Atik Ismail (born 5 January 1957) is a Finnish former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

. He played 26 matches in the

Finland national football team The Finland national football team ( fi, Suomen jalkapallomaajoukkue, sv, Finlands fotbollslandslag) represents Finland in men's international football competitions and is controlled by the Football Association of Finland, the governing body ...

scoring 7 goals. Ismail was the top scorer of Finnish premier division

Mestaruussarja Mestaruussarja (Championship series) was the top division of Finland, Finnish association football, football from 1930 to 1989. It was replaced by Veikkausliiga in 1990. In 1930 league format was used for the first time to decide the Finnish cham ...

in 1978, 1979 and 1982. In 1978, he was nominated as the

Finnish Footballer of the Year There are three different Finnish Player of the Year Awards in Finland. The sports journalists have elected their male "Player of the Year" since 1947, the Football Association of Finland theirs since 1953. In 1976 the FA began selecting a female "P ...

. Ismail also played abroad, for example in Turkey and Belgium.Vuorinen, Juha & Kasila, Markku: ''Pelimiehet. Suomen jalkapallon pelaajatilastot 1930–2006'', s. 99. Suomen urheilumuseosäätiö, 2007. .

Personal life

Atik Ismail was born to a

Tatar The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different

family in

Munkkiniemi Munkkiniemi ( sv, Munksnäs, Helsinki slang: ''Munkka'') is a neighbourhood in Helsinki. Subdivisions within the district are Vanha Munkkiniemi, Kuusisaari, Lehtisaari, Munkkivuori, Niemenmäki and Talinranta. The land in Munkkiniemi was from th ...

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

. He and his twin brother Atik Ismail were named after Turkish wrestlers

Celal Atik Celal Atik (1918 – 27 April 1979) was a Turkish wrestler and coach. He competed both in Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling, but had his best achievements in the freestyle, winning gold medals at the 1948 Olympics, 1951 World and 1946 and 194 ...

and Adil Atan. His brother is also a former footballer.Atik Ismail: Pelimies - omaelämäkerta. Minerva 2016. . Children of Ismail are Can Heikkonen (b. 1982), twins Pele and Ali Koljonen (s. 1988) and Maria Koljonen (s. 1989). Sons Ali and Pele have also played football. For decades Ismail suffered from alcoholism. He sobered completely in 1990 and has since worked with helping fellow recovering addicts. According to Ismail, his alcohol addiction switched to a gambling problem and he’s had difficulty paying his debts from his small pension. In addition to sports, Ismail has published his poetry, worked as a nurse and been involved in politics. He was a candidate to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

in the elections of 1999 (

Green League The Green League (VIHR, fi, Vihreä liitto , sv, Gröna förbundet), shortened to the Greens ( fi, Vihreät, sv, De Gröna), is a green political party in Finland. Ideologically, the Green League is positioned on the centre-left of the polit ...

) and 2009 ( Left Alliance). The Finnish press remembers Atik Ismail as a ”legendary footballer”, but also as someone who partly wasted his potential due to his alcoholism.

References

External links

Atik Ismail Interview

We asked, the former Finnish football player Atik Ismail answered
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ismail, Atik 1957 births Finnish footballers Finnish expatriate footballers Finland international footballers Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi players Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Sweden AIK Fotboll players Beşiktaş J.K. footballers K.S.V. Waregem players Finnish people of Tatar descent Living people Finnish Muslims Palloiluseura Apollo players FC Kiffen 08 players Association football forwards Mestaruussarja players Footballers from Helsinki