Kuusela enjoyed a moderately successful career as a player in Finland. As a coach, he won the Finnish championship in 1981 and 1990 with HJK Helsinki. He was the head coach of the Finland national team from 1982 to 1987, helping the team to the brink of qualifying for the 1986 World Cup.
Kuusela has worked as coach in Belgium, Greece, Cyprus, Denmark and Hungary. He led Budapest Honvéd FC to the Hungarian championship in 1993. Kuusela coached Aris Thessaloniki F.C. in Greece in 2005. On 15 January 2008, TPS announced they had appointed Kuusela as their new manager. He took the reins at TPS when the previous manager Mixu Paatelainen left the club to become manager of Scottish club Hibernian. Kuusela was sacked by TPS in September 2008, a few weeks before the end of the season.[1] Kuusela also works as an expert commentator for Yle.
