Jaakko Tapio Oksanen (born 7 November 2000) is a Finnish professional

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 ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

KuPS Kuopion Palloseura (or KuPS) is a Finnish football club, based in the ninth most populated city of Finland, Kuopio. KuPS plays in Finland's Premier League, Veikkausliiga. KuPS has won the Finnish championship six times, the Finnish Cup 4 times ...

. Oksanen is a product of the HJK Helsinki academy in his native Finland. Following years in England with

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

, he returned to Finland to join KuPS in 2022. Oksanen is a current

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

international.

Club career

HJK Helsinki

holding midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, Oksanen began his career in his native

as a youth with KP-75 and KOPSE, before entering the academy at Veikkausliiga club HJK Helsinki at the age of 12. He made his debut for

Klubi 04 Klubi 04 is a Finland, Finnish football (soccer), football club based in Helsinki. It is the reserve team of Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi for whom a number of the players are also registered. History Klubi 04 was founded in 2004 when HJK bought FC ...

during an injury-hit 2016 season and signed a new one-year contract in December 2016. Oksanen made 24 appearances and scored two goals during a successful 2017 season for Klubi 04, which ended with promotion to the Ykkönen, via the playoffs. One week after the playoff victory, Oksanen made his senior debut for HJK Helsinki, as an 81st-minute substitute for Evans Mensah in a 3–2 defeat to RoPS on 28 October 2017. It proved to be his only appearance for the first team and he departed the Telia 5G -areena on 13 January 2018.

Brentford

On 13 January 2018, Oksanen moved to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

to sign for the

B team B, or b, is the second letter of the Latin-script alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' bee'' (pronounced ), plural ''bees''. It r ...

at Championship club

on a -year contract for an undisclosed fee. An injury crisis saw Oksanen feature as an unused substitute during three first team matches in November 2018, before he suffered an ankle ligament injury. After returning to fitness, Oksanen was a regular inclusion in matchday squads during the final two months of the 2018–19 season and made his debut as a substitute for

Sergi Canós Sergi Canós Tenés (born 2 February 1997) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a winger for club Brentford. Canós began his career in the Barcelona Academy and transferred to the Liverpool Academy in 2013. A fringe player at ...

late in a 3–0 victory over

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...

on the final day. He was also a member of the B team's 2018–19 Middlesex Senior Cup-winning squad. Oksanen spent the majority of the 2019–20

pre-season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of Se ...

with the first team squad and made two appearances during the regular season. Entering the final months of his contract, Oksanen signed a two-year extension in March 2020 and his B team performances were recognised with the team's 2019–20 Player of the Year award. On 13 August 2020, Oksanen joined League One club

AFC Wimbledon AFC Wimbledon is an English professional Association football, football club, based in London Borough of Merton, Merton, London, that plays in the EFL League Two, after being relegated from the EFL League One following the 2021–22 EFL Leagu ...

on a season-long

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. Either side of two months out due to a mid-season ankle injury, he made 30 appearances during his spell. On 31 August 2021, Oksanen joined

Scottish Championship The Scottish Championship, known as the cinch Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland Scotland (, ...

club

Greenock Morton Greenock Morton Football Club is a Scottish professional football club, which plays in the Scottish Championship. The club was founded as Morton Football Club in 1874, making it one of the oldest senior Scottish clubs. Morton was renamed Greeno ...

on loan until 3 January 2022 and made 16 appearances during his spell. He played the remainder of the 2021–22 season with Brentford B and was a part of the

London Senior Cup The London Senior Cup is the County Senior Cup of the London FA. The London Senior Cup was first won by Upton Park in 1882. Although the leading professional sides in London no longer compete, the Cup has been won in the past by the likes of Ar ...

-winning squad. Following years with Brentford (during which he made 88 B team appearances and three first team appearances), Oksanen was released when his contract expired at the end of the 2021–22 season.

KuPS

On 10 July 2022, Oksanen joined Veikkausliiga club

on a free transfer and signed an 18-month contract, with the option of a further year, effective 13 July 2022. During the remainder of the 2022 season, he made 17 appearances, scored two goals and was a part of the club's

2022 Finnish Cup The 2022 Finnish Cup was the 67th season of the Finnish Cup football competition. For the first time since 2016, the 2022 tournament will be played as a traditional knockout tournament without group stages. A total of 314 teams participate the c ...

-winning squad. In recognition of his performances, Oksanen was voted the club's Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year and he was twice named in the Veikkausliiga Team of the Month. Oksanen made 32 appearances and scored one goal in all competitions during a 2023 season which culminated in KuPS missing out on the Veikkausliiga championship on

goal difference Goal difference, goal differential or points difference is a form of tiebreaker used to rank sport teams which finish on equal points in a league competition. Either "goal difference" or "points difference" is used, depending on whether matches ar ...

. On 3 November 2023, the club exercised its one-year option on his contract.

International career

Oksanen has been capped by Finland at U16, U17, U18, U19 and U21 level. He appeared in each of Finland's three matches at the 2018 European U19 Championship and his development during 2018 was recognised with the

SPL SPL may refer to: Association football * Saudi Professional League * Scottish Premier League * SportPesa Premier League, Kenya * Singapore Premier League * RoboCup Standard Platform League, matches between autonomous robots Computing Program ...

Most Promising Young Player of the Year award. Oksanen won his maiden call into the full

squad for a January 2022 training camp in

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, which included two friendly matches. He made his senior international debut with a start in the second match, a 1–0 defeat to

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

Career statistics

International

Honours

Klubi 04 *

Kakkonen Kakkonen or II divisioona is the third level in the league system of Finnish football and comprises 36 Finnish football teams. The II divisioona was introduced in 1973 and in the mid-1990s became known as the Kakkonen (Finnish for 'Number Two' ...

play-offs:

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Brentford B * Middlesex Senior Cup: 2018–19 *

: 2021–22 KuPS * Finnish Cup:

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* Veikkausliiga runner-up:

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KUOPION PALLOSEURA HISTORIA
kups.fi * Finnish League Cup runner-up: 2024Liigacupin finaalissa hurjaa draamaa – Inter voittoon rankkaritrillerin jälkeen

Ilta-Sanomat ''Ilta-Sanomat'' () is one of Finland's two prominent tabloid size evening newspaper and the second largest paper in the country. Its counterpart and biggest rival is ''Iltalehti''. According to the National Media Research done in 2019 ''Ilta- ...

, 30 March 2024 Individual *

Most Promising Young Player of the Year: 2018 * Brentford B Player of the Year: 2019–20 * Veikkausliiga Team of the Month: August 2022, October 2022 *

Player of the Year: 2022 * KuPS Young Player of the Year: 2022

References

External links

* * *
Jaakko Oksanen
at palloliitto.fi {{DEFAULTSORT:Oksanen, Jaakko 2000 births Living people Finnish men's footballers Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi players Finland men's youth international footballers Veikkausliiga players Finnish expatriate sportspeople in England Footballers from Helsinki Klubi 04 players Men's association football midfielders Brentford F.C. players Kakkonen players Finland men's under-21 international footballers AFC Wimbledon players Greenock Morton F.C. players Finnish expatriate men's footballers Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Scottish Professional Football League players Kuopion Palloseura players Finland men's international footballers English Football League players