29 Oct 2012

Exciting 33-goal striker admits: "It's my dream to play for LFC" - Sign him!

Liverpool have reignited their interest in HJC Helsinki striker Joel Pohjanpalo, who undertook a one week trial at Liverpool FC in March 2012, and over the weekend, the 18-year old Finnish goalscorer admitted that the thought of moving to Anfield excites him.

HJK Helsinski won their fourth straight Veikkausliiga title after a 6-3 victory at JJK Jyväskylä on Saturday, and in a post-match interview on Finnish TV channel Yle Kutonen, Pohjanpahlo was asked about his future plans, and he responded:

"I don't know where I'll be playing next season, but it's my dream to play for Liverpool FC one day"

According to Kicker magazine, Liverpool are monitoring the young striker, who is under contract at Helsinki until 2015.

In August 2012, Pohjanpalo rejected the Reds offer of a three-year deal after the club refused to guarantee him playing time in the reserves. Explaining his decision to snub the Reds, the youngster said:

"It was a hard decision to reject Liverpools contract offer. HJK is a good club and there's a great feeling in this group; I can for example call to our assistant manager in my free time to come and play the ball. Im sure it would not been possible in Liverpool.

"I know i might get an injury or something else and the possibility [of a move to Liverpool] may not necesserily happen again, but I have to move forward and overcome all obstacles when they arise"


Pohjanpalo - dubbed the 'the new Jari Litmanen - scored a perfect three-minute hat-trick against IFK Mariehamn during Helsink's opening league game of the 2012 season, and to date, he's grabbed 19 goals in 34 senior games for the club.

Joel Pohjanpalo three-minute hat-trick



Former Reds attacker Litmanen has taken a close interest in Pohjanpalo's development, and even stopped by Melwood during the youngster's trial. He remembered:

"He visited me in training when I was on trial at Liverpool.

"Hopefully, he will continue his career so that I can play alongside him some time".


Like Samed Yesil, another recent striker signing, Pohjanpalo has a formidable youth record, and last season, he grabbed 33 goals in 23 matches for Helsinki's reserve team, a feat that led to him being awarded the Finnish Reserve League's 'Player of the Year' award.

NOTE: Thanks a million to Jussi H and Niklas H for the translations/source verification :-)

Jaimie Kanwar


9 comments:

  1. Well well... This guy clearly has some potential so signing him would be prudent for the LONG TERM! He is not going to to light up the PL. He most certainly didn't light up the veikkausliiga in Finland this season. He has potential and he has love for LFC but he is not the solution to our goal scoring problems at the moment. A very few teenagers are on the short term.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Joel Pohjanpalo is not coming to Liverpool. Unfortunately!

    He dreams of that happening some day but he wants to go to a team where he will get playing time and to a league which is not as high standard as premier league.

    Here's his interview last friday (26.10) and a short translate of main parts / his quetes.
    Link:
    http://vastapallo.fi/haastattelut/pohjanpalon-tahtaimessa-keski-eurooppa-ei-valioliigalle/

    -Atleast i believe im not going to Liverpool, at this time Premier league seems to be too big(standard of) league for me. -time of a move is not decided yet, im more than ready to stay here until august 2013. -Middle Europe is the most likely destination, when the move happens it will be to middle europe. -Ofcourse it feels nice that Liverpool are still maybe interested, i have heard nothing myself, just readed some news. We will see what happens in january.
    What's the right offer for you?
    -In a team i get playing time, it's no sense to go to a team where realistically you dont get playing time. -training has to be good and a good coach who really wants to bring you there. Not in a way where some agent just push you there along with the others. -The club really has to want me there.
    Are there any interested teams that you could consider:
    -At this moment top teams in Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Austria. A striker has to go to a succesfull / good team where you will get changes to score. After that it depends all on yourself. There's no point to go to a bad team, where as a striker you get only one-two changes to score per game. -Dortmund (because of playing style), Leverkusen, (Hyypiä as a coach) and Monchengladbach, (help of former team mate A. Ring), interest the most.

    ReplyDelete
  3. liverpool need to be looking at players who are tried and tested. Having youth is good but as we are starting to see that youth players have ability and an abundnce of potential but what they dont have is experience. We saw this against everton, for 70 minutes we were playing hope and pray instead of tikka taka. The problem with youngsters is for the first 6 or 7 games they often look like world beaters and you think 'why havent they been starting earlier', this is a honeymoon period for the youngster where opposition managers have to guess how to play against them. Once they have played a number of games, opposistion managers can adjust tactics and exloit there lack of experience. This is exactly what happened on sunday and liverpool where lucky that everton dod not turn us over. they attacked our weak point in wisdom and suso. Our right hand side had ability and potential but lacked experience and every time everton attacked down the left, we where found wanting.

    If LLiverpool are going to be successfull BR needs to understadn against quaility opposition, you need to have a mix of experience and youth. It was only when he bolstered the physical aspectos of our game where we on a level playing field.

    In my opinion, BR is trying to play a system that is light years ahead of the current ability of the playing squad, for tika taka to work you need world class throughout your side. if you have weak points, you will be murdered and exploited. Their is only one team in the world who have been succesful at tika takka and that is barca, look at the barca team and then look at our potential signings. If we are truly going to challenge for the title with this system, then FSG need to put their hands in their pockets, trust BR and go and sign world class. If your going to sign youngsters then sign world class youngsters and not unknown players who MAY have the potential to be world class, who often do not even get into the first team.

    If we do not do this and keep signing players who would not get into the top 4 teams first team, then BR will nnever get liverpool into the top 4 never mind a title challenge.

    ReplyDelete
  4. We have plenty of young talented youth strikers in Yesil, Morgan, Ibe, Sinclair. If we are going to add a striker to should be somebody who is a bit more senior and ready to step in to the first team.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ryan Babel, Anthony Le Tallec, Florent Sinema Pongolle... the world is full of "outstanding youth talent" that when it came to the crunch turned out to be, at best, average.
    if he was that good, at his age, he would already be at Arsenal, Ajax or Barcelona, not in Finland.
    Leave him where he is.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Soooo sick of this someone said they like Liverpool sign him shite, we'll sign who we sign that the scouts have been monitoring not some random whos said something to a local paper. used to frequent this site a lot but couldn't take the constant bashing of every player that was doing any good

    ReplyDelete
  7. At least he has his head on straight. Best of luck to him. I hope to see him one day with the LFC red tho.

    ReplyDelete
  8. If his dream is to play for Liverpool he sounds like he has mental problems.

    ReplyDelete