Juho Mäkelä (born 23 June 1983) is a Finnish former

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 lea ...

who played as a striker. He is especially known for his pace.

Club career

Early career

Mäkelä played in the youth sector of

Oulun Luistinseura Oulun Luistinseura (or OLS) is a Finnish multi-sports club, based in Oulu. The club has football, bandy, bowling and floorball sections. Football OLS football team was founded in 1941 by clubs bandy players. Throughout the years the club has p ...

(OLS) in his home-town

Oulu Oulu ( , ; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of North Ostrobothnia. It is located on the northwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Oulujoki, River Oulu. The population of Oulu is approximately , while the Oulu sub-regio ...

. He started his senior career with local rival club Tervarit, before moving to

Veikkausliiga Veikkausliiga () is a professional association football league in Finland and the highest level of the Finnish football league system. The league comprises the top 12 clubs of the country. Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agenc ...

club

HJK Helsinki Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi (), commonly known as HJK Helsinki (), or simply as HJK (), is a Finnish football club based in Helsinki. The club competes in Veikkausliiga, the top division of the Finnish football league system. Founded in 1907, the ...

for the 2003 season. He scored 33 goals in 66 appearances for the club in three seasons, and was the Veikkausliiga top scorer in 2005. He is known as 'The Surgeon'.

Hearts

Mäkelä signed for Hearts on a three-and-a-half-year deal during the January 2006

transfer window In association football, a transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club, club can add players to their squad who were previously under contract with another club. Such a Transfer (association football), transfer is comp ...

, for a transfer fee of €735,000. He scored his first goal for Hearts in 4–0 win over

Dunfermline Dunfermline (; , ) is a city, parish, and former royal burgh in Fife, Scotland, from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. Dunfermline was the de facto capital of the Kingdom of Scotland between the 11th and 15th centuries. The earliest ...

on 8 April 2006. On 20 September 2006 he scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

on his first start for Hearts in a

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup, also known as the Premier Sports Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League cup in ...

tie against Second Division side

Alloa Alloa (Received Pronunciation ; Scottish pronunciation /ˈaloʊa/; , possibly meaning "rock plain") is a town in Clackmannanshire in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It is on the north bank of the Forth at the spot where some say it ceases to ...

in a 4–0 win. He scored with his head, and both his feet, scoring a treble. His fifth and final Hearts goal came on 1 October 2006 against Dundee United. On 16 January 2007, it was reported that Mäkelä was training with

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

side Greuther Fürth pending a possible six-month loan move, however it was subsequently announced that he would be spending the rest of the season with FC Thun. On 28 January 2008, Juho went on trial with Dutch side RKC Waalwijk who had been relegated at the end of the 2006–07 season. On 24 April 2008, Mäkelä returned to his former club

on an initial three-month loan deal. On 22 July 2008, it was confirmed by Hearts that Mäkelä had returned from his successful loan spell with

, in which he scored seven goals in 13 games, and would immediately join his teammates for pre-season training in Germany. Mäkelä's first game back was against a German regional select side in which he played the second half. He scored the sixth goal of the game with a powerful volley from eight yards in a 6–0 victory. On 2 February 2009, transfer deadline day, Hearts announced Mäkelä had been released after 23 appearances and five goals in all competitions.

Return to HJK Helsinki

Mäkelä returned to former club

prior to the

2009 Veikkausliiga The 2009 Veikkausliiga was the 79th season of top-tier football in Finland. It began on 18 April 2009 and ended on 17 October 2009. Inter Turku were the defending champions. The championship was won by HJK Helsinki, who came out on top of a three ...

season. He marked his return to the club with a goal in the opening game of the season, coming off the bench in the 76th minute and scoring in the 80th minute to complete the scoring in a 5–1 win over

KuPS Kuopion Palloseura, commonly referred to as KuPS, is a Finnish professional football club based in Kuopio. KuPS competes in Veikkausliiga, the top flight of Finnish football. The team plays its home matches at Kuopio Football Stadium. KuPS ha ...

. He also came off the bench in the second game of the season against TPS Turku, in which he set up the equalizing goal for Medo in a 2–2 draw. On 17 August 2008, he went on trial with Italian

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had b ...

side

Ascoli Calcio Ascoli Calcio 1898 FC, commonly referred to as Ascoli, is an Italian football club based in Ascoli Piceno, Marche. The club was formed in 1898 and currently plays in Serie C. The team traditionally play in vertical black and white stripes. Hi ...

. He had a wonderful start for the 2010 season with HJK as he went on scoring ten goals in just eight games. After the season, he was again awarded as the league's top scorer with 16 goals.

Sydney FC

On 17 November 2010, it was announced that he would be trialling with

A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

club

Sydney FC Sydney Football Club, commonly known as Sydney FC, is a professional association football, soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. They compete in the top-tier men's league in Australia, the A-League Men. Established in 2004, ...

. Transfer was confirmed by HJK on 7 December 2010. He joined Sydney FC for their A-league and ACL season. He will wear the number 18 shirt. He scored his first Sydney goal in his home debut after coming off the bench against

Gold Coast United Gold Coast United Football Club is an Australian Association football, soccer club based in Gold Coast, Queensland. The earliest incarnation of the club formed in 1966 and its home ground was at Nikiforides Family Park in Broadbeach. The first ...

on 8 January 2011. Mäkelä followed this goal up with an injury-time equaliser against arch-rivals

Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victory ...

the following week with a simple tap-in. Unhappy at Sydney, due to lack of opportunity under manager Vitezslav Lavicka it was announced that club would not be renewing his contract at the end of the season, and was free to leave the club during the 2012 January transfer window if he could find another club in time. Mäkelä departed the club in April 2012.

Second return to HJK

On 5 April 2012, it was announced that Mäkelä would make his second comeback for HJK, signing a 1+1 contract with his former club. On 17 July, he scored a hat-trick, in a 7–0 home win over KR Reykjavik in the Champions League qualifiers.

Germany, Switzerland, and a return to Finland

After short spells in 2. Bundesliga with

SV Sandhausen Sportverein Sandhausen 1916 e.V., commonly known as simply SV Sandhausen or Sandhausen, is a Football in Germany, German association football club that plays in Sandhausen, immediately to the south of Heidelberg in Baden-Württemberg. It is Ger ...

and

Swiss Super League The Super League (also known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a professional association football league in Switzerland and the highest level of the Swiss football league system. It has been played in its current fo ...

with

FC St. Gallen Fussballclub St. Gallen 1879, commonly known as St. Gallen, is a Swiss professional football club based in the city of St. Gallen, Canton of St. Gallen. It is the oldest football club in continental Europe after Kjøbenhavns Boldklub. The tea ...

, Mäkelä returned to Finland, signing for

Åland Åland ( , ; ) is an Federacy, autonomous and Demilitarized zone, demilitarised region of Finland. Receiving its autonomy by a 1920 decision of the League of Nations, it is the smallest region of Finland by both area () and population (30,54 ...

club

IFK Mariehamn IFK Mariehamn is a Finnish football club based in Mariehamn, the capital of the Åland Islands. It plays in the Finnish Premier Division (''Veikkausliiga''), winning their first title in 2016. The club is managed by Gary Williams, and it plays ...

on a short-term deal.

PS Kemi

Mäkelä signed with

PS Kemi The Palloseura Kemi Kings is a Finnish football team based in the town of Kemi, that competes in the Kolmonen. The club have spent three seasons in the top flight in their history. History The club was established on October 21, 1999. Kemi Kin ...

in March 2018, and left the club again at the end of 2018.

International career

Mäkelä made his debut for the Finnish national team on 3 February 2004 against

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Individual *

Top Score:

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Forward of the Year:

veikkausliiga.com

References

External links

* * *

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Makela, Juho 1983 births Living people Footballers from Oulu Finnish men's footballers 21st-century Finnish sportsmen Finnish expatriate men's footballers Men's association football forwards Scottish Premier League players Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi players Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Sydney FC players FC Thun players SV Sandhausen players FC St. Gallen players IFK Mariehamn players Seinäjoen Jalkapallokerho players Vaasan Palloseura players HIFK Fotboll players Kemi City F.C. players Oulun Luistinseura players AC Oulu players Veikkausliiga players 2. Bundesliga players Swiss Challenge League players Swiss Super League players Finland men's international footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Expatriate men's soccer players in Australia Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Australia Tervarit players A-League Men players Ykkönen players Kakkonen players