This Sask. farmer is still looking for love after appearing on a Finnish dating show

REGINA -

Matthew Almusa has become a bit of a celebrity in Finland after appearing in a dating show for farmers.

The show,  ‘Maajussille morsian maailmalla’ or its direct translation “Farmer Wants a Wife Worldwide”, focused on him and three other farmers looking for love.  

The show required he film in Finland for three weeks. He also participated in shoots for the show in Regina and near his home in Margo, Sask.

A follow up episode was shot in Regina at the beginning of the year.

Almusa was not looking to be on a reality TV show when the opportunity presented itself.

Almusa said his cousin was researching the family’s genealogy and connected with a relative in Finland over Facebook. The relative was looking for single farmers to audition for the show

“Do you know anybody that has Finnish ancestry, is single and is in the farming industry?,” Almusa said the relative asked.

He chatted with the relative before being passed along to the show’s producers.

“I might as well take the chance and who knows who you can meet and what connections you can get, and I have friends now from across the world, lots of them in Finland, but even the other guys who were on the show, there’s one from Lebanon and one from Turkey."

The show can be viewed in Canada, but it has a large following in Finland.

"As the other guy in the show said, that we're ‘FIF’, famous in Finland," said Almusa. 

He said he was able to return to his normal life when he got home, but in Finland his face appeared in tabloids and fans send him messages on Instagram.

"I still keep on thinking of myself as this little farm boy from Margo and sometimes you just have to sit and think about it and think ‘wow I actually was on this TV show," he said.

Being a celebrity and having people want to take pictures with him was one of the highlights of the experience for Almusa, but he was grateful to get to visit another part of the world in the process.  

"I definitely think that this experience has brought me closer to Finland and the love of Finland, I mean we always were proud fins but you didn't really know all the things of Finland until you actually go there,"Almusa said.

He still keeps in touch with the people he met on the show, and said he remains friends with the women who vied for his heart.