Joel Pohjanpalo

Joel Pohjanpalo (born 13 September 1994), is a Finnish professional football striker who plays for 1. FC Union Berlin, on loan from Bayer Leverkusen and represents the Finland national team.[2] Pohjanpalo was born in Helsinki, Finland where he played for HJK before he was lent to Bayer 04 Leverkusen at age 19 in 2013.

Joel Pohjanpalo
Pohjanpalo playing for the Finland U21 side in 2015
Personal information
Full name Joel Pohjanpalo
Date of birth (1994-09-13) 13 September 1994
Place of birth Helsinki, Finland
Height 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)[1]
Position(s) Striker
Club information
Current team
 1. FC Union Berlin
(on loan from Bayer Leverkusen)
Number 9
Youth career
1999–2005 PK-35
2006–2010 HJK Helsinki
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2010–2011 Klubi-04 26 (33)
2011–2013 HJK Helsinki 50 (16)
2013– Bayer Leverkusen 20 (7)
2013–2014 → VfR Aalen (loan) 22 (5)
2014–2016 → Fortuna Düsseldorf (loan) 55 (13)
2020 → Hamburger SV (loan) 14 (9)
2020– → 1. FC Union Berlin (loan) 7 (2)
National team‡
2009 Finland U15 4 (0)
2010 Finland U16 13 (2)
2011 Finland U17 6 (4)
2011 Finland U18 10 (4)
2012 Finland U19 3 (0)
2012–2015 Finland U21 11 (2)
2012– Finland 34 (7)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 6 February 2021 (UTC)
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 7 September 2020

Pohjanpalo made his international debut for Finland in November 2012, at the age of 18 and has since had over 30 caps, including appearing in 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification.

Club career

HJK Helsinki

A product of his hometown club HJK Helsinki, Pohjanpalo emerged through the youth ranks, first appearing with the reserve team (Klubi-04) in 2011 at the age of 16. He made his Veikkausliiga debut on 26 October 2011, starting against RoPS. During his first season in the Finnish 2nd division with Klubi-04, he made 21 appearances, scored a record-breaking 33 league goals and was awarded as the series player of the season.[3] Following his excellent performances with the reserves, Pohjanpalo signed a new contract with HJK on 7 December 2011, keeping him in the Finnish capital until 2015.

Pohjanpalo started HJK Helsinki's first league match of the 2012 Veikkausliiga season on 15 April 2012, scoring a hat-trick within the space of three minutes (162 seconds) against IFK Mariehamn.[4] After a 3-day trial with Liverpool in August 2012, Pohjanpalo was offered a 3-year contract but rejected the deal due to a lack of guaranteed playing time for Liverpool F.C. Reserves.[5] He finished the 2012 season at HJK with 19 goals in 42 games in all competitions.

Bayer Leverkusen
Pohjanpalo for Fortuna Düsseldorf in July 2015

On 1 September 2013, he was loaned to German Bundesliga team Bayer Leverkusen, who then loaned him to 2. Bundesliga team VfR Aalen.[6] At Aalen Pohjanpalo started 13 matches and appeared in a further 9, scoring 5 goals.

In April 2014, Pohjanpalo renewed his contract with HJK Helsinki, extending it to 2018. At the same time HJK extended his loan contract with Bayer Leverkusen a further two years, which Pohjanpalo spent on loan at Fortuna Düsseldorf.[7] He was voted for the 2. Bundesliga Player of the month in October 2014, following his hat-trick against Darmstadt 98.

On 21 March 2016, Leverkusen announced that they had exercised their option to permanently sign Pohjanpalo.[8] On 27 August 2016, he finally made his debut for the club in their opening game of the 2016-17 Bundesliga against Borussia Mönchengladbach. He scored just a minute after being substituted on, but it was not enough to prevent Leverkusen from losing 2–1. Pohjanpalo came off the bench in Leverkusen's 2nd game of the season and scored a hat-trick, helping Leverkusen achieve a 3–1 win over Hamburger SV. After these two appearances Pohjanpalo had scored 4 goals in just 30 minutes during the first two matches of the season.

On 24 January 2020, Pohjanpalo joined Hamburger SV on loan for the rest of the 2019–20 season.[9] On 30 September 2020, Pohjanpalo joined 1. FC Union Berlin on loan for the 2020–21 season.[10]

International career

Youth

Pohjanpalo made his debut for the Finland U21 side at the age of 17 on 5 June 2012 against Slovenia.[11]

Senior

Pohjanpalo made his senior national team debut on 14 November 2012 in a 3−0 victory against Cyprus when he replaced Teemu Pukki as a substitute on the 70th minute.[12] He was close to scoring in a friendly against Slovenia when his shot hit the post and was then finished by Hämäläinen. In the next friendly game against Hungary he finished his first international goal entering the field as a substitute and equalising the game. He made his UEFA European Championship qualification match debut on 7 September 2014 in a match against Faroe Islands when he entered as a 89th minute substitute for Teemu Pukki.[13]

Career statistics

Club
As of match played on 3 November 2020.[14]
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
ClubSeasonLeagueCup[lower-alpha 1]League Cup[lower-alpha 2]ContinentalTotal
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Klubi-042010Ykkönen1000——10
2011Kakkonen253300——2533
Total263300——2633
HJK Helsinki2011Veikkausliiga1000000010
2012Veikkausliiga281121844[lower-alpha 3]34219
2013Veikkausliiga21510302[lower-alpha 4]0275
Totals501631114637024
Aalen2013–142. Bundesliga22500——225
Fortuna Düsseldorf2014–152. Bundesliga291110——3011
2015–162. Bundesliga26220——282
Total551330——5813
Fortuna Düsseldorf II2015–16Regionalliga West10———10
Bayer Leverkusen 2016–17 Bundesliga 11600—2[lower-alpha 4]0136
2017–18 Bundesliga 7111——82
2018–19 Bundesliga 0000—0000
2019–20 Bundesliga 1000—0010
2020–21 Bundesliga 1000—0010
Total20711—20238
Hamburger SV (loan) 2019–20 2. Bundesliga 149———149
1. FC Union Berlin (loan) 2020–21 Bundesliga 4200——42
Career total202927211483228101
  1. Appearances in the Finnish Cup and DFB-Pokal.
  2. Appearances in the Finnish League Cup.
  3. Appearances in the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League.
  4. Appearances in the UEFA Champions League.

International goals
As of 12 October 2019
Scores and results list Finland's goal tally first.
#DateLocationOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1.5 March 2014ETO Park, Győr, Hungary Hungary1–12–1Friendly
2.4 September 2015Karaiskaki Stadium, Athens, Greece Greece1–01–0UEFA Euro 2016 qualification
3.7 September 2015Olympic Stadium, Helsinki, Finland Faroe Islands1–01–0
4.8 October 2015Arena Națională, Bucharest, Romania Romania1–01–1
5.11 June 2017Tampere Stadium, Tampere, Finland Ukraine1–11–22018 FIFA World Cup qualification
6.9 October 2017Veritas Stadion, Turku, Finland Turkey2–22–2
7.12 October 2019Bilino Polje Stadium, Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina1–41–4UEFA Euro 2020 qualification

International
As of 6 September 2020[15]
National teamYearCompetitive Friendly Total
Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Finland 201200 1 0 1 0
201300 1 0 1 0
201440 5 1 9 1
201563 1 0 7 3
201610 3 0 4 0
201742 3 0 7 2
201800 1 0 1 0
201921 0 0 2 1
202020 0 0 2 0
Total 19 6 15 1 34 7

Honours

Club

Klubi-04

HJK Helsinki

Individual

References
  1. https://www.bayer04.de/de-de/player/werkself/bayer-04-leverkusen/joel-pohjanpalo
  2. "Joel Pohjanpalo" (in Finnish). Suomen Palloliitto. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
  3. Pohjanpalo awarded as "Player of the Year" Archived 2011-11-09 at the Wayback Machine (in Finnish)
  4. "HJK vs. Mariehamn". Soccerway. 2012-04-15. Retrieved 2012-04-15.
  5. Pohjanpalo signs until 2015 Archived 2012-04-25 at the Wayback Machine (in Finnish)
  6. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-12-27. Retrieved 2014-12-27.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-07-21. Retrieved 2014-12-27.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. @Bayer04fussball (21 Mar 2016). "Bayer 04 Leverkusen sign Pohjanpalo" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  9. "HSV leiht Joel Pohjanpalo aus" (in German). Hamburger SV. 24 January 2020.
  10. "JOEL POHJANPALO SIGNS ON LOAN FROM LEVERKUSEN". 1. FC Union Berlin. 30 September 2020.
  11. "Joel Pohjanpalo alle 21-vuotiaiden maajoukkueeseen" (in Finnish). YLE Urheilu. 22 May 2012. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
  12. "Huuhkajat selkeään voittoon" (in Finnish). Palloliitto. 14 November 2012. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
  13. "Suomi otti helpottavan voiton!" [A comforting win for Finland!] (in Finnish). Iltalehti. 7 September 2014. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  14. "J. Pohjanpalo". Soccerway. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
  15. "Joel Pohjanpalo" (in Finnish). palloliitto.fi. Archived from the original on 2 January 2015. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  16. "Kakkonen" (in Finnish). Suomen Palloliitto. 22 October 2011. Archived from the original on 3 May 2016. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
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