Nicholas Antero "Niko" Hämäläinen (born 5 March 1997) is a 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

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for Belgian club

RWDM47 Racing White Daring de Molenbeek 47, also known as RWD Molenbeek and often referred to as RWDM, is a Belgian professional football club founded in 1951 as Standaard Wetteren. In 2015, Wetteren folded and merged with another club, liberating the ...

on loan from

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 ...

. Born in the United States, he represents the Finland national team. Born and raised in the United States, Hämäläinen was eligible to represent Finland through his Finnish father. He represented Finland at various youth levels before making his senior debut against

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

on 11 January 2019.

Club career

Queens Park Rangers

On 18 September 2014, Hämäläinen signed for

from the FC Dallas Academy. Former

West Ham West Ham is an area in East London, located east of Charing Cross in the west of the modern London Borough of Newham. The area, which lies immediately to the north of the River Thames and east of the River Lea, was originally an ancient ...

midfielder Ian Bishop, a family friend, arranged a trial for Hämäläinen, where he was spotted by QPR.

2015–16: Dagenham & Redbridge loan

On 6 August 2015, Hämäläinen signed on an emergency loan deal at Dagenham & Redbridge until 5 September 2015. Hämäläinen made his professional debut on 12 August 2015, in Dagenham & Redbridge's 1–4 loss to

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...

in the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

. He was named in the starting eleven and was replaced by Ashley Hemmings in the 58th minute. His loan was extended in September 2015 for an additional month.

Return to QPR

He made his league debut for QPR as a substitute for Joel Lynch in a 2–1 win against West London rivals Fulham on 1 October 2016. He made his first appearance in the starting lineup on 22 October 2016 in a match against

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot ...

2018–19: Los Angeles FC loan

On 25 February 2019, Hämäläinen joined Major League Soccer side Los Angeles FC on a six-month loan deal. Prior to his signing,

Jordan Harvey Jordan Harvey (born January 28, 1984) is an American former professional soccer player who last played for Major League Soccer club Los Angeles FC. Career Youth and college Harvey started playing club soccer with Strikers FC. Upon high school ...

was the only recognised left-back at LAFC. After the announcement of the signing, general manager

John Thorrington John Gerard Thorrington (born October 17, 1979) is a South African-born American retired soccer player who currently serves as co-president and general manager of Major League Soccer club Los Angeles FC. Although raised in the United States, Th ...

said “Niko has a bright future ahead of him and we look forward to furthering his professional development at LAFC... I am confident he will prove to be a valuable addition to the group". He made his debut when he came off the bench in the 81st minute and made an assist in the 90+2 minute for the winner in a 2-1 win over

Real Salt Lake Real Salt Lake, often shortened to RSL, is an American professional soccer franchise based in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. The club competes as a member club of Major League Soccer (MLS) in the Western Conference. RSL began play in 2 ...

2019–20: Kilmarnock loan

Hämäläinen was loaned to

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 Kilmarnock in August 2019. His decision to move to Scotland was influenced by compatriot

Glen Kamara Glen Adjei Kamara (born 28 October 1995) is a Finnish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for club Rangers and the Finland national team. He began his senior career at Arsenal, where he made one substitute appearance in the F ...

, who plays for Rangers, and

Lee Wallace Lee Wallace (born 1 August 1987) is a Scottish former professional footballer. He represented the Scotland national team with 10 caps. Wallace started his career Heart of Midlothian, making his debut in 2005 at age seventeen, and joined Ran ...

, a teammate of Hämäläinen's at QPR, having joined from Rangers himself in June 2019. So far in 2019–20, Hämäläinen has been named in the Scottish Premiership team of the week twice.

2021: LA Galaxy (loan)

On 6 August 2021, Hämäläinen returned to Major League Soccer and joined LA Galaxy on loan through the end of the 2021 season.

2022: Botafogo FR (loan)

On 12 April 2022, Hämäläinen signed a loan contract for

Botafogo FR Botafogo (local/standard alternative Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: ) is a beachfront neighborhood (''bairro'') in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is a mostly upper middle class and small commerce community, and is located between the hills of M ...

until July.

2023: RWDM47 (loan)

On 31 January 2023, Hämäläinen was loaned to

in the Belgian second-tier

Challenger Pro League The Challenger Pro League (previously known as ''1B Pro League'') is the second-highest division in the Belgian football league system, one level below the Belgian First Division A. It was created by the Royal Belgian Football Association in 201 ...

International career

Hämäläinen was eligible for the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and

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 ...

, having been born and raised in the United States to a Finnish father. He originally played as a youth international for Finland. He made his senior debut for the

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 ...

on 11 January 2019 at

Khalifa International Stadium Khalifa International Stadium (, , ) is a multi-purpose stadium located in Al Rayyan, Qatar, around west from the centre of Doha. Its ground comprises a running track and a grass pitch. Opened in 1976, the stadium was named after then-Emir ...

Doha, Qatar Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor (city), Al Khor, it is home to m ...

, in a friendly match against

. He played for 84 minutes until he was replaced by Juha Pirinen. On 30 August 2019, Hämäläinen accepted a call to the United States under-23s, his first call-up to the United States at any level. Hämäläinen made his competitive debut for Finland against the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...

in the

UEFA Nations League The UEFA Nations League is a biennial international football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The first tournament began in September 2018. The ...

on 6 September 2020, thus tying him to the Finnish national team. Hämäläinen 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, and later for the tournament itself

Personal life

Hämäläinen was born and raised in the United States. He is of

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

and Finnish descent. He is the son of Timo Hämäläinen, who played for the Finnish football club Koparit in 1978–1982 in the SM-sarja before moving to the United States to work.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours and achievements

Individual

* Football Association of Finland Promising player of the year: 2015

References

External links

Queens Park Rangers F.C. official profile

Niko Hämäläinen
–

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 ...