Hugo Boss
Shane Murphy“He’s not Finnish - he’s only 27” as they say. The Blues have only had one Finn in our history [No, Seán Finn doesn’t count!] and he only made three appearances in his time here six seasons ago, but Hugo Keto has had an interesting career with two league championship medals and a lot of mileage under his belt.
Hugo was a youth player in his home country with HJK of Helsinki before moving to Arsenal as a 16-year-old in 2014. This was considered a coup as the young shot-stopper had been on trial with Liverpool and the Merseysiders were favourites to sign him.
Keto’s best moment at Arsenal was when he saved three penalties in a shootout win over Coventry City in the last sixteen of the FAI Youth Cup in 2016. His teammates included Donyell Malen (now Aston Villa) and Reiss Nelson (on loan at Fulham) while the defeated Coventry side had Darragh Leahy (now of Waterford).
(Goalkeepers Union - Keto with Paul Martin, Matthew Connor and a very young Jason Healy)
After four years in London, Keto moved to Brighton in 2018. Midway through his second season, he swapped the English south coast for the Irish one with a four-month loan to Waterford. Having just turned 21, Hugo played two league games for the Blues before relinquishing his place to Matthew Connor. The first saw him hold onto a clean sheet in a scoreless draw with Bohemians at the RSC. The second was a 4-0 defeat in Dundalk with goals from Patrick Hoban, Seán Murray, Daniel Kelly and Cameron Dummigan. He also played in an EA Sports Cup tie at the RSC when Waterford beat Galway United 2-1.
Hugo won four of his fourteen Finnish Under 21 caps while he was with the Blues, lining up against Norway, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Sweden before heading back to Brighton.
The Seagulls released him in the summer of 2020 and he returned to his old club HJK. He played seven times as they won the Finnish league that year and twenty-one times when retaining the Veikkausliiga in 2021.
From there, Keto transferred to Sandefjord in Norway at the beginning of 2022. They finished 14th, 13th and 10th in the sixteen-team Eliteserien top flight with the former Blue as their first choice ‘keeper for three seasons.
Hugo is now playing in his fifth country having signed a three-year deal for IFK Varnamo in the Allsvenskan premier league of Sweden. He made his debut for his new club on Saturday in a late 3-2 loss to Degerfors in the Swedish Cup. He will need to fight to earn his spot in the starting eleven when the league starts at the end of March.