Kimi Räikkönen, the Finnish former Formula 1 racing driver champion, has been appointed club ambassador for the EVZ ice hockey team, though what his duties will be have not yet been defined.
A hastily arranged press conference was given at an almost empty stadium on Sunday afternoon with just 30-year-old Räikkönen, senior club officials and a handful of reporters present. Never one for the limelight, Räikkönen has always played hide-and-seek with the press.
Since living in Switzerland, Räikkönen lives only a five-minute drive away from the stadium, he has often followed ice hockey matches in Zurich and Rapperswil and has even trained with EVZ, no doubt arranged by his compatriot and good friend Walteri Immonen, who is EVZ assistant coach.
The club had originally hoped that Räikkönen would buy one of the CHF 100,000 boxes at the new stadium but instead he has just bought four season tickets. While he is known to be a fun-loving person, he does not have a reputation as a great communicator. However, his involvement with EVZ is to be regarded as an honour for the club.
"We are really happy to have Kimi as our ambassador," said Patrick Lengwiler, director of sport. "We have not got a big list of things for him to do but perhaps he can open a few doors."
Räikkönen meanwhile said he was happy to be able to help EVZ and was given an club shirt with number 1 and "Kimi" written on the back. One radio station encouraged him to say "Hopp Zug" (Come on Zug) in to the microphone, which he did, though he shrugged his shoulders and said, "I have no idea what it means."
As a start to his ambassadorial duties, Räikkönen duly dropped the first puck to start the Kolin Cup match between the Finnish Espoo Blues team and EVZ, whereupon he withdrew to enjoy the game. Zug went on to win 5-3 and finish second overall in the four-team warm-up tournament.
Source: Zug2You.ch
Courtesy: Julia
