Juhani Ojala (; born 19 June 1989) 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 ...

who is a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

and plays as a centre-back, most recently for

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottis ...

club Motherwell, and the Finland national team. Ojala was born in

Vantaa Vantaa (; sv, Vanda, ) is a city and municipality in Finland. It is part of the inner core of the Finnish Capital Region along with Helsinki, Espoo, and Kauniainen. With a population of (), Vantaa is the fourth most populated city in Finland ...

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 ...

where he played for the local youth team before moving to HJK's organisation. Ojala made his international debut for Finland in November 2011, at the age of 22.

Club career

HJK Helsinki

During the 2009 season, Ojala represented mostly

Klubi-04 Klubi 04 is a Finnish 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 Jokerit. Initially Klubi 04 ...

, HJK's reserve squad. In the beginning of the 2010 season, however, he was selected to HJK's first eleven, due to various injuries in the squad. His performances were outstanding, and he quickly established himself as one of the key players in HJK's victorious 2010 campaign, playing in all games. Ojala became one of the best and most talented players in the

Veikkausliiga Veikkausliiga (; sv, Tipsligan) is the premier division of Finnish football, the highest tier of the Finnish football league structure, comprising the top 12 clubs of the country. Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agency Veikka ...

, and his performances provoked widespread international interest. At the end of the 2010

season, he was officially selected as the defender of the year.

Young Boys

On 9 April 2011 Ojala signed a contract extension with HJK, the new contract running until 2014. But in July, HJK announced that Ojala would

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to Swiss team BSC Young Boys on 13 August. He gained notoriety in England during Young Boys' 2012–13 UEFA Europa League group stage match against

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

at the Stade de Suisse. In an eventful match, which ended 5–3 to the ''Reds'', Ojala opened the score with an own goal, putting the ball past

Marco Wölfli Marco Wölfli (born 22 August 1982) is a Swiss former professional football goalkeeper who played for Young Boys in the Swiss Super League. Club career Wölfli made his league debut for Young Boys during their 1999–2000 Nationalliga B campa ...

, his own goalkeeper. He later made amends by scoring a header to bring Young Boys level at 2–2 just after half time.

Terek Grozny

After a year and a half in Switzerland on 12 February 2013 it was announced that Ojala would transfer to Russian Premier League team Terek Grozny.

Loan to HJK Helsinki

On 29 July 2015, Ojala rejoined HJK on loan for the remainder of the

2015 Veikkausliiga The 2015 Veikkausliiga was the 85th season of top-tier football in Finland. HJK Helsinki were the defending champions. The season was won by SJK, ending HJK's record streak of six straight titles. Teams TPS were relegated to Ykkönen after fini ...

season. He had a trial with

Coventry City F.C. Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed th ...

at the end of the season, but was not signed.

SJK

On 1 September 2016, Ojala signed with SJK. He made his debut for SJK on 9 September 2016 playing full 90 minutes in a match against

Inter Turku Football Club International Turku, commonly referred to as Inter Turku and colloquially known as Inter, is a professional football club based in Turku, Finland, that competes in the Veikkausliiga, the top flight of Finnish Football. Founded in 1 ...

Vejle

On 26 August 2019, Danish 1st Division club

Vejle Boldklub Vejle Boldklub is a Danish professional football club based in Vejle in Jutland. Formed in 1891, the club is one of the most successful clubs in Danish football history, having won the Danish championship five times and the Danish cup title six t ...

confirmed, that they had signed Ojala. He reached promotion to 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 ...

during his first season at the club, and personally finished with 22 appearances in which he scored two goals. On 14 September 2020, his debut in the Superliga, he scored in a 4–2 loss to rivals AGF.

Motherwell

On 29 July 2021, Motherwell announced the signing of Ojala on a two-year contract. Ojala left Motherwell by mutual consent on 1 September 2022, having played 24 times for the club.

International career

In November 2010, after representing Finland on youth levels, Ojala was called up to the national team squad to face

San Marino San Marino (, ), officially the Republic of San Marino ( it, Repubblica di San Marino; ), also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino ( it, Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino, links=no), is the fifth-smallest country in the world an ...

. He made his national team debut on 15 November 2011 in a friendly match against

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

Esbjerg Esbjerg (, ) is a seaport town and seat of Esbjerg Municipality on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in southwest Denmark. By road, it is west of Kolding and southwest of Aarhus. With an urban population of 71,698 (1 January 2022)

when

Mixu Paatelainen Mika-Matti Petteri Paatelainen (born 3 February 1967) is a Finnish former professional football player and the head coach of Veikkausliiga club HIFK. He scored 18 goals in 70 appearances for the Finnish national team, which makes him Finland's ...

used him as a substitute. He gained his first

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

qualification appearance 12 October 2012 in

Helsinki Olympic Stadium The Helsinki Olympic Stadium ( fi, Helsingin Olympiastadion; sv, Helsingfors Olympiastadion), located in the Töölö district about from the centre of the Finnish capital Helsinki, is the largest stadium in the country, nowadays mainly used ...

in a match against

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

. During autumn of 2012 he established himself as a regular in the national team. Ojala was called up for the

UEFA Euro 2020 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 quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe ...

pre-tournament friendly match against Sweden on 29 May 2021.

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

:''Scores and results list Finland's goal tally first.''

Honours

Club

;HJK Helsinki *

(2): 2009, 2010

Country

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 f ...

2012 Baltic Cup The 2012 Baltic Cup was a football competition which was held on 1–3 June 2012 in Estonia. Format For the first time, Finland took part in the competition. As a result of this, the round-robin format was changed to knock-out tournament, as ...

Runner-up * 2014 Baltic Cup Bronze

Individual

*2010: Veikkausliiga defender of the year

References

External links

Motherwell FC official profile

Juhani Ojala
–

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 ...

competition record * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ojala, Juhani 1989 births Living people Finnish footballers Finland international footballers Finland youth international footballers Finland under-21 international footballers Sportspeople from Vantaa Association football defenders Klubi 04 players Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi players FC Akhmat Grozny players BSC Young Boys players BK Häcken players Vejle Boldklub players Veikkausliiga players Swiss Super League players Russian Premier League players Allsvenskan players Danish 1st Division players Finnish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate footballers in Russia Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate footballers in Sweden Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Expatriate footballers in Denmark Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Motherwell F.C. players Scottish Professional Football League players Expatriate footballers in Scotland Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Scotland