Joel Pohjanpalo


Joel Pohjanpalo, is a Finnish professional football striker who plays for Hamburger SV, on loan from Bayer Leverkusen and represents the Finland national team. Pohjanpalo was born in Helsinki, Finland where he played for HJK before he was loaned to Bayer 04 Leverkusen at age 19 in 2013.
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 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. 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 against IFK Mariehamn. 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. He finished the 2012 season at HJK with 19 goals in 42 games in all competitions.

Bayer Leverkusen

On 1 September 2013 he was loaned to German Bundesliga team Bayer Leverkusen, who then loaned him to 2. Bundesliga team VfR Aalen. 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. 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. On August 27, 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.

International career

Youth

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

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. 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.

Career statistics

Club

International goals

#DateLocationOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1.5 March 2014ETO Park, Győr, Hungary1–12–1Friendly
2.4 September 2015Karaiskaki Stadium, Athens, Greece1–01–0UEFA Euro 2016 qualification
3.7 September 2015Olympic Stadium, Helsinki, Finland1–01–0UEFA Euro 2016 qualification
4.8 October 2015Arena Națională, Bucharest, Romania1–01–1UEFA Euro 2016 qualification
5.11 June 2017Tampere Stadium, Tampere, Finland1–11–22018 FIFA World Cup qualification
6.9 October 2017Veritas Stadion, Turku, Finland2–22–22018 FIFA World Cup qualification
7.12 October 2019Bilino Polje Stadium, Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina1–41–4UEFA Euro 2020 qualification

International

Honours

Club

Klubi-04
HJK Helsinki