Serge Atakayi (born 30 January 1999) is a Congolese professional footballer who plays as a winger for

League of Ireland First Division The League of Ireland First Division ( ga, Céad Roinn Sraith na hÉireann), also known as the SSE Airtricity League First Division, is the second level division in both the League of Ireland and the Republic of Ireland football league system. Th ...

club

Waterford "Waterford remains the untaken city" , mapsize = 220px , pushpin_map = Ireland#Europe , pushpin_map_caption = Location within Ireland##Location within Europe , pushpin_relief = 1 , coordinates ...

, on loan from

St Patrick's Athletic St Patrick's Athletic Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Lúthchleas Phádraig Naofa) is a professional Irish association football club based in Inchicore, Dublin, that plays in the Irish Premier Division. Founded in May 1929, they played origin ...

. Originally from the

DR Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

, he represented Finland up to the under-19 level before representing DR Congo at under-23 level.

Early life

Atakayi, originally from

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

, applied for asylum in Finland alongside other members of his youth football team when visiting the country in 2010.

Club career

FF Jaro

Atakayi joined the youth system at

FF Jaro FF Jaro is a Finnish football club, based in the bilingual town of Jakobstad. It currently plays in ''Ykkönen''. Home matches are played at the Jakobstads Centralplan. Current squad ''Updated 7 March, 2022.'' Managem ...

in 2013 and made his senior debut for the club in 2015. He became the youngest goalscorer in the history of the Finnish top flight when he scored against

HIFK HIFK, the Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna, Helsingfors (IFK, Helsingfors) rf (officially abbreviated IFK Helsingfors, colloquially often Helsingfors IFK or Helsingin IFK ) is a multi-sport association based in Helsinki, Finland. Formed in 1897 on ...

on 17 May 2015, aged 16 years and 107 days.

Rangers

On 31 August 2016, after trial periods with Leicester City and

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

, he joined

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 ...

on a three-year contract. He signed a one-year contract extension to tie him to Rangers until 2020 in June 2018. He made his debut against

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

in a 7–1 win during November 2018 but suffered a broken ankle in the game.

SJK

Atakayi left Rangers on 30 December 2019 to join Finnish side SJK for a reported fee of £100,000. Atakayi played in 19 games on the 2020 season and scored once. On 4 June 2021 it was told by SJK-head coach

Jani Honkavaara Jani Honkavaara (born 2 February 1976) is a Finnish football manager and retired football player, who is the manager of KuPS. Career Honkavaara began his football career in TP-Seinäjoki (formerly known as Törnävän Pallo-55). During his time ...

that Atakayi had not been training with the team since February because of attitude problems. Atakayi only played in one Finnish Cup game for SJK in the 2021 season. On 28 July 2021 he moved to TPS on loan.

St Patrick's Athletic

On 15 July 2022 it was announced that Atakayi had signed for

League of Ireland Premier Division The League of Ireland Premier Division ( ga, Príomhroinn Sraith na hÉireann), also known as the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division for sponsorship reasons, is the top level division in both the League of Ireland and the Republic of Ireland f ...

club

on an 18 month contract for an undisclosed fee. He made his debut on the same day, in a 1–1 draw with

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ga, Dún Dealgan ), meaning "the fort of Dealgan", is the county town (the administrative centre) of County Louth, Ireland. The town is on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the east coast of Ireland. It is h ...

at Richmond Park. His first goal for the club came on 4 August 2022 when he scored an 87th minute winner away to CSKA Sofia in the UEFA Europa Conference League Third qualifying round. On 14 August 2022, he scored the winning goal against

Sligo Rovers Sligo Rovers Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Ruagairí Shligigh) is an Irish professional football club playing in the Premier Division of the League of Ireland. The club is based in Sligo in the west of Ireland. The club was founded in 1928 ...

at Richmond Park in what was his first league start for the club. On 19 August 2022, he scored the winning goal in a 2–1 victory away to UCD, his third goal in his last four games. On 14 October 2022, he opened the scoring in a 3–1 win over

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

rivals

Bohemians Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Beer * National Bohemian, a brand brewed by Pabst * Bohemian, a brand of beer brewed by Molson Coors Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, origin ...

. He followed that up a week later by again opening the scoring in another Dublin derby, this time away to

Shamrock Rovers Shamrock Rovers Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Ruagairí na Seamróige) is an Irish association football club based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club's senior team competes in the League of Ireland Premier Division and it is the most su ...

at Tallaght Stadium.

Waterford loan

On 1 July 2023, Atakayi signed for

side

on loan until the end of the season.

International career

Finland

Atakayi was born in

but obtained Finnish citizenship in 2016 and represented Finland at under-15 level. In June 2016, Atakayi represented Finland at under-18 level in the Baltic Cup and scored in a 2–2 draw with Lithuania on 2 June 2016. He made his debut for the Finland under-19 side on 4 September 2016, in a goalless draw with Romania.

DR Congo

While living in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

, Atakayi become close friends with compatriot

Youssouf Mulumbu Youssouf Mulumbu (born 25 January 1987) is a Congolese former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Mulumbu came through Paris Saint-Germain's youth academy. He began playing for Paris Saint-Germain B in 2004 and was promoted to th ...

who was playing for

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

at the time and was a senior international for

. Mulumbu spoke with Atakayi about changing his international allegiance to his birth country. In March 2019, Atakayi was called up to the DR Congo U23 team for two

2019 Africa U-23 Cup of Nations qualification The 2019 Africa U-23 Cup of Nations qualification was a men's under-23 football competition, which decided the participating teams of the 2019 Africa U-23 Cup of Nations. Players born 1 January 1997 or later were eligible to participate in the co ...

fixtures against Morocco U23. The first leg at home in

Kinshasa Kinshasa (; ; ln, Kinsásá), formerly Léopoldville ( nl, Leopoldstad), is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once a site of fishing and trading villages situated along the Congo River, Kinshasa is now one o ...

represented a first opportunity for Atakayi to return home to see his family since seeking asylum from the country in 2010.

Career statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Atakayi, Serge 1999 births Living people Footballers from Kinshasa Finnish men's footballers Finland men's youth international footballers Democratic Republic of the Congo men's footballers Democratic Republic of the Congo emigrants to Finland Finnish people of Democratic Republic of the Congo descent Finnish expatriate men's footballers Rangers F.C. players FF Jaro players Jakobstads BK players Seinäjoen Jalkapallokerho players St Patrick's Athletic F.C. players Waterford F.C. players Scottish Professional Football League players Ykkönen players Kakkonen players Veikkausliiga players League of Ireland players Men's association football forwards Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Naturalized citizens of Finland Expatriate men's association footballers in the Republic of Ireland