Leo Onni Artturi Väisänen (born 23 July 1997) 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 lea ...

who plays as a

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

for

BK Häcken Bollklubben Häcken, more commonly known as BK Häcken or simply Häcken (), is a Swedish professional association football, football club based in Gothenburg (Hisingen). It currently plays in Allsvenskan, the top tier of Swedish football. Forme ...

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; ), also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan (, ) is a professional association football league in Sweden and the highest level of the Swedish football league system. Founded in 1924, it operates on a system of promotion and relegatio ...

and the Finland national team. Väisänen was born in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

, Finland. He began his senior club career playing for HJK and

RoPS Rovaniemen Palloseura (RoPS) is a football club founded in 1950 and based in Rovaniemi, Finland. RoPS played in the Finnish Premier Division, (''Veikkausliiga'') for 32 years, from 1981 to 2021. In 2021, RoPS withdrew from professional football ...

, before signing with

Den Bosch s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 160,783. It is the capital of ...

at age 21 in 2018. Väisänen made his international debut for Finland in June 2019, at the age of 21.

Club career

HJK

Väisänen made his

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 ...

debut for HJK on 14 April 2016 in a game against

RoPS

In November 2016 he signed a two-year contract with RoPS. He made his debut on 12 April 2017, playing the full 90 minutes of a 6–2 defeat at

Inter Turku Football Club International Turku, commonly referred to as Inter Turku () and colloquially known as Inter, is a Finnish professional football club based in Turku that competes in the Veikkausliiga, the top flight of Finnish Football. Founded i ...

Den Bosch

In August 2018 Väisanen was signed by the Dutch side FC Den Bosch for an undisclosed fee. Väisänen made his debut for

on 21 September 2018, in a match against

Almere Almere () is a Planned community, planned List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Flevoland, Netherlands across the IJmeer fro ...

; he was substituted on the 61st minute for Stefano Beltrame.

Elfsborg

On 12 January 2020 Väisänen joined Swedish club

IF Elfsborg Idrottsföreningen Elfsborg, more commonly known as IF Elfsborg or simply Elfsborg (), is a professional association football, football club based in Borås, Sweden, and is affiliated to the Västergötlands Fotbollförbund. They play in the Alls ...

on a 3.5-year contract, for a transfer fee of €150,000.

Austin FC

On 4 January 2023, it was announced Väisänen had signed with

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

(MLS) side

Austin FC Austin FC is an American professional soccer club based in Austin, Texas. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. Founded in 2018, the club began play in the 2021 season. Their home stadium is Q ...

on a four-year deal, with an option for a further year. The transfer fee was reported to be €1.8 million. He scored his first goal in MLS on 7 October 2023, in a 2–4 home defeat to

LAFC Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC) is an American professional soccer club based in Los Angeles. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. It was established on October 30, 2014, and began play in the ...

BK Häcken

On 24 March 2025, Väisänen signed for

until the summer of 2028. On 2 April, he suffered a knee injury in his first match with Häcken and was estimated to miss several months.

International career

He made his

Finland national football team The Finland national football team (, ) represents Finland in men's international football competitions and is controlled by the Football Association of Finland, the governing body for football in Finland, which was founded in 1907. The team ...

debut on 11 June 2019 in a Euro 2020 qualifier against Liechtenstein, as an 86th-minute substitute for Jukka Raitala. Väisänen was called up in the

UEFA Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial international men's association footb ...

pre-tournament friendly match against

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

on 29 May 2021. On 1 June 2021 Markku Kanerva published the national team for the UEFA Euro 2020 tournament and Väisänen was named as one of the defenders. On 12 June 2021 Väisänen came in as a 90th minute substitute for Jukka Raitala in a

match against

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

Personal life

He is the younger brother of

Sauli Väisänen Sauli Väisänen (born 5 June 1994) is a Finnish professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Veikkausliiga club Ilves. He began his senior club career playing for Honka, before signing with AIK at age 20 in 2014. Väisänen mad ...

. Their mother Anna-Liisa Tilus-Väisänen is a television presenter for

Yle Yleisradio Oy (; ), abbreviated as Yle () (formerly styled in all uppercase until 2012), translated into English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, founded in 1926. It is a joint-stock comp ...

and Miss World 1984 semi-finalist.

Career statistics

Club

;Notes

International

. Notes

Honours

Club

Klubi 04 * Kakkonen Eastern Group:

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

Individual

Team of the Year:

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

* Elfsborg Player of the Year: 2021

References

External links

*
IF Elfsborg official profile

Leo Väisänen
– SPL competition record * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vaisanen, Leo 1997 births Living people Footballers from Helsinki Men's association football defenders Finnish men's footballers 21st-century Finnish sportsmen Finnish expatriate men's footballers Finland men's youth international footballers Finland men's under-21 international footballers Finland men's international footballers Klubi 04 players Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi players PK-35 Vantaa (men) players Rovaniemen Palloseura players Käpylän Pallo players FC Den Bosch players IF Elfsborg players Austin FC players Veikkausliiga players Kakkonen players Eerste Divisie players UEFA Euro 2020 players Finnish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Finnish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in Sweden Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Major League Soccer players Allsvenskan players