Born in
Turku, Finland, Virtanen played with
Turun Palloseura in Finnish
Veikkausliiga between 2004 and 2006. He transferred to
Udinese in the summer of 2006, at the age of 18, signing a five-year contract for a fee of €350,000. On 23 December 2006, Virtanen became the fifth Finnish player ever to play in Serie A when he was substituted in for the last three minutes against
AC Milan. Virtanen also had two Finnish teammates at Udinese,
Roman Eremenko and
Jarkko Hurme. In 2008, he was loaned to
Sorrento, then to
FC Khimki. In 2010, he played for
FC TPS and their
reserve team,
Åbo IFK, before moving to
JJK Jyväskylä in July. Virtanen then moved to
RoPS on a one-year contract. == Career statistics ==