Aapo Halme


Aapo Ilmari Halme is a Finnish professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for English EFL Championship club Barnsley. He also represents the Finland national under-21 football team. Halme was born in Helsinki, Finland. He began his senior club career playing for Honka, before signing with HJK Helsinki at age 17 in 2015.

Early career

Halme started his youth career at FC Honka, making 1 senior appearance before joining Klubi-04, where he made 15 appearances and scored 1 goal.

HJK Helsinki

The winners of the 2015 Finnish League Cup HJK Helsinki brought in Halme from Klubi-04 on a 3-year deal expiring at the end of the 2018 season as stated in his contractual obligation. He made 29 league appearances, over three seasons with the club, scoring 1 goal.

Leeds United

On 3 January 2018, Halme signed for Leeds United from Finnish side HJK Helsinki on a four-year contract for an unknown fee, reported to be less than £500,000. He became the fourth Finnish player to sign for Leeds after Sebastian Sorsa, Mika Väyrynen and Mikael Forssell.
However, Halme picked up a serious foot injury during one of his first training sessions at Leeds in January, the injury ruled him out for the remainder of the season. After nearly nine months out injured, on 27 August 2018, Halme made his first appearance for the club representing Leeds Under 23's against Queens Park Rangers' Development squad.
On 23 November 2018, Leeds First Team Head Coach Marcelo Bielsa gave Halme special praise after returning from his long injury layoff. He made his debut on 24 November 2018 in the EFL Championship against Bristol City in a 2–0 win, after being named in the starting lineup after an injury to Pontus Jansson and long-term injuries to Luke Ayling and Gaetano Berardi.
He scored his first goal for Leeds on 6 January 2019 during a 2–1 defeat to Queens Park Rangers in the third round of the FA Cup.
Halme was regularly named as an unused substitute on the bench for the 1st team squad in the Championship, but still featured regularly for Carlos Corberán's Leeds United under 23's side over the course of the 2018/19 season that won the PDL Northern League 2018/19 Season by winning the league, they then became the national Professional Development League Champions by beating Birmingham City in the final.

Barnsley

On 3 July, Halme joined EFL Championship club Barnsley for an undisclosed fee from Leeds United. He scored his first goal for Barnsley in a 2–2 draw with Derby County on 2 October 2019.

International career

Halme has represented Finland U16's, Finland U17's, Finland U18's and Finland U19's.
He made his debut for Finland U21's on 8 June 2017 against Ukraine U21's.
On 23 March 2019, Halme Captained Finland U21 to an impressive 8–3 victory against Norway U21's.

Career statistics