Joel Joshghene Asoro (born 27 April 1999) is a Swedish 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

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

for

Djurgårdens IF Djurgårdens Idrottsförening, commonly known simply as Djurgårdens IF, Djurgården (), and (especially locally) Djurgår'n (), Dif or DIF – is a Swedish sports association with several sections, located in Stockholm. Name The club is named ...

Club career

Early career

Asoro started his career in his local club

IFK Haninge IFK Haninge is a Swedish football club located in Haninge in Stockholm County. Background Since their foundation Brandbergens IF is now IFK Haninge and has participated mainly in the lower divisions of the Swedish football league system. The cl ...

in a southern

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

suburb. When he was eleven years old he moved to

IF Brommapojkarna Idrottsföreningen Brommapojkarna, more commonly known as Brommapojkarna (meaning ''the Bromma boys'') or simply BP, is a Swedish football club located in the borough of Bromma, in the western parts of Stockholm municipality. Brommapojkarna is t ...

, well known throughout Sweden for its youth academy which has produced players such as

John Guidetti John Alberto Guidetti (, ; born 15 April 1992) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a striker for AIK. Whilst growing up Guidetti played football in his native Sweden as well as Kenya. He returned to Sweden in 2008 and played with ...

Albin Ekdal Albin Ekdal (; born 28 July 1989) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Serie A club Spezia and the Sweden national team. Formed at IF Brommapojkarna, he has spent most of his career in Italy, where he has made over ...

Simon Tibbling Simon Hjalmar Friedel Tibbling (born 7 September 1994) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Sarpsborg 08 in the Eliteserien. He has made one appearance for the Sweden national team. Born in Stockholm, Tibbling jo ...

Dejan Kulusevski Dejan Kulusevski ( mk, Дејан Кулушевски, Dejan Kulushevski; born 25 April 2000) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a winger or midfielder for club Tottenham Hotspur, on loan from club Juventus, and the Sweden na ...

and

Ludwig Augustinsson Hans Carl Ludwig Augustinsson (born 21 April 1994) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a left-back for La Liga club Mallorca, on loan from La Liga club Sevilla, and the Sweden national team. A product of Brommapojkarna's academy ...

. Asoro was targeted for some of Europe's leading clubs, among them

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

and

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

Sunderland

Asoro signed for English side

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

in 2015. On 21 August 2016, a year after joining the club, Asoro made his professional debut in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

against

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

, coming on as an 81st-minute substitute for

Duncan Watmore Duncan Ian Watmore (born 8 March 1994) is an English professional footballer who plays as a forward for Championship club Millwall. Watmore previously played for Altrincham, Clitheroe, Curzon Ashton, Sunderland and Hibernian. Early life Watmor ...

; in doing so he became Sunderland's youngest Premier League player, as well as the youngest Swedish national to feature. On 24 August 2016, Asoro was given his first Sunderland start under manager

David Moyes David William Moyes ( ; born 25 April 1963) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player. He is currently the manager of Premier League club West Ham United. He was previously the manager of Preston North End, Everton, Manches ...

in a 1–0 victory over

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

side

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...

in an

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

second round tie. Asoro later appeared as a starter in the

Round 3 victory over

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

side

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...

and was subbed off for

Josh Maja Joshua Erowoli Orisunmihare Oluwaseun Maja (born 27 December 1998) is a professional footballer who plays as a striker for club Bordeaux. Born in England, he played one match for the Nigeria national team in 2019. Maja played youth football w ...

Swansea City

Asoro joined

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club (; cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Cymdeithas Dinas Abertawe) is a professional football club based in Swansea, Wales that plays in the Championship, the second tier of English football. Swansea have played their ho ...

on a four-year contract for a fee of £2 million in July 2018.

Loan to FC Groningen

On 15 August 2019, Asoro agreed to a loan move to

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

club

FC Groningen Football Club Groningen () is a Dutch professional association football club based in Groningen, province of Groningen. Founded on 16 June 1971 as the successor of GVAV, the team compete in the Eredivisie, the highest tier of Dutch football. G ...

for the 2019–20 season. He made 17 appearances and scored three goals for the side before the football season in the Netherlands was suspended in March.

Loan to Genoa

On 16 September 2020, Asoro joined

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 Coppa ...

club

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

on a

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

-long loan deal with a conditional obligation to buy.

Djurgårdens IF

On 8 February 2021, Asoro signed with

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; en, the All-Swedish, also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan, en, the Football All-Swedish) is a Swedish professional league for men's association football clubs. It was founded in 1924 and is the top tier of the Swedish football lea ...

club

, keeping him with the club until 31 December 2024.

International career

On 5 September 2016, Asoro made his debut for Sweden U21 starting the game against Spain in 1–1 draw. Swedish press reported that

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As Fr ...

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Football in Italy, Italian professional Association football, football ...

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional footb ...

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

RB Leipzig RasenBallsport Leipzig e.V. (), commonly known as RB Leipzig, and colloquially referred to as Red Bull Leipzig, is a German professional football club based in Leipzig, Saxony. The club was founded in 2009 by the initiative of the company Red Bu ...

Villarreal Villarreal ( ca-valencia , Vila-real) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's ...

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

and

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

all scouted Asoro in his debut. The following day Asoro was praised by

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

scout Bobby Bennett and

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

Chief Scout

Graham Carr William Graham Carr (born 25 October 1944) is an English former professional footballer, manager and scout. He is currently an associate director for Northampton Town. Club career Carr, a half-back, joined his first professional club, North ...

Personal life

Asoro's parents are from Nigeria. His sister, Abigail Glomazic is a professional basketball player who has played with the likes of CCC Polkowice and Sleza Wroclaw in Poland.

Career statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Asoro, Joel 1999 births Living people Swedish footballers Sunderland A.F.C. players Swansea City A.F.C. players FC Groningen players Genoa C.F.C. players Djurgårdens IF Fotboll players Association football forwards Premier League players English Football League players Eredivisie players Allsvenskan players Expatriate footballers in England Swedish people of Nigerian descent Swedish expatriate footballers Swedish expatriate sportspeople in England Swedish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate footballers in Wales Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in Italy Footballers from Stockholm