Eero Markkanen

Eero Pekka Sakari Markkanen (born 3 July 1991) is a Finnish professional footballer who plays as a striker for Orange County SC. He is the son of former basketball player Pekka Markkanen and the older brother of Chicago Bulls player Lauri Markkanen.[2]

Eero Markkanen
Markkanen training with AIK in 2016
Personal information
Full name Eero Pekka Sakari Markkanen[1]
Date of birth (1991-07-03) 3 July 1991
Place of birth Jyväskylä, Finland
Height 1.97 m (6 ft 5 1⁄2 in)
Position(s) Striker
Club information
Current team
 Orange County SC
Youth career
2000–2010 JJK
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2010 Blackbird 3 (3)
2011 ViPa 14 (9)
2011 → JIlves (loan) 2 (1)
2012–2013 JJK 22 (11)
2012 → Warkaus JK (loan) 12 (9)
2013 → HJK (loan) 6 (1)
2014 AIK 14 (6)
2014–2015 Real Madrid 0 (0)
2014–2015 Real Madrid Castilla 10 (2)
2015 RoPS 6 (1)
2016–2018 AIK 35 (10)
2017–2018 → Dynamo Dresden (loan) 9 (0)
2018 → Randers (loan) 15 (1)
2018 Dalkurd FF 12 (1)
2019 PSM Makassar 7 (1)
2020 FC Haka 20 (4)
2021– Orange County SC 0 (0)
National team‡
2014– Finland 18 (1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 11 November 2020 (UTC)
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 11 January 2018

Markkanen made his international debut for Finland in May 2014, at the age of 22 and has since had over 15 caps, including 6 appearances in 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifications.

Club career

Blackbird

Markkanen made his debut on senior level in FC Blackbird in season 2010.[3]

ViPa

For season 2011 he played for ViPa in the Finnish Kakkonen.[4]

JJK

In 2012 he returned to JJK and made his Veikkausliiga debut.[5]

AIK

In December 2013 it was announced that AIK had signed Markkanen on a 3 year contract.[6]

Real Madrid

On 23 July 2014, Real Madrid signed Markkanen from AIK on a four-year contract.[7]

In September 2014, he was chosen for Real Madrid's 25-man squad for the UEFA Champions League, but did not make any appearances.[8]

On 21 August 2015, Real Madrid released Markkanen. There were rumours of him reporting back to preseason training overweight, but the club never released an official statement about the issue.[9]

Real Madrid Castilla

Markkanen made his debut for Real Madrid's reserve team Real Madrid Castilla in Segunda División B on 24 August 2014, playing the full 90 minutes as they lost 2–1 at Atlético Madrid B in Segunda División B Group 2.[10] Six days later he scored his first goal for the club, in a 1–2 home loss to Getafe CF B. However, he missed most of the 2014-2015 season due to injury.

RoPS

On 3 September 2015, Markkanen was acquired by the Finnish side RoPS for the remainder of the season after failing to sign for AIK who were rejected a request for an exemption to sign him outside of the transfer window by the Swedish Football Association.[11]

Return to AIK

On 5 November 2015, he signed a three-year contract with AIK. He told the club homepage that he was "Very happy to be back at AIK".[12]

On 4 August 2017, Markkanen joined 2. Bundesliga side Dynamo Dresden on loan for the season, while Dynamo Dresden secured an option to sign him permanently.[13]

On 15 January 2018, Markkanen broke his contract with Dynamo Dresden and went on to join Danish Superliga side Randers FC on loan from AIK for the rest of the 2017-18 season.[14]

He returned to AIK in late June 2018,[15] but soon left the club by mutual consent.

Dalkurd

On 10 August 2018, Markkanen signed with Dalkurd FF in Allsvenskan.[16]

PSM Makassar

On 14 January 2019 it was announced that Markkanen would join PSM Makassar in Liga 1.[17]

FC Haka

On 7 February 2020 Veikkausliiga side FC Haka announced that Markkanen would be joining the club on a one-year contract.[18]

Orange County SC

On December 25, 2020, it was announced that Markkanen would join USL Championship side Orange County SC ahead of their 2021 season.[19]

International career

Markkanen made his full international debut on 29 May 2014, replacing Roman Eremenko at half time in a 1–0 defeat to Lithuania in Ventspils in the Baltic Cup.[20] On 7 September 2014, he made his first competitive international appearance, replacing Jere Uronen for the last 15 minutes of a 3–1 win over the Faroe Islands in Tórshavn for UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying.[21] After losing his place in the Finland squad during his spell in Real Madrid Castilla he was once again selected by head coach Hasse Backe in August 2016 for games again Germany and Kosovo. This was after a good summer form with five goals in the last two months for AIK.[22] He made his FIFA World Cup qualification match debut on 6 October 2016 in a match against Iceland when he entered as a 56th minute substitute for Kasper Hämäläinen.[23]

International goals
Scores and results list Finland's goal tally first.[24]
No.DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1.8 January 2019Jassim bin Hamad Stadium, Doha, Qatar Sweden1–01–0Friendly

Club statistics
As of 23 August 2019[25]
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League National Cups Continental Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
ViPa 2011 Kakkonen 14900—149
Warkaus JK 2012 12900—129
JJK 2012 Veikkausliiga 137302[lower-alpha 1]0187
2013 84105—189
Total 2111135203616
HJK 2013 Veikkausliiga 6100—61
AIK 2014 Allsvenskan 14600—146
Real Madrid B 2014–15 Segunda División B 10200—102
RoPS 2015 Veikkausliiga 6100—61
AIK 2016 Allsvenskan 228513[lower-alpha 1]13010
2017 132415[lower-alpha 1]3226
Total 351092845216
Dynamo Dresden (loan) 2017–18 2. Bundesliga 3010—40
Randers (loan) 2017–18 Superliga 8031—111
Dalkurd 2018 Allsvenskan 12100—121
PSM Makassar 2019 Liga 1 71446[lower-alpha 2]51710
Career total 14851301216919472
  1. Appearances in the Europa League
  2. Appearances in the AFC Cup

International
As of 11 January 2019[26]
National teamYearCompetitive Friendly Total
Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Finland 201430 1 0 4 0
201500 1 0 1 0
201620 1 0 3 0
201740 3 0 7 0
201810 0 0 1 0
201900 2 1 2 1
Total 10 0 8 1 18 1

Honours and achievements

Club

HJK Helsinki

PSM Makassar

References
  1. "EERO MARKKANEN". Real Madrid. Archived from the original on 23 June 2015. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
  2. "Maaleja, Markkanen!" (in Finnish). Iltalehti, 6 April 2014. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  3. ""Aina ei voi itse valita, kun ei ole Ronaldo" – Eero Markkanen tähyää eurokentille" [“You can't always choose when you're not Ronaldo” - Eero Markkanen aims to the fields of Europe] (in Finnish). Yle. 28 August 2015. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
  4. "Ex-valmentaja kertoo: Eero Markkanen oli lähellä siirtyä vitosdivariin" [Ex coach says: Eero Markkanen was close to moving to the fifth division] (in Finnish). Ilta-Sanomat. 5 September 2014. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
  5. "#22 Eero Markkanen" (in Finnish). JJK. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
  6. "Eero Markkanen siirtyy Allsvenskanin kärkiseuraan" [Eero Markkanen moves to Allsvenskan's top club] (in Finnish). JJK. 19 December 2013. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
  7. "Official statement: Eero Markkanen". realmadrid.com. 2014-07-23.
  8. "UEFA Champions League Official Squad List"
  9. "Eero Markkanen laughs off 18kg claim". 101greatgoals. 2015-08-22.
  10. "2-1: Castilla let the three points slip against Atlético B". Real Madrid. 24 August 2014. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
  11. "RoPS gets help in championship race (in Swedish)". yle. 2015-09-03.
  12. "AIK Fotboll - Eero Markkanen klar för AIK". www.aikfotboll.se. Archived from the original on 2015-11-17. Retrieved 2016-11-19.
  13. "Dynamo Dresden leiht Stürmer Markkanen aus". kicker Online (in German). 4 August 2017. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  14. "Officiellt: Markkanen klar för dansk klubb: Ville ha in den typen". Fotbollskanalen (in Swedish). 15 January 2018. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
  15. "Eero Markkanen åter i träning". AIK Fotboll (in Swedish). 25 June 2018. Retrieved 29 August 2018.
  16. "Välkommen till Dalkurd, Eero Markkanen". AIK Fotboll (in Swedish). 10 August 2018. Retrieved 29 August 2018.
  17. "Eero Markkanen siirtyy pelaamaan Indonesiaan" [Eero Markkanen moves to play in Indonesia] (in Finnish). Ilta-Sanomat. 14 January 2019. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
  18. "Eero Markkanen sopimukseen FC Hakan kanssa" (in Finnish). FC Haka. 7 February 2020. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  19. https://www.orangecountysoccer.com/news_article/show/1138347
  20. "Lithuania 1-0 Finland". eu-football.info. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
  21. Joensen, Hans Pauli (7 September 2014). "Riski in business as Finland outstrip Faroese". UEFA. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
  22. "Markkanen tillbaka i landslaget efter målstim i AIK". fotbollskanalen. Retrieved 2016-11-19.
  23. "Eero Markkasen pelikunto kysymysmerkki" [Eero Markkanen´s condition a mystery] (in Finnish). Karjalainen. 8 October 2016. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  24. Eero Markkanen at National-Football-Teams.com
  25. "E. Markkanen". Soccerway. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  26. "Eero Markkanen" (in Finnish). palloliitto.fi. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
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