Joel Pohjanpalo
Finnish footballer
Joel Julius Ilmari Pohjanpalo (born 13 September 1994) is a Finnish professional footballer who plays as a forward for Serie B club Palermo and the Finland national team.
Pohjanpalo began his career with HJK, making his Veikkausliiga debut on 26 October 2011 at the age of 17; he moved out to Germany at age nineteen in 2013. After multiple successful loan spells in Germany and Turkey, Pohjanpalo left Bayer Leverkusen in 2022 and was acquired by Italian side Venezia, where he quickly became a fan favourite cult player, and as the team captain, helped Venezia promote to Serie A in 2024. After two-and-a-half seasons with Venezia, Pohjanpalo was acquired by Palermo in February 2025 for around €5 million.
Pohjanpalo made his full international debut for Finland in November 2012 at the age of eighteen, and has since made over 80 appearances, including playing in matches for 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification, and in the UEFA Euro 2020 final tournament.
Pohjanpalo is known for his strong heading and finishing ability.
Club career
Born in Helsinki, Finland, Pohjanpalo started football in a youth team of a Helsinki-based club PK-35 in 1999. He joined HJK Helsinki youth sector when aged 11.
HJK
A product of his hometown club HJK, 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 second 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.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Joel Pohjanpalo” as finnish footballer. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q127797. The Library of Congress control number is no2026092945. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1994, 2011, 2013 and 2022.
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This entry incorporates text from “Joel Pohjanpalo” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.