Joakim Mæhle Pedersen (born 20 May 1997) is a Danish 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 ...

who plays as a full-back for

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

club

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg () or Wolfsburg, is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of W ...

and the Denmark national team.

Club career

AaB

Born in

Østervrå Østervrå (formerly Øster Vrå) is a town in Vendsyssel, North Jutland Region, Denmark. As of 2023, the town has a population of 1,282. The town and farm areas around the town was hit by an F2 tornado on september 9, 1924. Significant damage, in ...

Vendsyssel Vendsyssel () is the northernmost traditional district of Denmark and of Jutland. Being divided from mainland Jutland by the Limfjord, it is technically a part of the North Jutlandic Island, but the name often used informally for the entire island. ...

, Mæhle started playing football with local club Østervrå IF and moved to the AaB youth academy as a 12-year-old. At the age of 19, Mæhle was promoted into the first team squad on 10 June 2016 and also signed a full-time senior contract with AaB. He made his debut for AaB on 7 August 2016. He started on the bench, but replaced

Thomas Enevoldsen Thomas Enevoldsen (born 27 July 1987) is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a forward. He made eleven appearances for the Denmark national team scoring one goal. Club career AaB Enevoldsen was born in Frejlev, a suburb to ...

in the 89th minute in a 2–1 victory against

FC Nordsjælland Football Club Nordsjælland, commonly known as FC Nordsjælland, Nordsjælland () or FCN, is a professional Danish football team from the North Zealand town of Farum. Founded as ''Farum Boldklub'' from the merger of the town's two football club ...

in the

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga ( da, Superligaen, ) is the current Danish football championship tournament, and administered by the Danish Football Association. It is the highest football league in Denmark and is currently contested by 12 teams each ye ...

. On 11 November 2016, Mæhle earned a new contract until 2020. In April 2017, AaB confirmed that they were in negotiations with a foreign club about Mæhle.

Genk

On 9 May 2017, AaB confirmed that they had sold Mæhle to Belgian club

Racing Genk Koninklijke Racing Club Genk (), commonly known as KRC Genk, Racing Genk or simply Genk, is a Belgium, Belgian professional association football, football club based in the city of Genk in Limburg (Belgium), Belgian Limburg. Racing Genk plays ...

for an undisclosed fee, starting from 1 July 2017.AaB sælger Mæhle til KRC Genk
�� aabsport.dk, 9 May 2017 He was signed to succeed right-back

Timothy Castagne Timothy Castagne (born 5 December 1995) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a full-back for Premier League club Leicester City and the Belgium national team. Castagne began his senior career with Genk after graduating from the clu ...

, who had moved to

Atalanta Atalanta (; grc-gre, Ἀταλάντη, Atalantē) meaning "equal in weight", is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia (region), Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene (mythology ...

. Mæhle made his debut for Genk on 29 July 2017 in the first league match of the season against

Waasland-Beveren Sportkring Beveren is a professional Belgian association football club located in the municipality of Beveren, East Flanders. They play in the Belgian First Division B. History The club was founded in 1936 as Red Star and registered to an amat ...

as a substitute for Amine Khammas. In his first season with the club, he was not a fixed starter, competing with

Clinton Mata Clinton Mukoni Mata Pedro Lourenço (born 7 November 1992) is a professional footballer who plays for Club Brugge as a right back. Born in Belgium, he represents Angola at international level. Club career Early years Born in Verviers, Belgium, ...

for his position. In his second season, after Mata's departure to Club Brugge, he won a permanent starting position. That season, Mæhle grew into a key player in the Genk starting eleven. At the end of the season, Genk won the Belgian championship. On 11 September 2019, Mæhle extended his contract until June 2023.

Atalanta

Genk announced on 22 December 2020 that Mæhle had signed for

on a five-year contract for a fee of €10 million. His transfer was made official on 4 January 2021. He made his

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

debut for Atalanta on 6 January in the club's 3–0 defeat of

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second mos ...

. On 28 February, Mæhle provided an assist in Atalanta's 2–0 win over

Sampdoria Unione Calcio Sampdoria, commonly referred to as Sampdoria (), is an Italian professional football club based in Genoa. The club was formed in 1946 from the merger of two existing sports clubs whose roots can be traced back to the 1890s, ...

. Mæhle scored his first goal for Atalanta in a 6–2 Serie A victory over

Udinese Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is a professional Italian football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sports club, and on 5 July 1911 as a ...

on 9 January 2022.

International career

Mæhle made his Denmark national team debut on 5 September 2020 in a Nations League game against

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

; he substituted

Martin Braithwaite Martin Christensen Braithwaite (; born 5 June 1991) is a Danish professional footballer who plays for La Liga club Espanyol and the Denmark national team. He plays mainly as a forward, but he can also play as a winger. Having begun his career ...

in the 72nd minute of a 2–0 home loss. He scored his first international goal in a friendly against the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...

on 7 October 2020. In June 2021, he was included in the national team's bid for

2020 UEFA Euro The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2020) or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial internat ...

, where the team reached the semi-finals. On 12 October 2021, Maehle scored the only goal as Denmark defeated

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

to secure a place at the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

in Qatar.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Denmark's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Mæhle goal.''

Honours

Genk * Belgian First Division A: 2018–19 Atalanta *

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...

runner-up:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

References

External links

Profile
at the Atalanta B.C. website * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Maehle, Joakim Living people 1997 births People from Frederikshavn Municipality Men's association football fullbacks Danish men's footballers Denmark men's international footballers Denmark men's under-21 international footballers Denmark men's youth international footballers Danish Superliga players Belgian Pro League players Serie A players Bundesliga players AaB Fodbold players K.R.C. Genk players Atalanta BC players VfL Wolfsburg players UEFA Euro 2020 players 2022 FIFA World Cup players Danish expatriate men's footballers Danish expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Danish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Danish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Footballers from the North Jutland Region