Mikael Soisalo (born 24 April 1998) is a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

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 right-winger for Hungarian club Puskás Akadémia. He has also represented the

Finland national under-21 football team The Finnish national under-21 football team is the national under-21 football team of Finland. The team qualified for the UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship final tournament in 2009. UEFA U-21 Championship Record 2023 UEFA Euro Under ...

. Soisalo was born in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

, Finland. He began his senior club

career The career is an individual's metaphorical "journey" through learning, work and other aspects of life. There are a number of ways to define career and the term is used in a variety of ways. Definitions The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' defin ...

on league level playing for

Ilves Ilves (; Finnish for " Lynx") is a Finnish professional ice hockey team based in Tampere. They play in the Liiga at the Tampere Deck Arena. The colors of Ilves, green, yellow, and black, were taken from what was then the coat of arms of the city ...

, before signing with

Zulte Waregem Sportvereniging Zulte Waregem (), commonly known as Zulte Waregem or by their nickname Essevee (), is a Belgian professional football club based in Waregem, West Flanders. Zulte Waregem plays in the Belgian First Division A. Their highest finish a ...

at age 20 in 2018.

Club career

Klubi 04

He started his career playing for in the lower leagues of Finnish football in HJKs reserve team. He has also played for the junior teams of

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 ...

Ilves

On 14 December 2015 it was announced he had joined

a team from

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...

on a 3-year contract. He stated that his goal for the 2016

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 Veikkau ...

(Finnish 1 tier) season would be to get a start in the starting line-up. He played an active role in the team's success, they finished fourth in the league and at times they even fought for the championship.

Middlesbrough

On 5 January 2017, Soisalo joined

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 ...

on a three-year deal for an undisclosed fee, reported to be around €200,000, and was registered to their U21 academy squad. On 13 March 2017, he scored a hat-trick for the Middlesbrough reserves against Blackburn reserves. The manager praised him for his performance and how he had integrated into the team.

Zulte Waregem

On 18 June 2018,

announced that Soisalo was to join Belgian side

after just one full season with Middlesbrough's U-23 side. The transfer fee was not disclosed. Varzim (loan)
Soisalo was loaned out to Portuguese club

Varzim S.C. Varzim Sport Club () is a Portuguese football team based in Póvoa de Varzim, near Porto in the north of the country. The club was founded on 25 December 1915, and has played at the Estádio do Varzim Sport Club since it was founded. The club pl ...

on 29 January 2020 for the rest of the season with a purchase option. However, he only played two games for the club and returned to Zulte in the summer 2020.

Riga FC

For the 2021 season, Soisalo moved to

Riga FC Riga Football Club, commonly referred to as Riga FC, is a Latvian football club, founded in 2014. The club is based at the Skonto Stadium in Riga. Since 2016 the club has been playing in the Virslīga. History The club was officially registered i ...

on a 2-year contract. He made his debut on 13 March, playing the first 65 minutes of a 0–2 win at

Ventspils Ventspils (; german: Windau, ; see other names) is a state city in northwestern Latvia in the historical Courland region of Latvia, and is the sixth largest city in the country. At the beginning of 2020, Ventspils had a population of 33,906. It ...

. He had an impressive start and had scored seven goals in 15 games in July 2021.

Puskás Akadémia

On 27 August 2023, Soisalo was bought by Hungarian top-flight club Puskás Akadémia for an undisclosed fee. He scored in his debut, in a 3–1 away victory against

Mezőkövesd Mezőkövesd is a town in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county, Northern Hungary. It lies from Miskolc and from Eger. History The area has been inhabited since the Great Migration. It is likely that the first Hungarian settlement was formed here sh ...

on 3 September 2023.

International career

He has been an integral part of the various youth national teams starting from the U-15. During 2016, he took part in Finland's qualifying campaign for the UEFA under 19 Championship. He played well against Kazakhstan, scoring once and assisting three goals. He scored his first goal for Finland U21 on 9 October 2020 in a UEFA European U21 Championship qualification match in

Ballymena Showgrounds The Ballymena Showgrounds is a football stadium in Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is home to Ballymena United F.C. and Ballymena United Allstars F.C. It is owned by Ballymena Borough Council. In addition to men's soccer a variety ...

Ballymena Ballymena ( ; from ga, an Baile Meánach , meaning 'the middle townland') is a town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is part of the Borough of Mid and East Antrim. The town is built on land given to the Adair family by King Charles I i ...

against Northern Ireland U21. In March 2022, Soisalo received a first call up for the Finland senior squad for the first time, coming into the squad after the withdrawal of

Lassi Lappalainen Lassi Lappalainen (born 24 August 1998) is a Finnish professional footballer who plays as a winger for Major League Soccer club CF Montréal and the Finland national team. Club career Early career Born in Espoo in 1998, Lappalainen started hi ...

and Onni Valakari for matches against

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

and

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Club

Klubi 04 * Kakkonen Eastern Group:

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

Individual

Breakthrough of the Year:

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

Team of the Year:

References

External links

SV Zulte Waregem official profile

Mikael Soisalo
–

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:Soisalo, Mikael 1998 births Living people Men's association football forwards Finnish men's footballers Finnish expatriate men's footballers Finland men's under-21 international footballers Finland men's youth international footballers Kakkonen players Veikkausliiga players Belgian Pro League players Liga Portugal 2 players Latvian Higher League players Nemzeti Bajnokság I players Ilves (football) players Middlesbrough F.C. players S.V. Zulte Waregem players Varzim S.C. players Riga FC players Puskás Akadémia FC players Footballers from Helsinki Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Latvia Expatriate men's footballers in Hungary Finnish expatriate sportspeople in England Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Latvia Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Hungary