.
Tykkimiehet FC players were delighted of the promotion to seventh division, but that season was a total failure for Baubeta: at the start of the season, his playing form was very low and he played very poorly if at all. After that weak phase, he was even injured, but he recovered quickly and somehow his performances went a lot better after that. But he was still under the pressure of younger wingers, such as Elõd Csertõi and Hector Denis. Then TFC promoted to sixth division after a very exciting season. On that time, Baubeta knew that he must improve his performances to stay in pro.
Seasons 33-35: top moments of the sixth division
Baubeta went back to the standard starting eleven in the first seasons of the sixth division. He was 28 when Tykkimiehet started its journey in sixth level, but he still worked hard to improve his skills. On that time, he had been a very loyal member of the team, and desperately wanted to be on top. All that hard work paid, as he played in ten league matches out of fourteen and scored one goal in season 33. He managed to keep Hector Denis and Domagoj Nenadić behind him. He suffered some injuries and even one suspension in the season, but these didn't overwhelm the tenacious Aborigine winger.
Season 34 wasn't so great for Baubeta, as there were the versatile winger-wingback Marco Zanzi and top signing Pietro Gartsman battling for the minutes with Baubeta. Still Baubeta played a succesful season, being played even in 11 league matches and notched two goals. Stats won't tell anything, and many fans still think that season 33 went better.
In season 35 Baubeta's importance was again a little lesser. Now he played just half of the matches and scored one goal. His contenders were same as in the previous season, but they got themselves to a better shape as 31-year old Baubeta's development was stopping. He still stayed out of injuries and somehow he didn't got a single booking.
Seasons 36-37: Injury problems and retirement
In season 36 Baubeta's skills just weren't good enough to beat Pietro Gartsman and another Latin American Luís Silvero. But if they were struggling, Baubeta made sure that he will replace them. He played in ten matches and also even scored three goals. The stats look nice, but fans were unhappy about his performances, which seemed not to be good enough. In the start and middle phase of the season Baubeta made it again without injuries, but the end of the season and season 37 was a horror about them.
In week 13 on season 36, Baubeta suffered a serious injury, which kept him out of the pitches for eigth weeks. There were rumours that he would retire and some day become a new coach of Tykkimiehet, but Baubeta showed his endurance again and continued his career. But those eigth weeks made the gap to Gartsman and Silvero much bigger and minor wingers such as Teemu Kopsakangas went very close. Baubeta came back to play to a friendly match. Some fans couldn't make it without crying in that game, as Baubeta was hit again and he was carried out of the stadium. His recovery time was expected to be about eigth weeks. Starting eleven was very far in that point, and he retired 21th December 2008, having been 966 days in the club.
Personal life
Baubeta is married and has one daughter. He has been living in Vesivehmaa since his move to Tykkimiehet FC. He has a dual citizenship with Finland and Australia.
Baubeta is a far relative of English former national team player Gregg Odber-De-Baubeta.
