Sweden: Stockholm Mean Machines sign All Europe LB Roni Salonen

AFI | American Football | 03/04/2022

Graphic: Igor Lazarevic

The Stockholm Mean Machines have definitely boosted their defense with the signing of All Europe linebacker Roni Salonen from Finland.

Stockholm reached the Swedish Superserien championship game in a very short 2021 season.

The 6’2″, 220 pound, 31-year-old Salonen from Helsinki, Finland was the leading tackler for the Helsinki Roosters in Finland’s Maple League in 2021 where in seven games he racked up 43.5 tackles, seven tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks. He spent the 2017, 2018 and 2019 seasons with one of Europe’s top teams, Germany’s Braunschweig New Yorker Lions and was a top defensive stopper in each of those three years in the German Football League. In 2019, he recorded 86 tackles, nine tackles for loss and a sack while in 2018 he was the second-best tackler for the Lions racking up 74 tackles as well as 21 tackles for loss. He sacked the quarterback four times and recorded three quarterback hurries. In his first season with Braunschweig, he amassed a total of 104 tackles, 16 tackles for loss and five sacks.

Basically, Roni Salonen is a tackling machine.

Salonen has won a Finnish championship (with the Helsinki Roosters), Austrian championship (Swarco Raiders) and a Eurobowl title (Braunschweig New Yorker Lions) in his career. He began his career with the Helsinki Roosters helping them win the Finnish Maple League title in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2016. He then spent two seasons with Austria’s Swarco Raiders winning the Austrian championship in 2016 when he also returned to Helsinki to help the Roosters win another title.