Maximo Tolonen (born 4 March 2001) 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

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

IF Gnistan IF Gnistan (''The Spark'' in English) is a Finnish football club from the city of Helsinki, founded in 1924. The club is currently playing in the Ykkönen, the second tier of the Finnish league system. IF Gnistan play their home matches at Must ...

Career

Tolonen was born to a Finnish father and an

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

mother. He grew up in

Espoo Espoo (, ; sv, Esbo) is a city and municipality in the region of Uusimaa in the Republic of Finland. It is located on the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, bordering the cities of Helsinki, Vantaa, Kirkkonummi, Vihti and Nurmijärvi ...

, but moved to

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

in England when he was five years old. They lived for one-and-a-half years in Cambridge before moving back to

.Tiesitkö hänet? Maximo Tolonen, 16, on yksi Suomen lupaavimmista jalkapalloilijoista - vankka kielitaito jo valmiina
iltalehti.fi, 4 August 2017 Tolonen is fluent in Finnish, Spanish because his mother is Argentine, and English because he lived in England and Scotland. At the age of 10, in 2011, Tolonen moved to Scotland with his family. He began playing for

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

. The club later offered him a contract, but he declined, because it was to far away from where he lived in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

. He then moved to Hibernian. Two years later, the Tolonen family moved back to Finland and joined

FC Honka FC Honka is a Finnish football club based in Espoo. It was founded in 1957 as Tapion Honka, and changed its name to FC Honka in 1975. The club currently play in the Finnish premier division (''Veikkausliiga''), having been promoted for the fir ...

. He left SJK at the end of the 2019 season. On 3 December 2019, it was confirmed that Tolonen would join

IFK Mariehamn IFK Mariehamn is an Ålandic football club based in Mariehamn, the capital of the Åland Islands. It plays in the Finnish Premier Division (''Veikkausliiga''). The club is managed by Daniel Norrmén, and it plays its home matches at Wiklö ...

for the 2020 season, signing a one-year deal with an option for one further year.IFK Mariehamn hankki poikien maajoukkueen vakiokasvon
yle.fi, 3 December 2019

References

2001 births Living people Finnish footballers Finnish expatriate footballers Finnish people of Argentine descent Rangers F.C. players Hibernian F.C. players FC Honka players Seinäjoen Jalkapallokerho players SJK Akatemia players IFK Mariehamn players IF Gnistan players Veikkausliiga players Ykkönen players Kakkonen players Association football forwards Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Expatriate footballers in Scotland Footballers from Espoo {{Finland-footy-forward-stub