Venezia striker Joel Pohjanpalo admits he turned down a move to Premier League giants Liverpool before putting pen to paper with Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga instead, speaking to Gianluca di Marzio.
There have never been any doubts about Pohjanpalo’s finishing ability. His ability to stay fit for any sustained period of time, however… well let’s just say a series of niggling injuries are probably the main reason why the Finland international is playing his football in Italy’s second tier at the age of 28.
Pohjanpalo joined Venezia over the summer after a series of loan spells, bringing an end to almost a decade at the Bay Arena. And his signature certainly wasn’t quite so coveted at it was when he was a baby-faced youngster making his name at HJK Helsinki.
“Many teams from all over Europe wanted me. Lyon, Liverpool, Bayer Leverkusen,” Pohjanpalo says, explaining why he moved to Germany back in 2013. “In England, they offered me a contract for the youth teams and not as a professional.
“I wanted to help my club (HJK Helsinki) financially. In Finland there is not too much money in football, even today. Leverkusen paid about 1.5 million euros, a sum that would cover the entire salary of the (HJK) squad for a year.”
Joel Pohjanpalo rejected both Liverpool and Leeds United
The future looked bright indeed for Pohjanpalo after he scored his first Bundesliga goal just seconds after coming off the bench on the opening day of the 2016/17 season. He then hit a hat-trick against Hamburg in his very next outing.
But then came a metatarsal fracture that would keep Pohjanpalo out the team for almost two months. And that is the story of his career. One in which injuries have flowed almost as freely as the goals.
“My best season was when I was eight. In 69 games I had scored 202 goals,” recalls Pohjanpalo, a natural finisher at every level of the game.
“I kept track of how many goals I scored in matches. I started with a notebook then moved on to an Excel file. At 1000 goals, I stopped (counting). But I still have all the details somewhere.”
Pohjanpalo, who scored 16 times in 25 starts during a spell at Caykur Rizespor last term, came close to joining Leeds United during Marcelo Bielsa’s time at Elland Road.
“Hamburg met the criteria I wanted. Another strong option was Leeds United in the English Championship,” Pohjanpalo explains. “It was a strong option. The club was close to rising to the Premier League.
Leeds would eventually make the ill-fated decision to bring in Jean-Kevin Augistin instead during the winter of 2020.
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