Joel Julius Ilmari Pohjanpalo born 13 September 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 at the age of 17; [ 2 ] he moved out to Germany at age nineteen in After multiple successful loan spells in Germany and Turkey, Pohjanpalo left Bayer Leverkusen in 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 Pohjanpalo made his full international debut for Finland in November at the age of eighteen, and has since made over 70 appearances, including playing in matches for and FIFA World Cup qualification , and in the UEFA Euro final tournament.
A product of his hometown club HJK , Pohjanpalo emerged through the youth ranks, first appearing with the reserve team Klubi in at the age of During his first season in the Finnish 2nd division with Klubi, he made 21 appearances, scored a record-breaking 33 league goals and was awarded as the series player of the season. Pohjanpalo started HJK's first league match of the Veikkausliiga season on 15 April , scoring a hat-trick within the space of three minutes seconds against IFK Mariehamn.
He was awarded as the Veikkausliiga rookie of the season. Bundesliga team VfR Aalen. Bundesliga Player of the Month in October , following a hat-trick against Darmstadt He scored just a minute after being substituted on, but it was not enough to prevent Leverkusen from losing 2β1.
Pohjanpalo came off the bench in Leverkusen's second game of the season and scored a hat-trick , helping his side achieve a 3β1 win over Hamburger SV.
After these two appearances, Pohjanpalo had scored four goals in just thirty minutes of play during the first two matches of the season. His time with Leverkusen was plagued by multiple severe injuries, which caused him to miss around 70 league games, and almost ended his career prematurely.
