Every year American high schools and communities welcome foreign exchange students from all over the world. They spend a year soaking up both American culture and education with a host family before heading back home.
Henri Väänänen, was a 16-year-old from Finland when he first came to small town Bowie for the 2011-12 school year.
Today, at age 24 he is back home in Texas during February visiting his host mom Lynetta Slaton and his adopted hometown. Things have changed for the young man as he has been playing professional football in Europe and sharing his passion for the sport. However, when he returns home he expects to begin studying to become a sports trainer.
He does not recall exactly what attracted him to visit America, but it was something Väänänen had been thinking about when a presenter came to his school and started talking about the program.
“I went in and heard him out and then actually my dad talked to me about it too,” Väänänen said. “He asked me if I’d ever thought about it, and I told him that I had, and he kind of encouraged me to do it. Said he would help me pay for it and all that kind of stuff.”
Picking America as his preferred destination, Slaton ended up picking him. Attending Bowie High School, Väänänen said the experience was more about personal growth than anything.
“I didn’t know anyone here when I came over here,” Väänänen said. “I was going to be living with a stranger basically for a year. I’d have to make all new friends to go to a new school. My English was good by Finish standards, but I still had an accident when I came over here.”
One American custom Väänänen was familiar with is the attraction to football. Väänänen played soccer for 10 years before around the age of 13 or 14 when he and his two other friends discovered American football.
“I remember in gym class we were playing flag football and me and a couple of my friends thought it was boring,” Väänänen said. “We wanted to hit some people. So we looked it up online and saw there was a local club team in the city where I’m from and showed up at the next practice.”
Väänänen played football at Bowie, and while he had a few years of experience playing on youth teams and even the men’s team, practices were usually once a week and not everyone took it as serious.
“The preparation and all the stuff that goes into playing football over here,” Väänänen said. “It’s much more intense than over in Finland.”
With quality coaching easily available here at most levels and a daily presence in the lives of its participants because it’s a school sport all combined to a show Väänänen a level of football he had not seen in Finland.
The popular sports in Finland people follow are ice hockey and Formula One racing among others. Everywhere else in the world, football is just the name for soccer. People have to clarify that it is American football.
When Väänänen got back to Finland, he kept playing the game. Even with everyone in his friend group eventually walking away from the game, Väänänen stuck with the sport he loved.
He kept working his way up to the top men’s team at his club and found himself in an enviable position. There are five divisions to Finland’s football league, with the top league, Vaahteraliiga, usually consisting of six to eight of the best club teams in the country.
If a club under performs, they can be sent down a division.
Väänänen’s local club he had been playing in, the Helsinki Roosters, is the most successful club in Sweden’s history. Having never dropped down from the Vaahteraliiga league, the Roosters have won 20 league titles, including every year from 2012-2017 along with a Eurobowl and Champions League title.
At this high level, the organization and preparation starts to resemble what is expected in the U.S. as teams import American players in order to keep a leg up. In most cases, the quarterbacks on these teams are American as well.
Väänänen is a quarterback, but knows at the highest levels clubs prefer having American quarterbacks. They are the players who get paid to come over while most local players, even those in the highest league, cannot make a living just playing football.
Still, winning several league titles and playing for his country on the national team are just some of the cool things Väänänen has done since he returned to Europe.
Väänänen experienced what it was like to live off of playing football alone this past season. He played professionally in the Czech Republic for the Ostrava Steelers until they let him go when he suffered a neck injury. He was then picked up by the Brno Sigrs to finish out the season.
“I didn’t have to do anything else,” Väänänen said. “Just workout, practice, play, enjoy the country, meet new people. It was a great experience.”

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.